The Maryland Court of Appeals recent decision of, Tracey v. Solesky (No. 53, September Term 2012) holding owners of Pit Bulls to a strict liability standard has created great controversy.

If you are a pit bull owner, or you have a tenant who owns a pit bull, you will want to read carefully the opinion of Maryland’s highest court – there is a summary of the ruling on the first page of the case -…

Counting the Costs of Divorce

Choosing divorce is never easy, but once you’ve reached that decision it’s wise to review the costs involved.

Remember, the most expensive costs have nothing to with money, and everything to do with people, relationships, and how your life changes once you’ve initiated divorce proceedings.

Just as surprising is the fact…

On Thursday, March 29^th, the Estates and Trusts Committee welcomed Jodi Davis from The Kelly Group, to speak on Social Security Benefits and how to maximize Retirement Income.  Davis discussed the three key benefits of Society Security: 1) Income you cannot outlive, 2) Annual inflation adjustments, and 3) Survivor Benefits. 

Other key points discussed were some filing strategies.  For example, once a citizen applies for Social Security benefits, he/she is locked…

On January 31, 2012, Paul J. Schwab, III addressed the Estates and Trusts Committee in a program on “Wrongful death and Survival actions and ways to help your practice”.   Paul is a partner in the firm of Azrael, Franz, Schwab and Lipowitz, LLC. 

Paul concisely explained the basics of Wrongful Death and Survival Actions and advised the group about statutes of limitations and notices.  He also talked about economic and non-economic damages and the cap on non-economic damages…

The monthly civil non-family law "Lawyer in the Lobby" program will be held tonight, May 9th from 4:30-6:30pm.

The program is a free benefit offered to the public hosted by the Baltimore County Bar Association. Individuals can obtain free legal advice in the form of a 20 minute consultation in matters where no legal counsel has been hired.

Issues that may be addressed include:

• Collections
• Bankruptcy
• Landlord/tenant…

MARYLAND LAWYER BUSINESS TIPS: WINDOW CLOSING ON GREAT TAX CREDIT OPPORTUNITY FOR BUSINESSES.

The “Vow to Hire Heroes Act of 2011” enacted last year is a program that offers special tax incentives to companies who hire veterans.

The program is a tremendous two-for-one that helps both veterans and companies satisfy needs in the work place. Military veterans are a highly skilled workforce that is often overlooked in job…

Saturday, April 29, 2012 was declared by Presidential Proclamation,

Workers Memorial Day.

As proclaimed by President Barack Obama,

"Through the unbending conviction of workers,

labor unions, and public health advocates,

we secured that basic right over 40 years ago,

helping protect Americans from death or…

To understand the practice of safety, one must appreciate that the first rule of safety engineering is that "if it can happen it will happen".

Therefore, to practice safety, one must anticipate that things go wrong when we least expect it and are beyond our control.

Unions have always played a big part in…

On December 16, 2010, after a two-day trial, a Baltimore County jury returned a favorable verdict in deciding that the family of John McCruden, a Baltimore County Firefighter who died from kidney cancer, was entitled to workers' compensation benefits.

Klout is an online influence metric.  The site gathers information from your twitter, linkedin, facebook, google+, instagram, and other online social media web sites, and calculates a score of how your online postings influence others on the good, ole interweb.  This is an interesting metric because, if you are trying to have an impact on other users, you can experiment and see if your Klout score improves or declines.  Having a metric is helpful because the…

It is a moment when dreams begin to take the shape of…

Members of the Completely E-Legal:

Divorce-express is a website for the public. It will be in a constant state of change, as new areas of concern emerge. It is not intended to promote any particular professionals. Nobody pays to appear in our Network. In addition to being a source of information and a community for those involved in the process, Divorce-express is also a “system” designed for some, not all people, to pursue a divorce.  I hope the website explains that reasonably…

Is it possible to get a DUI in your own driveway or on your own property? As crazy as it sounds, the answer is yes. According to two cases, one from 1994 and one from earlier this year, you are…

Ok, the title to this blog post is a wee bit ambitious.  But here are a number of shortcuts that may well be so old (in the world of computers) that they represent the grandparents of all that stuff kids do these days tweeting, texting, and generally misspelling:

Control - C, Control - X, and Control - V: Copy, Cut, and Paste

It takes way too long to highlight text, go up to wherever it is in the menu (and in the new version of MS Word - 2011 for Mac -…

On December 7, 2011, the BCBA Estates & Trusts Committee continued its Fall 2011 series with a program on “Special Needs Planning,” featuring Mary E. O’Byrne, Esq., of Frank, Frank & Scherr, LLC.  O’Byrne is a member of the Special Needs Alliance and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.  O’Byrne stressed the importance of special needs planning as 20% of the American population have a disability.  Regardless of wealth, one needs to…

On December 7, 2011, the BCBA Estates & Trusts Committee continued its Fall 2011 series with a program on “Special Needs Planning,” featuring Mary E. O’Byrne, Esq., of Frank, Frank & Scherr, LLC.  O’Byrne is a member of the Special Needs Alliance and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.  O’Byrne stressed the importance of special needs planning as 20% of the American population have a disability.  Regardless of wealth, one needs to…

On November 17, 2011, the BCBA Estates & Trusts Committee continued its Fall 2011 program by co-sponsoring a seminar with the ADR Committee. The topic was “Dealing with Challenging Clients and Legatees in Mediation,” featuring Juliet G. Fisher, Kathleen J. Masterton and Chester H. Hobbs IV. As the Mediation Coordinator for the Orphans’ Court for Baltimore County, Fisher gave an overview of the mediation process and listed the different types of cases referred to mediation. She provided…

All businesses, large or small, will someday be subjected to an employee theft or fraud, whether it is office supplies, time sheet fraud, cash, stock manipulation, skimming, data loss, or something else.  The list is endless.  There are, however, some common ground rules to follow immediately after an employee theft.  Below is your Maryland Attorney's list of steps…

This Maryland Attorney, from Enlawyers wants you to know that Identity theft affects people of all ages, including children. Many identity thieves actually prefer to use a child’s personal information, rather than an adult’s, because while many adults keep track of their credit, most do not monitor their child’s credit in any way. However, there are simple warning signs that your child might be the victim of identity theft. Enlawyers wants you to be…