Counter Assertion

Open any yellow pages book in New York under the heading ‘lawyer’ and you’ll be immediately bombarded with every type of injury and claim you could ever make. Full page ads, double page ads, blazing color, unsightly photos, screaming bold headlines…how does an injured victim choose a lawyer among all this clutter?

Here’s a sampling of statements found in current yellow pages ads in the Greater New York Metropolitan area:

“Tough, aggressive, experienced.”

What does this mean? That you’re a pit bull who knows how to bark and bite?

“Serious trial lawyers for the seriously injured.”

What does this mean? That if you’re not seriously injured you need a trial lawyer who’s not serious?

“Over 70 years combined experience.”

What this means is that each attorney has limited experience, but if you pool everybody’s experience together, we can make is seem like we’ve been around for hundreds of years.

“Special consideration for senior citizens.”

This is an obvious play for cases involving elderly people. Just what special consideration would this firm give to senior citizens that it doesn’t give to all its’ clients?

“Experienced in obtaining large cash awards quickly.”

Does this mean that this firm never takes cases to trial? The only large awards that are resolved quickly are clear cut on liability, causation and damages. Do I want an attorney who is experienced in obtaining large cash awards slowly? What’s the rush? If I rush, isn’t there a good chance that I’ll get less money for my injuries than I deserve?

“You made a mistake once, now choose the right lawyer.”

Guess what type of law this firm practices? Divorce.

“Get the money you deserve!”

OK, sign me up and show me the money. What if I deserve more than you can get for me?

“Call the law firm that never sleeps.”

That’s an interesting way to distinguish oneself. Being up 24 hours a day, bleary eyed, and tired? If you never sleep, how can you adequately represent injured victims?

Photo of lawyer holding briefcase in one hand,
large cardboard check in other, smiling. Client, on crutches, in a leg cast, looking with total glee at the cardboard check, with her hands open wide as if to exclaim “WOW!”
Give me a break. Believe it or not, this violates the disciplinary rules in the State of New York. It’s a no-no.

How about an ad without any name, or address, just an 800 phone number?

No good. Violates the rules. Would you call a ‘no-name’ law firm?

All these ads make you feel rushed to get your cash.
Sort of makes you feel “lucky” you got hurt, doesn’t it?

So, with all of these great lawyer ads, how does a consumer who’s been injured pick the right one? Do you have to call each and every one? That would be extremely time consuming and not very effective.

Do you trust the firm because they show pictures of crashed cars and an ambulance nearby? How about the photo of a worker falling in mid-air from a scaffold? Can you relate to him? Maybe you can relate to the photo of the elderly woman slipping on ice and another photo of her lying on a stretcher in the hospital? Do these illustrations and photos make you all warm and fuzzy about the law firm you’re about to call? I personally don’t think so.

Here’s the top 10 reasons you won’t find a New York Injury Lawyer from an ad in the yellow pages:

1. You can’t tell one ad apart from the other.

2. The lawyer ads all say the same thing.

“Call me,” “Personal attention,” “Large Cash Awards,” “Lots of experience,” “Pick me, ooh, pick me!”

3. Many ads scream at you, without telling you how they can help.

4. Do you call a firm just because they have a larger ad than someone 20 pages into the book?

5. Every ad says that I can talk to a lawyer for free, but what are the fees to handle my case? None of the ads talk about that.

6. Who pays the legal expenses if I don’t win my case? Many ads don’t tell you.

7. How do I know if one attorney is any better than the other? I can’t tell just from an ad.

8. Aren’t these ads just trying to sell me their services? “I don’t want a salesman, I want a lawyer who knows how to guide me through the legal system.”

9. I don’t want to go through 40 pages worth of yellow pages ads- I need help now. Maybe I’ll go online instead.

10. Do you really want to pick a lawyer they way you choose a plumber?

Attorney Oginski has been in practice for 17 years as a trial lawyer practicing exclusively in the State of New York. Having his own law firm, he is able to provide the utmost in personalized, individualized attention to each and every client. In our office, a client is not a file number. Client’s are always treated with the respect they deserve and expect from a professional. Mr. Oginski is always aware of every aspect of a client’s case from start to finish.

Gerry represents injured people in injury cases and medical malpractice matters in Brooklyn, Queens, New York City, the Bronx, Staten Island, Nassau and Suffolk Counties. You can reach him at http://www.oginski-law.com, or 516-487-8207. All inquiries are free and totally confidential.

Business entities comes in so many types that business owners can easily get confused. Here’s a quick guide that will hopefully shed a little light on business entities for you.

Business Entities

“C” Corporation: A corporation whose shares are held by shareholders. The entity stands apart from the shareholders for legal and tax purposes. The shares of the corporation may be “taken public” and traded on stock markets. Google is an example of a publicly traded “C” corporation.

Foreign Corporation: A corporation doing business in a jurisdiction beyond where it was formed. Microsoft is a Washington corporation. When it does business in New York, it is considered a “foreign corporation.”

General Partnership: A business effort involving two or more people, known as partners. Each partner is liable for all partnership debts and obligations regardless participation and contribution amounts. Put another way, a general partnership provides no protection against lawsuits.

Holding Company: Part of a double incorporation strategy. The sole purpose of a holding company is to own or control other companies. Said other companies typically are exposed to significant liability threats. For instance, many insurance companies use holding companies to suck off profits and limit lawsuit risks.

Joint Venture: A cooperative business effort between two or more parties. It is usually limited to a single business purpose and involves a sharing of responsibilities and revenues. For instance, a database programmer and web site designer might enter a joint venture to provide e-commerce solutions to businesses.

“LLC” - Limited Liability Company: A creation of state law in which one or more individuals form an entity providing the liability protection of a corporation, but the tax benefits of a partnership.

Limited Partnership: A partnership in which the business is managed by a general partner with limited partners supplying capital investment. The limited partners are prohibited from actively participating in the management of the partnership. In exchange, the limited partners liability is limited to the amount of their investment. In pursuing this business entity, the general partner is almost always a corporation.

Partnership by Estoppel: A partnership created by operation of law when two or more people pursue a business goal and hold themselves out to the public as such. This business entity is prevalent as it is the automatic designation for two people doing business who fail to take any steps to designate a business entity. In this entity, each partner is completely exposed to liability risks.

“S” Corporation: Similar to a “C” corporation, this entity provides solid asset protection for shareholders from business liabilities and debts. The primary difference is the entity can be taxed as a pass through entity and is limited to 75 shareholders.

Sole Proprietorship: A business owned and controlled by one person. The designation provides no protection from business liabilities. It is taxed on the person’s personal tax returns on schedule “C”.

Each of the above entities provides certain advantages to a business owner. If you consider the particulars of your efforts, you should be able to get an idea of which one is best for you.

Richard A. Chapo is a San Diego business lawyer with http://www.sandiegobusinesslawfirm.com - providing legal services and legal advice to businesses in San Diego, California.

For much of the early 1980s, the CBS prime time line-up was dominated by two shows: Dallas and The Dukes Of Hazzard. Following the adventures of the fictional Duke family of Hazzard County, Georgia, the series chronicled their endless struggles with local law enforcement officer Rosco P. Coltrane and his domineering supervisor, J.D. “Boss” Hogg. Cousins Bo, Luke, and Daisy lived on the family farm with their Uncle Jesse, and friendly mechanic “Cooter” often aided them in foiling Boss’s plans, but the true star of the series was an orange race car known as the General Lee…

The Dukes Of Hazzard (Season 4) DVD features a number of exciting episodes including the season premiere “Mrs. Daisy Hogg” in which Jamie Lee Hogg, Boss’s polite and “un-Hogg-like” nephew moves to Hazzard County to open an old mill. Daisy and Jamie Lee fall in love and announce their engagement, much to the chagrin of the Duke and Hogg families. But Daisy doesn’t know that Jamie Lee is running a counterfeiting ring out of the mill… Other notable episodes include “Sadie Hogg Day” in which Boss, about to get a visit from the state auditor, rigs a drawing so that Daisy becomes County Treasurer for the day - making her legally responsible for the county funds, and “Dear Diary” in which Roscoe’s diary, detailing his various crimes with Boss, is left at the Duke farm by mistake. When Jesse tries to return the diary, two crooks steal it and use it to blackmail Boss and Roscoe…

Below is a list of episodes included on The Dukes Of Hazzard (Season 4) DVD:

Episode 60 (Mrs. Daisy Hogg) Air Date: 10-09-1981
Episode 61 (Double Dukes) Air Date: 10-16-1981
Episode 62 (Diamonds in the Rough) Air Date: 10-23-1981
Episode 63 (Coltrane vs. Duke) Air Date: 10-30-1981
Episode 64 (The Fugitive) Air Date: 11-03-1981
Episode 65 (The Great Bank Robbery) Air Date: 11-06-1981
Episode 66 (Sadie Hogg Day) Air Date: 11-13-1981
Episode 67 (10 Million Dollar Sheriff: Part 1) Air Date: 11-20-1981
Episode 68 (10 Million Dollar Sheriff: Part 2) Air Date: 11-20-1981
Episode 69 (Trouble at Cooter’s) Air Date: 11-27-1981
Episode 70 (Goodbye, General Lee) Air Date: 12-04-1981
Episode 71 (Cletus Falls in Love) Air Date: 12-11-1981
Episode 72 (Hughie Hogg Strikes Again) Air Date: 12-18-1981
Episode 73 (Dukescam Scam) Air Date: 01-01-1982
Episode 74 (The Sound of Music - Hazzard Style) Air Date: 01-08-1982
Episode 75 (Shine on Hazzard Moon) Air Date: 01-15-1982
Episode 76 (Pin the Tail on the Dukes) Air Date: 01-22-1982
Episode 77 (Miz Tisdale on the Lam) Air Date: 01-29-1982
Episode 78 (Nothin’ But the Truth) Air Date: 02-05-1982
Episode 79 (Dear Diary) Air Date: 02-12-1982
Episode 80 (New Deputy in Town) Air Date: 02-19-1982
Episode 81 (Birds Gotta Fly) Air Date: 02-26-1982
Episode 82 (Bad Day in Hazzard) Air Date: 03-05-1982
Episode 83 (Miss Tri-Counties) Air Date: 03-12-1982
Episode 84 (Share and Share Alike) Air Date: 03-19-1982
Episode 85 (The Law and Jesse Duke) Air Date: 03-26-1982
Episode 86 (Dukes in Danger) Air Date: 04-02-1982

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of The Dukes Of Hazzard (Season 4) DVD.

The future of Space is now upon us as the fledgling space industry gets started. But are humans being smart about what is out there? You see, we have one hell of a lot of Space Junk floating around out there and it is moving very fast as it orbits the Planet.

We must design Space Junk Collectors, which can clean up this mess and protect our space tourists, space workers and astronauts from potentially fatal accidents from space debris. A few ideas have been floated around in an online think tank to redesign system such as a Whipple Shield to use in the collection of space debris.

http://worldthinktank.net/wttbbs/index.php?showtopic=1301

http://worldthinktank.net/wttbbs/index.php?showtopic=579

http://worldthinktank.net/wttbbs/index.php?showtopic=1719

http://worldthinktank.net/wttbbs/index.php…ter&f=203&t=144

If we had a Space collection unit and abstractly lets envision a giant robo vacuum like a Romba Robo-vac by iRobot Corporation in space then we could collect each piece of space debris. Of course there is a lot of space out there in volume and distance to travel between space debris pieces. So we may need to use a US Navy AUV search and destroy underwater sea mines scenario to do it right and that would mean many such units working together in a 3D Space Grid sequence pattern. These space robotic vacuums would need to be launched together and split off to their independent but reciprocal or parallel orbits together it seems?

A program could be designed with fuzzy borders of area operations in each grid, with a master program with artificial intelligence decision matrix software for the robotic-space-vacuum teams, this way they self assign which pieces to pick up in the most efficient pattern and also steer around satellites or equipment orbiting if that potential eventuality ever becomes necessary. This could be run autonomously trusting the devices to work as a team or by taking instructions from a ground control telemetry computer and feeding exact tiny burn times and corrections back to each unit net-centrically. The collision avoidance systems will be the exact opposite of the collection rendezvous interception software program to collect space debris.

During the collection each robotic space vacuum with indeed fly a somewhat zig-zag pattern like a Bat does when it eats 1000 bugs per hour, very efficient, lining up space debris in advance with the most direct path and working together as a team. Remember that it is best to stay on course with little deviations and trajectory changes to conserve fuel, while still accomplishing the job of cleaning up the collection grid area.

Each piece of space debris will need to be removed from the Whipple Shield collector and a robotic arm would put it into a canister behind the vacuum. Abstractly this is the vacuum bag on a household vacuum cleaner. Since there are various sizes of space junk and not all that is collected is needed and some is not metallic or rather magnetic in nature and thus not all can be collected using magnetic attraction alone. We should consider this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Nominated for eight Academy Awards, and winner of four Oscars including Best Picture, A Beautiful Mind is one of the premier dramas of the decade. The brainchild of popular director Ron Howard (Opie from The Andy Griffith Show), A Beautiful Mind debuted to widespread critical acclaim due to the depth of its screenplay, the brilliant performances of Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly, and the in-depth portrayal of a victim of mental illness. Based on the true story of John Nash, a schizophrenic mathematical genius who overcame his illness and went on to win the prestigious Nobel Prize for his “Game Theory,” A Beautiful Mind is one of the best films of the decade…

A young mathematical genius, John Nash (Russell Crowe) enjoys the early success of a budding career in academia. Able to complete mathematical formulas that baffle many of the greatest minds of his time, a young Nash stands on the brink of profound discovery with a limitless future and seemingly inevitable fame at his doorstep. Meeting a beautiful girl at an evening party, Alicia (Jennifer Connelly) would later become Nash’s wife. The two seem destined for a life of bliss. But Nash’s problems were not confined to the mathematical arena…

Suffering from schizophrenia, Nash develops an acute sense of paranoia, decoding encrypted non-existent Soviet spy messages from comic books and newspaper advertisements. The reality in which he lives does not exist, and it threatens to tear apart his marriage, his career, and the very life which he holds dear… Can Nash overcome his debilitating disease and pursue the course of excellence to which he once seemed destined? The cast and crew of A Beautiful Mind allow us to see a whole new world through the eyes of suffering genius…

Russell Crowe’s follow up performance to smash hits LA Confidential and Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind is an unbelievable journey into one man’s reality. Russell Crowe’s brilliant portrayal of the schizophrenic Nash and Jennifer Connelly’s standout performance as the woman who loved him form an onscreen synergy that continually drives the screenplay of A Beautiful Mind. Exhibiting quality direction from Ron Howard, the film stands as an eternal testament to the beauty of the human mind and the durability of the human spirit to overcome obstacles and shine at its brightest.

A fascinating film which successfully blurs the lines between John Nash’s imagination and the world of reality, A Beautiful Mind vividly illustrates one man’s struggle against great odds. As Nash’s paranoia and hallucinations collude to blot out the genius of a beautiful mind, the power of the human spirit rallies to great heights - achieving a Nobel Prize and even the immortalization of one’s own life in film! Nash should be lauded for his triumph against a paralyzing disease, and Ron Howard should be praised for delivering a cinematic masterpiece that shows us the true beauty of one man’s plight. For these reasons and more, A Beautiful Mind is definite must-see film - perhaps one of the fifty best films of all time…

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of the A Beautiful Mind (DVD).

As insurance rates keep going up, smart people are looking for lower car insurance quotes. There are lots of assorted types of deductions available and if you can save a little money, then why not? Below is a list of general price reductions that may be available to you. Check with your insurance agent to see if you’re entitled.

Personal-Associated Deductions

Person-related discounts are ones that depend on the driver’s own personal situation, status and driving history.

Car-Related Price Reductions

Your car is a huge factor in ascertaining how much you’ll be paying for car insurance. Depending on the overall safety and other features of your car, you can be eligible for certain insurance discounts.

1. Air Bags. They present more safety to you and your car and insurers love these.
2. Anti-Lock Brakes System (ABS). Some states require that automobile insurance underwriters give deductions to clients whose cars are equipped with ABS.

Anti-Theft Systems. Any type of add-on to keep someone from breaking into or stealing your automobile can also provide you with cheaper automobile insurance rates.

It’s very upsetting to find someone using your business name, or one that is “confusingly similar.” Taking advantage of Trademark law can help prevent problems and protect your rights.

Question: What does Trademark law protect?

Trademark protection may be available for any word, phrase, name, symbol, sound (called “the mark”) that identifies or distinguishes your product or service from those made or sold by others. It includes the exclusive right to use the mark in connection with the goods and/or services listed in the registration.

Question: When can I use the SM or ® ?

Proper usage is important! TM applies to products; SM applies to services. You can use TM or SM without registration. ® stands for registered and can only be used when a trademark has been approved (registered) by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

A trademark should be used as an adjective (not a noun or verb).

For example:

Correct: Rollerblade® inline skates
Incorrect: “rollerblades”

Correct: Make copies on the XEROX® copier.
Incorrect: XEROX this report.

Question: How can I find out if my name (or mark) is eligible for trademark protection?

To see if anyone else is claiming the name or similar name, you can search online (e.g., www. google.com) and you will want to confirm the availability of the Internet domain name. You can also search on the Website of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (www.uspto.gov). These searches do not guarantee that the name is not in use, but they are a good indication of U.S. availability. More sophisticated international searches are needed if you plan to do business outside the U.S.

Question: Do I have to register my mark?

Registration is not required. Common law rights attach as a result of using the mark.

Question: What are the benefits of Trademark Registration?

You can register a mark in your state, nationwide, and internationally. If you register your name/mark, it will show up in search reports and hence others will be on notice of your claim. You also get a legal presumption of ownership and the exclusive right to use the mark when a mark is registered. Registration also helps in enforcing your rights against an infringement.

Question: How do I register my Trademark?

To register a work, go to the Website for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (www.uspto.gov) and click on Trademarks. You’ll find a wealth of information with forms and filing instructions.

Question: How do I stop someone from using my name?

The first step is to investigate whether the other party has registered their name/mark. If your mark is not registered, you should consider registering it. If you think you have superior rights to the name/mark, you will want to notify the other party and make them aware that their name is confusingly similar to yours. Best case, the person will stop using the name/mark. Sometimes an agreement can be worked out for concurrent usage with geographic or other restrictions. Litigation is a last resort, since it is expensive and time consuming.

Question: When can I use someone else’s Trademark?

It is lawful to use someone else’s mark in certain instances - called “descriptive fair use” and “nominative fair use.” For example, it is OK to use a famous mark in comparative advertising, for news reporting and non-commercial uses. It is not OK to use a mark in a way that implies endorsement, sponsorship or appears to be “passing off” your goods or services as those of the well-known trademark owner.

Making fun of or criticizing a famous mark is OK under certain circumstances - such as http://www.atkinsdietsucks.com/. To avoid problems, you may want to consult with a knowledgeable attorney before using someone else’s trademark.

In conclusion, it’s a good business practice to think strategically about your name and brand and to be proactive in checking out the availability of the name and protecting your rights.

Jean Sifleet is a practical and experienced business attorney whose career spans many years in large multi-national corporations and includes three successful entrepreneurial ventures. Jean has extensive experience in dealing with intellectual property matters in the large and small companies and as a small business owner. She has authored numerous books and publications on avoiding legal pitfalls in doing business. This article is excerpted from her new book, Advantage IP - Profit from Your Great Ideas (Infinity 2005). For more information, Jean’s website is http://www.smartfast.com.