The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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Qui tam actions are a part of the False Claims Act. Whenever a government contractor or payee defrauds the Federal Government, the Federal Government wants to know about it so that they might recover lost funds or in some cases the False Claims Act can cover illegal acts by companies. To do so the Federal Government encourages “whistleblowers” to report the wrongful action and if found to be legitimate, a private attorney and possibly Government inclusion (intervention) may pursue the wro...
Article III of the United States Constitution establishes a supreme court. The text of Section One and the first paragraph of Section Two of Article Three reads as follows: Article III. Section. 1. The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times,...
What legal reason did the United States government give for taking Arlington, the home of Robert E. Lee during the War Between the States? This is an appropriate question considering the State of Alabama just celebrated General Lee’s birthday as a State holiday in January. Since the introduction of Martin Luther King’s birthday as a Federal holiday it has been conjoined with General Lee’s birthday holiday. The construction of Arlington House began in 1802, by George Washington Parke Custis. When...
Without specifics about yourself I’ll make this answer generic in a personal and in a business sense. I’m presume you looked at your financial estate planning (401k, mutual funds, stocks and bonds, life insurance, etc) and as you do you also think about your legal estate planning. After all you are a year older; you may have gotten married, had a new child, had a child reach the age of majority (19 years), gotten divorced or suffered the death of a spouse or even a child. Your financial est...
So what in the world is a Pastafarian? The Pastafarians “worship” the Flying Spaghetti Monster and their “church” may also be referred to as the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It seems in 2005, that a Bobby Henderson wrote a letter to the Kansas State Board of Education complaining about their decision to teach intelligent design/ creationism in addition to evolution. In his letter he argues against intelligent design and said that any time a scientist carbon dates any object that a...
This series of articles has been reviewing important United States Supreme Court issues since the Alabama Gazette began publication in 2000. My how the times have changed. The, Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council , 555 U.S. 7 (2008) case seemed to be more about common sense than anything. Knowing that the Navy had scheduled training missions off the coast of California for 2009, the environmentalists sought to stop their use of sonar. The environmentalists claimed that the use of sonar...
Article III, Section I of the Unites States says, “The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” Because the supreme law of the land is vested in the United States Supreme Court, lets look at some cases since 2000. In 2000, in Boy Scouts of America et al. v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640, a five to four vote stated essentially that, “the presence of that person affects in a signi...
Truly you have a troublesome car, but at this point your car has not met the definition of a vehicle with a nonconforming condition under the Alabama Lemon Law. I am assuming this car was purchased from a dealer whose manufacturer has dealers in Alabama. Though not apparent in your case, if you ordered an obscure new vehicle you could have an additional problem in that it may not meet the definition of a Motor Vehicle Dealer under the definition of Alabama Code, 1975, §8-20A-1. which says “The p...
Some recent reactive changes in perception of heritage and rulings by the Supremes have recently left me quite dismayed. Not the legendary singing group but the men and women that don the black robes as Justices of the United State Supreme Court. Five of the nine are Baby Boomers and Republican presidents nominated five of the now sitting Justices. Some of the truths in my life were no longer deemed truths and for the past several weeks I have tried to make sense of them and wondered what would...
There are several things to consider and much of that is based on the type of entity that your business may fall under. For starters is it a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), a Corporation or a couple other forms that no longer exist? Have you talked to your accountant to consider tax implications? How are you valuing the price of the business? Are you selling the whole business or only a part of it? Are you selling the...
The question sounds almost silly (pardons to the submitting reader), but there are legal consequences of sorts and in many years gone by it was taken much more seriously in certain cases. Beginning with life insurance, the industry typically will not pay life insurance proceeds to beneficiaries in cases where someone has taken their own life within two years (may vary by company) of the policy being issued. So if anyone is so compelled to financially benefit their beneficiaries, they will have a...
United States lawyers or attorneys practice in many areas such as insurance defense, consumer issues, elder law, social security, admiralty, estate planning, bankruptcy, tax, business entities, criminal, health law, military, divorce, adoption, probate, immigration, government related and many other areas. As a guess there are probably more than forty or so practice areas. Additionally, beyond the Juris Doctorate (JD) degree or older LL.B (Bachelor of Laws), attorneys may seek a Master of Laws...
Real estate practice among lawyers can be difficult when determining who has rightful ownership of real property. It’s just about as difficult to begin a generic discussion. The best form of ownership is, fee simple absolute. It is absolute in ownership and allows the owner to sell to whomever and to bequeath to whomever. An earlier form called fee tail, was many years ago abolished in Alabama and called for land inheritance of certain heirs. If those heirs ran out, then the land went back to t...
The Constitutional law in Alabama bans marriage between two people of the same sex. It is law. The Amendment was overwhelmingly approved by Alabama’s voters. As a law, there was no decision by the Alabama Supreme Court that the law was unConstitutional. Now a Federal District Court Judge has made a ruling based on a case in Mobile County. Judge Callie Granade’s ruling was based on the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which states, “Section 1. All persons born or natural...
In 1996 the Defense of Marriage Act was passed by Congress, which stated that States did not have to accept same sex marriages performed in States that allowed such. Section 3 placed into law a non-recognition of same-sex marriage for all federal purposes, which included governmental employee insurance benefits, social security survivors' benefits, bankruptcy, immigration, and the filing of joint tax returns. This also excluded same-sex spouses from the laws that protect families of federal...
You have not mentioned specifics about yourself so I’ll make this answer generic in a personal and in a business sense. I’m sure that you looked at your financial estate planning (401k, mutual funds, stocks and bonds, life insurance, etc) and as you do you also think about your legal estate planning. Your financial estate planning goes hand in hand with your legal estate planning and you should discuss that with your lawyer, not that he or she will try to advise you on whether your inv...
Legalism is in the broadest sense a strict and maybe even overbearing adherence to laws. In Chinese philosophy, legalism attained prominence in about 500 to 200 B.C. Legalism in Chinese philosophy is a belief that government should be modeled reactively to a belief that the human condition is one of selfishness and short sidedness. Therefore for a ruler to be effective, they believed that the people must be absolutely loyal based on a set of laws with strong governmental control and a set of...
Last month, the Alabama State Bar celebrated Pro Bono Month. Pro Bono in this context is the offering of free legal services to low income individuals. October was filled with events on almost every day, which included workshops for the elderly, homeless, clinics for legal issues sometimes encountered by low-income individuals such as eviction and domestic issues and even guidance for individuals that might represent themselves in District Court. These events were available all over the State....
There is no reason for any foreign law to contradict, circumvent or supersede the laws of the United States or the laws of the independent states. However, there are times when international laws should be considered. Within the United States, Article IV, Section 1 is often referred to as the "Full Faith and Credit Clause" of the United States Constitution. This essentially means that acts that fall legally within the laws of one state are recognized in any other state. If a marriage takes place...
I recently read an article in the American Bar Association Journal online concerning a speech that United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts gave recently about the significance of the Magna Carta. As you may recall, many of the Barons in England were disgruntled with the King John I. What they really wanted to do was to replace King John but they didn’t have a favorable replacement. As an alternative, King John met them at Runnymede on the bank of the River Thames, which is not far...
Apparently the National Make A Will Month runs during August of each year. I have no idea who made it up and didn’t know it existed until I heard a Legal Zoom advertisement. Certainly any month is a good month to have a new Last Will and Testament prepared or rewritten; don’t wait for August to roll around each year to think about it. I have never looked at the Legal Zoom products but I have had internet Wills come my way and they usually are flawed because the maker didn’t understand the statut...
If done in a manner of disrespect, patriotically and emotionally I would think that it would be criminal and I would say give that individual a chance to live in another country! The United States Code §43-1-8 says: Sec. 8. Respect for flag ...No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor. (a) The flag shoul...
As I reviewed the published article in THE ALABAMA GAZETTE from May 2014, I had the realization that another front has been used to attack Christianity; the movies. From about the time that Clark Gable uttered his “d” word in Gone With the Wind, producers and directors have pushed the envelope with “mild” profanity to non-stop profanity, sexual innuendo to outright nudity and sex on the silver screen. This includes the gross violence on the screen. When I was a kid most of the movies were family...
I see the headlines that you see and certainly there are groups that object to Christianity. It seems that more of the objections come from secular groups than religions having differing view points. Perusing the news today I see the following all by Todd Starnes posted on the internet: Atheists Strong Arm Wrestling Team over Bible Verse Air Force Academy Orders Cadet to Remove Bible Verse Teacher Faces Possible Firing for Sharing Bible Verse Mandrallius Robinson of The Greenville (SC) News...
HIPAA is the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act. Congress passed the law in 1996, but the Privacy and Security portions were not signed into law until 2003. For purposes of this answer I am going to cover the Privacy and Security laws forward. In 2009 the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) was enacted to make the sharing of electronic medical records (EMR) or electronic health records (EHR) to be more efficient which includes...
