San Diego Estate Planning Lawyer Blog

In San Diego, identity theft is a rising crime with more and more victims every year. Below are some strategies and techniques which can be implemented to minimize your being a victim however there are no guarantees. You can obtain a free credit report and see for yourself what is on your credit report. Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP is pleased to provide additional strategies which we have implemented for other clients. Our firm is not a credit reporting service nor do we endorse or support any services however many of our clients have been victims and have consulted with us regarding this. We would be pleased to consult with you as well and please feel free to e mail or call.

* Unless you initiated the contact or you know to a certainty whom you are communicating with, do not give out personal information over the telephone, through the mail, or over the Internet. Before sharing information with an organization, use a website or telephone directory to check on its legitimacy. For companies in San Diego, we recommend researching their company with the Better Business Bureau.

* Remove your regular mail as promptly as possible from your mailbox before a would-be identity thief beats you to it. For outgoing mail, put it into a collection box rather than leaving it to be picked up from your mailbox. Let the Postal Service hold your mail if you are going to be away. You can obtain more tips from the Postal Service as well.

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes. Many strategies are being recommended includings shredders which can be found at Staples, Office Depot and Fellowes. Our office of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP does not recommend or endorse any of these companies and this information is placed for reference only. Please e mail or fax us with any questions you may have on protecting your identity with legal strategies and techniques.

Whether we like it or not, identity thieves are resourceful. Their methods are as varied as the ways in which consumers need to use some form of identification to initiate and complete transactions. It can all be confusing and intimidating, but consumers need not feel helpless against the expanding threat of identity theft. For most of the tactics used by the bad guys, there are countermeasures for consumers. These measures cannot completely insure that a consumer’s identity is safe, but the odds of becoming a victim decline with each protective step taken. What follows is a nonexhaustive collection of safeguards you can put in place to lower the chances that a stranger will do you harm, even as he adds the insult of pretending to be you. These credit bureaus include TransUnion, Equifax and Experian,

* Obtain, review, and insure the accuracy of your credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus. These reports have information on where you work and live, your credit accounts, how you pay your bills, and whether you have been sued or arrested or have filed for bankruptcy.

Federal law in the United States preempts State law such as in California. Our firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP would be pleased to offer you a complimentary consultation and, if we cannot assist you, we will refer you to the San Diego County Bar Association Laywer Referral Service. Please feel free to e mail or call.

In 1978, Congress amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include a more specific prohibition on pregnancy-related discrimination. Ever since then, it has been unlawful for employers having 15 or more employees to discriminate on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions.

The most clear-cut forms of pregnancy discrimination occur when an employer refuses to hire an applicant because she is pregnant or fires an existing employee because she becomes pregnant. But there are more subtle, but no less prohibited, forms of pregnancy discrimination, such as in the areas of accrual and crediting of seniority, compensation, leave from work, health insurance, and other fringe benefits. Although pregnancy is in many ways a unique condition, a rule of thumb for employers is that they may not treat pregnant employees adversely as compared with employees having comparable temporary medical conditions.

Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP is committed to handicap access. At our office location at the Clock Tower in San Diego, California, there are clearly designated handicapped parking spaces and elevator access from the street level to our office. Our office is also accessible by wheel chair and we have many clients who are physically disabled.

In its role as enforcer of the Fair Housing Act (FHA), the U.S. Department of Justice sued the developer of, and architects for, two apartment complexes. The government won an injunction against any further construction and occupancy of the apartment buildings.

Among the detailed requirements in the FHA for accessibility for the disabled is a requirement that “common areas” for multifamily dwellings be readily accessible to and usable by handicapped persons. In the case under consideration, the focus was on the landing area shared by two ground-floor apartments in each complex. The front door for each of the apartments was located there, but it was not handicapped accessible because the landing could only be reached by descending stairs. The apartments also had a rear entrance from the apartments’ patios that was handicapped accessible, but it was located farther from the parking lot.

In San Diego, we have several Jewish congregations. These include Temple Emanu-El, Beth Jacob Congregation and many others. Our firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP does not endorse or sponsor any of these religious organizations and is non discriminatory in all of our practices. The below example is used for illustrative purposes only.

Two small Jewish congregations leased second-floor space in a bank building in the business district of a small town. Under the town’s zoning ordinance, churches and synagogues were allowed in only one of the town’s eight zoning districts. Unfortunately for the congregations, their location was not in that district. When the town tried to direct the congregations out of the business district and into the one district where synagogues were allowed, the worshipers objected. They maintained that there was no suitable location in that district and that such a move was not practical or convenient for the many members who had to walk to services.

When the dispute eventually reached federal court, the congregations ultimately prevailed on a claim brought under the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). Essentially, that law prohibits a governmental entity from implementing a land-use regulation in a manner that treats a religious assembly or institution less favorably than a nonreligious assembly or institution. The town’s ordinance ran afoul of the RLUIPA because it permitted private clubs, social clubs, and lodges in the same business district in which it banned churches and synagogues.

In Southern California, we have many banking institutions. In San Diego, some of the prominent banks are Bank of America, Washington Mutual, Union Bank of California and Wells Fargo. Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP does not endorse or support any of these institutions and these are used for illustration purposes only.

We Americans write about 40 billion paper checks each year. In addition, for the first time that number recently was eclipsed by the annual number of automated transactions involving checking accounts. Checking account transactions are such a widespread part of our lives that consumers of banking services are well advised to become acquainted with major changes affecting banking laws. Federal legislation called the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, or “Check 21” for short, went into effect on October 28, 2004. This is part of the Federal Reserve Board.

Check 21 will allow financial institutions to process “substitute” checks–high-quality paper reproductions created from electronic images of both sides of an original check. In time, check processing will be faster, and this is where there will be ramifications for check writers and depositors.

Many celebrities live in Southern California and attend the Oscar ceremony. Below is an article about a different “Oscar” but one as famous. Our firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP would be pleased to offer you a complimentary and confidential consultation on estate planning or family law. Please feel free to call or e mail our law firm.

Nineteenth-century writer Oscar Wilde had not yet produced the works for which he is best known when he came to the United States in 1882 for a lecture tour to promote a touring opera. He clearly was a celebrity in the making, however, and that is what brought him to the attention of Napolean Sarony. Sarony was making a name for himself, and lots of money, in the still emerging field of photography. He took photographs of the rich and famous, to whom he paid large sums in return for the exclusive right to distribute the photographs.

Wilde posed for 27 pictures taken by Sarony. When the most famous of these was used in an advertisement without Sarony’s permission, he sued. The defendant was a lithographer who was said to have reproduced many thousands of copies of the image. Sarony alleged a violation of his copyright in the photograph. The defense was that Congress had the power to protect authors’ writings, but not authors’ photographs, which were described as mere reproductions of nature created by the operator of a machine.

In San Diego, there are many independent insurance agents. The Department of Consumer Affairs can be contacted for the status of many different licenses. Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP is pleased to offer you a complimentary and confidential consultation in the areas of estate planning and family law. Please feel free to e mail our office.

Richard was an independent insurance agent who sold policies for a major insurer on an exclusive basis. After a period in which there was some dissatisfaction and acrimony on both sides of the relationship, the company terminated its agreement with Richard. In subsequent litigation brought by Richard, the parties disagreed as to the reason for the termination. The company’s position was that it had fired Richard for disloyalty. How the company came by its evidence of disloyalty led to a separate element of the ensuing lawsuit.

When other events raised suspicions about Richard, an attorney for the company and a systems expert searched the company’s main file server for any e-mail to or from Richard that caught their attention because of the e-mail headers. There, they claimed to find two messages from Richard to a competing insurance company that essentially asked if the competitor might be interested in acquiring some clients who supposedly were unhappy with Richard’s company.

In San Diego, many employees work part or full time from their residence. The IRS has specific regulations regarding employees and deductions. We recommend you consult with a licensed Certified Public Accountant for any tax issues. Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP can assist with estate planning or family law matters. Please feel free to e mail or call us with any questions.

The benefits of working from your home for an employer make telecommuting appealing to many people. In most cases, however, the plus side may be confined to subjective, hard-to-measure factors. What is it worth to you to avoid rush-hour traffic jams or to wear whatever you want while working? CalTrans can tell you how to avoid the most congested route home.

If you are counting on an income tax benefit in the form of a home office deduction, you should understand that most telecommuters do not meet the demanding requirements for the deduction. Still, you will not know how you stand unless you first know the rules. If you do qualify, worthwhile tax breaks are available, consisting of deductions for such items as property taxes, mortgage interest, and utilities.