Posts written by buteralaw

Avoid Collection Problems

Recent experience suggests that the economy is not quite as rosy as the politicians might have you believe. We seem to be witnessing a rise in collection cases across all sectors of the business world, including sales of goods and services, commercial landlord-tenant collections, mortgage… Continue reading

Planning for the Costs of Long-Term Care

It is estimated that this year nearly nine million men and women over the age of 65 will need some form of long-term care. Long-term care includes a variety of services such as medical and non-medical care to those who have a chronic illness or… Continue reading

Latin Lovers

Hypothetical: Suppose you are stopped under suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, and your blood alcohol content registers at .07. Under the law, the legal limit for drunk driving is .08. A few weeks later the legislature passes a new law lowering the… Continue reading

Creditors Ordered to Keep Hands Off IRAs

The United States Supreme Court recently held that individual retirement accounts (“IRAs”) were beyond the reach of creditors. This was a unanimous decision which preserves IRA assets for all taxpayers, even those who have filed for bankruptcy. Prior to this decision, there was confusion and… Continue reading

Like Old Man River, the Barnes Dispute Jes’ Keeps Rolling Along

Just when it appeared that the saga of the Barnes’ Foundation collection of art was resolved, an appeal of Judge Stanley Ott’s decision, which permits the collection to move from Lower Merion to the Parkway in Philadelphia, was filed. Jay Raymond is a former student… Continue reading

Procedures Before the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission

A salesman had been working for a company for over 30 years when his company was purchased and new management took over. Systematically, management began a campaign to force the salesman to resign. They singled him out, criticized his work, demoted him, and divided up… Continue reading

The Queen’s English

In English where a word appears in a sentence is most important. By misplacing a word or phrase, you may cause it to dangle; dangling words or phrases “occur in a sentence without having a normally expected syntactic relation to the rest of the sentence”… Continue reading

Welcome to the World, You Are on Videotape

My family is about to celebrate the first birthday of our son. The year has gone by so fast, and the approach of this milestone has caused me to recall his birth. One of the questions asked of my wife and me by the hospital… Continue reading

Death Without Dignity: An Avoidable Tragedy

On March 31, 2005, Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman originally from this region, died while in hospice care in Florida. She died nearly ten days after her feeding tube was ordered removed from her body by a state court judge. Ms. Schiavo became the… Continue reading

Oh, What a Nuisance

That little kid on your block who is annoying, unpleasant and obnoxious; he may be a nuisance generically but not legally. A nuisance can have legal significance and can be a civil wrong. In the legal sense a nuisance is the interference with an individual’s… Continue reading