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Landlord/Tenant Relations don’t have to be one sided.

Most of the people who take advantage of a prepaid legal services benefit do so in matters regarding property. This includes estates and transactions involving the purchase or sale of a home. However, this type of benefit also helps protect a person’s rights in other matters and the rights of a tenant are very important in New York.

It isn’t fair to say that all landlords are unreasonable and greedy. Many respect the needs of tenants and will make necessary repairs and have rental terms that are honest. Regrettably, there are a few who will ignore their obligations and think that the rental agreement protects them against any actions made by an aggrieved tenant. The state of New York has specified what rights a tenant has under the law. The challenge comes not only in understanding the statutes, but knowing how to process a grievance properly. Terms such as lease succession rights or warranty of habitability can be quite bewildering to someone not familiar with legal terminology. Not understanding protection against retaliation can intimidate a tenant and the possibility of eviction can definitely be frightening. Disputes with a landlord may require legal assistance that could be outside a person’s financial ability.

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California is known for its glorious sunshine and laid-back lifestyle. It is also known for having some of the most expensive real estate in the country, not to mention some of the most unique real estate situations. This is a state where two or more mortgages on the same property are not uncommon, and where a purchased home is torn down and rebuilt because it is cheaper than buying an even more expensive house. California real estate is notorious for very intricate buying and selling transactions. It goes without saying that in situations where the family home is being purchased or sold, having a good attorney is important.

Of course, a resident of California does not absolutely need legal counsel for buying and selling a property. A person can become acquainted with all the various statutes with information readily available from the California Department of Real Estate. Because the law is fairly complex, it truly is a good idea to have an attorney act as a guide through the maze of paperwork the sale or purchase of a house creates.

Real estate attorneys are familiar with terms and procedures such as title searches, liens, the real estate binder, and the deed for the property itself. They can help both buyer and seller. As mentioned earlier anyone can do all the necessary work alone, but a person inexperienced with real estate transactions may overlook an important point and be faced with an expensive consequence as a result (e.g. a seller ought to pay the remaining balance on a natural gas utility budget as part of the final sale. Overlooking this point could cause the buyer to assume the entire expense after the purchase).

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The unexpected death of an employee doesn’t just cause a disruption in the workplace; it creates a domestic crisis. There is an estate which has to be administered and properly divided among the legal heirs. Estate administration is where some real problems can bubble up.

Not everybody thinks about wills and estates. A number of people will not prepare a will, thinking that because there are only one or two survivors the estate process will not be difficult at all. That isn’t true. Estates of those who die intestate, i.e. without leaving a will, must be handled by an administrator appointed by a public entity such as probate court and this person is under very close supervision (The duty of overseeing the administration of estates is performed by the Register of Wills in Maryland). An administrator is limited to what the law permits that person to do, and it is better to have an executor who is named in the will as the one tasked with administering the provisions of the document.

Anyone drafting a will should seriously consider what individual will be the executor. Unlike an administrator, the executor has both authority granted by law and additional powers granted by the will itself, allowing for greater flexibility in matters such as the sale of property. The executor does need to be somebody who is responsible and willing to take on the task. However, there is a lot of work in seeing to it a will is properly administered and survivors receive their allotted shares. A critical activity is to educate the executor beforehand and even prepare things so that his or her job is made as easy as possible. The challenge is that someone who is not well-versed in probate law does not quite know how to best instruct that very important person.

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A family is the bedrock of society but it is also incredibly fragile. Issues such as adoption, child custody, divorce, and child abuse can roil a domestic situation and create stresses that are unique because they are so personal. Family related matters touch a person far more deeply than property concerns and worry about the relationships between children and relatives are not just distracting; they can be devastating.

The damage is more than just to the individual. Diminished productivity and high rates of absenteeism resulting from family related problems has cost corporate America billions of dollars. Family law in the state of New York is codified under the Domestic Relations section of the Consolidated Laws. The articles show fairly standard definitions such as adoptions, marriages, and the various actions required for child custody and divorce among others. What a person has to remember is that no law is ever completely cast in stone. Indeed, every session of the New York Legislature can result in changes to various subsections of family law and these changes, however subtle, could cause possible distress for an employee. A basic lack of understanding and the sheer complexity of some of the regulations can cause considerable frustration. Family law is definitely an area where no one should try to be his or her own attorney, and those who attempt to do that create major headaches for themselves.

The damage of trying to do it alone is not limited to just the individual. The distractions brought on by these domestic issues have many times resulted in deadlines not being met. Employee assistance programs have been initiated to help employees deal with domestic crisis that could flare up. These help, but for many there still remain legal issues that are above and beyond what a counselor can provide in New York. Group legal plan benefits offered by an employee sensitive company can help reduce a great deal of family related stress issues.

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Mentioning estates and wills can cause people to think of elderly folk dying in hospital beds surrounded by children who are adults. That doesn’t always happen. One of the saddest things that can occur is for a person to die at a young age and leave behind survivors who are minors. The sadness comes as much from what will happen to the children as the death itself.

The question of guardianship, i.e. the care and supervision of a surviving minor, is very straightforward if one of the birth parents is still alive. That adult has guardianship under the laws of the state of Connecticut. Difficulties, however, may occur if both birth parents should happen to be dead or the surviving parent has certain challenges, including mental incompetence or question of paternity. Problems about how the welfare and estate of a minor are to be managed then arise and guardianship includes such legal definitions as temporary guardian, standby guardian, co – guardian, and testamentary guardian among others. Anyone of those may influence the future care and well-being of surviving minors; it all depends on the given circumstance.

Connecticut has detailed guidelines for how the various forms of guardianship relating to minors must be handled. However, there are obviously different types for different situations. An employee doesn’t expect to die young, but if he or she should pass away without proper instructions for the care and well-being of surviving children, it could be left to the probate court to sort out. The possibility for both lengthy legal proceedings and extensive paperwork are quite real should that be the case. It is always better to have some plan of action to cover guardianship. Such planning for a surviving child’s welfare can be overwhelming for anyone who is unfamiliar with the law. A Connecticut employer that cares about reducing employee anxiety and fears will offer assistance with a group legal services plan.

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America is quickly becoming a cashless society. Increasingly more financial transactions are done with credit cards and debit cards as opposed to dollars and cents. That is fantastic for retail companies because shoppers using plastic will buy a little bit extra, and it’s extremely convenient for shoppers as well. However, there is a danger that lurks on the fringes. Greater use of plastic opens up an opportunity for professional thieves to steal identity and use credit card information for fraudulent purchases.

Identity theft is becoming increasingly more common. Roughly 12.6 million Americans

were the victims of identity theft in 2012, with approximately $21 billion being stolen. The most common use of identity theft is for various forms of financial fraud. This doesn’t just include bank accounts or credit cards. Identity theft can also facilitate mail fraud, attempts to get tax refunds, and criminal attempts to get benefits from government social programs. Identity theft is even more serious when the stolen identity is used for drug trafficking and computer-related crimes. Any individual can request credit monitoring services from a third party, but the thief may be long gone before the final information is received.

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A recent story in Employee Benefit News highlighted the top uses of legal plans by members. One of these happens to be dealing with creditors. People develop credit problems for one reason or another, and it is not against the law to be in debt. However, some of the things that creditors do to get their money come close to being criminal.

Creditors are notorious for harassment. They will make phone calls at any time of the day to pester a person about outstanding debts. This can be a serious problem for an employer because if a person has made public his or her office phone number, creditors can easily call the office and hound the individual at the workplace. People in credit debt need to understand collection laws and what can be done to stop the harassment. The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) has outlined what a debt collector can legally do, but the average person is not too familiar with all the steps necessary to avoid harassing phone calls. This is where having a group legal benefit plan can be of great benefit to an employee.

Such assistance granted by the employer allows an individual to get in contact with experienced debt legal counsel. The attorneys can inform a person of his or her rights, and how to stop a debt collection agency from making life a holy hell. It is possible that debt collectors may be in violation of the law and can be sued. Group legal protection can help a person file a tort for all the distress caused and successfully seek damages caused by the wrongful activity. Best of all, the fees for such a lawsuit can be kept within reasonable bounds thanks to a legal benefit provided by an employer.

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Although the economy is currently an employer’s market, that doesn’t mean that every employee is willing to accept a job without some careful consideration of what the employment opportunity means for them. Quality employees carefully vet their options by measuring the salaries, work environment, and involuntary and voluntary benefits of each job before making a final decision. A recent study by SimplyHired unearthed some ideas about what employees are looking for in a job, identifying benefit opportunities as a leading attraction and retention opportunity.

With a stagnant economy, employees are counting on their job’s voluntary benefits to help reduce some of the financial pressure they’re experiencing. With a majority of employees concerned about having enough money to make ends meet, benefits help to close important gaps throughout numerous industries. Younger workers especially are looking to employers whose benefits help achieve financial goals. The situation goes beyond insurance and retirement planning options, however.

Only a small percent of employers found it critical to offer a choice of voluntary benefits, but employees highly valued these optional benefits, like legal services. Employer and employee valuation of other benefits, like salary, company culture, and health benefits are much more closely aligned, according to the SimplyHired study. More employees than ever are asking questions about benefits and carefully evaluating benefit options prior to accepting a job offer. There is a huge opportunity for voluntary benefits to help attract and retain quality employees with a high sense of company loyalty. The reality is that every person is going to need legal assistance at some point in their life. Those same people concerned about making ends meet would certainly benefit from have a legal support structure in place- whether it be to help them draft a will or to prepare for a small claims court issue.

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Information technology has truly exploded in the last 10 years. It isn’t just mainframe computers or PCs that store personal information, but also smart phones, and iPads and other tools of the social network revolution. There are quite a few places where personal information can be stored and that is not always a good thing. Identity theft has become an increasingly more serious crime.

Legally speaking, Identity theft is the actual taking of someone’s identity and assuming to be that person. It is ordinarily linked with credit cards and bank accounts but other areas such as health care savings accounts or retirement benefits can also be affected. It is a serious form of fraud that has been magnified by the accessibility of information through computer hacking and computer viruses. The consequences can be nothing short of a disaster, as identity theft can be used not only to break into an individual’s bank accounts, but even destroy a person’s credit rating before that individual even knows what is happening. The state of Pennsylvania has taken action and there are laws regarding identity theft in Pennsylvania statutes, which also include restitution. The laws are on the books but the damage may still have been done to person’s credit rating. Certain legal action may be needed to be taken to restore credit integrity, or process claims for reimbursement of electronically stolen funds. This can be a very involved process and group legal plans can help.

The illegal activity will require the processing of documents to restore a person’s good name after a serious case of identity theft. This may include filing paperwork germane to restoring a healthy credit status such as a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint, or a fraud alert on a credit file. A credit bureau may have disclosed privileged information and may be liable, necessitating legal action to collect damages. Not everybody has the financial resources to afford any of this, but if a company has a group legal plan the employees can take advantage of it to go about restoring financial integrity. A group legal plan can direct an individual to lawyers who are skilled in the area of identity theft. Perhaps the greatest service these barristers can do is cut the amount of time needed to undo the damage. For anyone who relies on credit for buying a house or even maintaining credit cards time is a critical concern. If litigation is necessary, the group legal plan can keep the costs manageable.

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There are quite a few people in New Jersey who sincerely believe that there’s not much required to create a will and protect their New Jersey estate for loved ones. It seems so simple to just write something down, get it signed, and have a notary public stamp it.

They just feel there’s no reason to have a lawyer involved. That is a bad mistake.

New Jersey does adhere to the Uniform Probate Code to make these little bit easier but the process of drawing up an effective will takes some understanding of the legal code in the Garden State. Moreover, circumstances change and a beneficiary may die before the principal passes away, created complications which the originator of the will may not have considered. The worst-case scenario is that a beneficiary dies, and then the principal of the estate passes away, and survivors have to prove that the original beneficiary is deceased. Such estate disasters are the finer points of probate that attorneys who are part of New Jersey based prepaid legal plans recognize immediately. They can advise a person quickly about what to do to prevent something like this happening, making certain that the last will and testament has a contingency to cover the death of the primary beneficiary.

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