Articles Posted in NEWS AND COMMENTARY

Torrey Pines has many golf courses as do other areas of San Diego County including the Rancho Bernardo Inn located in Rancho Bernardo where our law firm is located. The below example did not occur at any of the Torrey Pines courses. Our firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP can assist you with representation in estate planning or family law. Please feel free to e mail or call our firm to set up a complimentary and confidential consultation.

Patrick and his friend Christopher decided to get in some late-afternoon golf on a summer day that had seen periods of turbulent weather, but also some clear skies. As Christopher held the flag for Patrick to putt, a golf course employee sounded a horn to warn of lightning in the area. Patrick putted out to finish the hole. Then the two friends started walking back to the clubhouse, which was about a quarter of a mile away. On their way, they were struck by lightning. Christopher was rendered unconscious for a few moments, but Patrick suffered serious injuries, and he now needs total care.

A negligence suit by Patrick’s parents against the golf course owner was unsuccessful. For an owner of property to be liable for injuries to someone on the property, the injury must have been foreseeable. Without that, no duty of care arises in favor of the injured person. Practically everyone knows that lightning is dangerous, but that is quite different from being able to foresee that a particular lightning strike may occur.

In San Ysidro, there are many companies which have a business entity in the United States and also in Mexico. Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP can assist with all aspects of the formation of your United States Corporation in California in compliance with all requirements from the California Department of Corporations. Please feel free to call or e mail our firm for a free and private consultation in our office.

The bottom line here is that whoever holds a majority of the shares of a corporation has ultimate control over it. Usually it takes a majority of the shares to elect the board of directors, which is charged with making the “big picture” decisions. If a decision is momentous enough for the company’s future, such as a change in the articles of incorporation or whether or not to merge with another company, the shareholders usually have a more direct role in that they themselves must approve the decision by a certain margin of votes.

The board elects the officers of the corporation, typically including a president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer. The officers may or may not be salaried employees or shareholders, and in some cases one person may hold more than one office.

In Oceanside, there are many landlord’s and tenant’s. In San Diego, there are many insurance companies including Farmers, State Farm, Allstate and others. Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP does not endorse any of these companies and they are listed for illustration purposes only. The California Department of Insurance regulates these insurance agencies and agents. Please e mail us with any estate planning or family law legal inquiry.

Unless there is a contract or lease that provides otherwise, a tenant generally is liable to a landlord for negligently damaging the landlord’s property, such as by accidentally starting a fire. But, depending on the language in the landlord’s fire insurance policy, the tenant could end up defending himself against a powerful insurance company rather than the landlord.

Many insurance policies provide for subrogation, meaning that if the insurer pays a claim from the landlord for losses due to a negligently started fire, the rights of the landlord against the wrongdoer are transferred to the insurance company. In effect, the insurance company steps into the shoes of the landlord.

In Ramona, there are many different types of business entities. All companies need to take precautions to insure the safety of their customers. Below is a new strategy and technique regarding a medical device. Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP do not endorse or support this medical device and do not give medical advice. Our firm does counsel clients as estate planning and family law. Please feel free to e mail or call us for legal advice in this area.

An automated external defibrillator (AED) is used to treat people suffering sudden cardiac arrest whose hearts have an irregular heartbeat. Since September of 2004, when the Federal Food and Drug Administration approved over-the-counter sales of AEDs, it has been possible for individuals and businesses to have AEDs on hand, instead of waiting for them to be brought by medical personnel.

The greater availability of AEDs has been a mixed blessing from a legal standpoint. Businesses most likely to put an AED to use (and what business cannot foresee that a customer might have a heart attack on its premises?) are now in the position of having to decide whether they should have an AED at their facilities. If they do not, there is a risk that a customer who needed an AED could cite the failure as negligence in a lawsuit. That is the “damned if you don’t” part, but the rest of the saying may apply as well.

In Otay Mesa, there are many companies which routinely need to verify social security numbers for employment. Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP practices in estate planning and family law. Please feel free to e mail or call us if you have a legal question in these areas.

The Social Security Number Verification Service (SSNVS), set up by the Social Security Administration (SSA), allows employers to use the Internet to match their records of employee names and Social Security numbers with those of the Government’s before preparing and submitting W-2 forms. This is a faster and easier method to use than submitting requests to the SSA by other means, including the telephone verification option.

Verification of data is important for both the employer and its employees. Correct names and numbers are critical to successful processing of wage reports, and unmatched records can cause additional processing costs for the employer. From the employees’ standpoint, verified names and numbers allow the Government to properly credit employees’ earnings records. Any uncredited earnings can adversely affect future eligibility for Social Security’s retirement, disability, and survivors programs.

In Fallbrook, some of the residents have cancer as do many residents within San Diego City. Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP practices in estate planning and family law. Please feel free to e mail or call us with any legal questions.

Now 15 years old, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects disabled persons from discrimination in employment settings. When you first think of individuals with disabilities, the millions of Americans who have some history of cancer may not immediately come to mind. But, as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) discusses in a recently published guide, a cancer victim may well be entitled to the protections afforded by the ADA.

Cancer is a “disability” within the meaning of the ADA when the cancer itself or its effects substantially limit one or more of a person’s major life activities. The limiting condition needs to be more than just temporary in nature. Just what constitutes a major life activity is difficult to succinctly describe, but an exhaustive list would be a long one. Interacting with others, sleeping, eating, and walking are but a few examples. As with other types of conditions, cancer will be treated as a disability if it does not, in fact, significantly affect a major life activity but an employer treats the individual as if it does. This reflects the ADA’s goal of attacking discriminatory stereotypes and assumptions when they motivate an employer’s decisionmaking.

During the time period before any offer of employment has been made, an employer may not ask an applicant if he or she has (or has had) cancer, or about cancer-related treatments. The employer is permitted to ask if an applicant can perform particular job requirements. If an applicant has volunteered the information that he or she has (or has had) cancer, the employer still may not question the applicant about the cancer or the applicant’s prognosis, but the employer may ask questions about whether the applicant will need an accommodation and, if so, what kind.

Once a job offer has been made, the employer may ask health-related questions and require a medical exam, as long as the employer treats all applicants for the same type of position in the same manner. The discovery that an applicant has (or has had) cancer cannot be used to withdraw a job offer if the applicant can perform safely all of a job’s fundamental duties, with or without reasonable accommodation. When an offer has been accepted, the employer can ask questions about the employee’s health or require a medical exam only when it has a legitimate reason to believe that the cancer may be affecting the employee’s ability to do the job, and to do it safely. With a few exceptions, an employer must keep confidential any medical information learned about an applicant or employee.
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East County of San Diego has many different cities however one of the main ones is El Cajon which also has a branch of the San Diego Superior Court for civil suits. The below case did not involve an East County of San Diego or El Cajon resident however the principles elaborated upon below can be analagous. The laws of every state are different. Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP can offer you a legal consultation under the laws of the State of California. If you have a legal question regarding estate planning or family law, please feel free to call or e mail our firm.

In a nation of 50 different systems of state courts and a highly interconnected national economy, the issue of when one state’s courts can assert jurisdiction over a nonresident person or business has always been fertile ground for litigation. State legislatures have addressed the matter with laws that are the civil counterparts to the notion that criminals cannot escape the “long arm of the law.” But “long-arm statutes,” as they are known, do have their limits. Essentially, nonresidents can be sued in the courts of any state where they have had such contacts inside the state that it is reasonable to conclude that they have submitted themselves to the authority of the courts in that state. The principle is vague, but it has to be to cover the almost endless ways in which we conduct business.

In the business world, conventional arguments over the application of long-arm statutes have involved questions such as whether a party sought to be sued had an office or personal representative in the forum state, or whether a contract was signed by the parties in that state. Those issues still arise, but in the information age, courts increasingly have had to adapt the rules to business conducted over the Internet. Just because a company’s website is accessible by customers in a given jurisdiction does not necessarily mean that the company can be sued there. The emerging rule of law is that the more that a customer can have online interactions with a business based elsewhere, the more likely it is that if things go wrong the business can be forced to play an “away game” in court.

Examples make the point better than statements of rules of law. A Vermont furniture store used a trucking company to deliver furniture to a customer in North Carolina. When the buyer was injured during unloading, he tried to sue the furniture company in a North Carolina court. In this case, the “long arm” was not long enough to reach the Vermont company. The furniture had been bought and paid for in Vermont. The only respect in which the store had any connection to North Carolina was that its website could be accessed there, like anywhere else. But it was a passive site, giving information about products, but not allowing purchases through the site.

When an Oklahoma resident bought a laptop computer from a Georgia company, then returned it for repairs, never to see the laptop again, he was unable to sue the company in Oklahoma. The customer had learned about the computer from the Georgia company’s website, but he had ordered it by telephone and had not used the website to make the transaction.
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In North County are included Vista, Oceanside, Escondido, Carlsbad and other cities. The San Diego Superior Court is located in Vista. The below case did not invove a North County business. Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP representes clients in estate planning and family law cases. Please feel free to e mail or call our firm with any legal inquiries.

A business hired architects for a renovation project involving a parking lot, a retaining wall, and a loading dock. The plans, as drawn up by the architects, did not call for a guardrail along the top of the retaining wall. A construction firm completed the project according to the architects’ plans. The contractor had not broken ground until a building permit was in hand, and when the work was done a building inspector gave it his blessing with a certificate of occupancy.

When a pedestrian fell from the retaining wall and injured his knee, he sued the contractor for negligently failing to put up a guardrail. The issue for the court was whether the contractor could defend against liability on the ground that it was “just following orders (or plans, in this case).” A state supreme court sided with the contractor. The court reasoned that builders and contractors are justified in counting on the experience and skill of architects and engineers. To subject contractors to liability under the circumstances of this case would be to unfairly require contractors to follow architectural plans at their own risk and, in effect, to ensure the correctness of specifications given to them, not just their own workmanship.

In National City, there are many companies which access the internet on a daily basis using Google, Yahoo, MSN and many others as their home page. The below company was not located in National City. Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP practices in estate planning and family law. Please feel free to e mail our office for a complimentary and confidential consultation.

An Internet marketing company provided a free software application that keeps track of computer users’ activity on the web in order to deliver targeted advertising for its clients. The software uses an unpublished internal directory with thousands of website addresses and keywords for particular interests of consumers. When the computer user types in particular terms in a browser or search engine, a relevant “pop-up” ad is delivered to the computer.

A company in the contact lens business learned that its website was in the internal directory and that the software caused pop-up ads for competing contact lens retailers to appear on the screens of individuals who visited the company’s website. The contact lens company sued the marketing firm on the theory that the marketing firm had infringed upon a trademark in violation of federal law. From the plaintiff’s standpoint, the actions of the marketing firm were allowing competitors to take a free ride on the plaintiff’s website.

In Rancho Bernardo, in our law office of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP we receive many faxes which are soliciting services or products. We believe many other companies in Rancho Bernardo and throughout San Diego city and county also receive these. Below is some information for business owners like ourselves regarding this unwanted use of our paper in our fax machine and our toner. Our law firm practices in estate planning and family law. Please feel free to call or our e mail us with any questions or legal inquiries.

There may be some finality to the formerly unsettled picture on federal regulation of junk fax transmissions. Since the first federal legislation on the subject, in 1991, there has been an “established business relationship” exception allowing the sending of commercial advertising by fax under certain conditions. In 2003, the Federal Communications Commission issued a regulation that would have effectively removed the exception, requiring express written permission from the recipient for sending any commercial ads by fax. Opposition from business groups prompted the FCC to put off enforcement of that rule three times.

Before the restrictive FCC regulation ever became effective, new legislation has reinstated the established business relationship exemption. It is still illegal to send unsolicited fax advertisements to anyone who has requested that they not be sent. However, unsolicited faxes can be sent if the sender has an established business relationship with the recipient and the fax itself has a conspicuous notice on its first page informing the recipient that it can request not to be sent more such faxes. To combat the sale of fax lists to mass marketers, the law requires businesses to obtain fax numbers either directly from the recipient or from a published source, such as a directory, an advertisement, or a website.