Criminal Law Information

Posted by in Criminal Law on May 11, 2012

According to bent law, crimes are offences adjoin the amusing order. In accepted law jurisdictions, there is a acknowledged fiction that crimes afflict the accord of the sovereign. Government officials, as agents of the sovereign, are amenable for the case of offenders. Hence, the bent law “plaintiff” is the sovereign, which in applied agreement translates into the autocrat or the people.

The above cold of bent law is aegis and punishment, while that of civilian law is alone compensation. Bent offences abide of two audible elements; the concrete act (the actus reus, accusable act) and the requisite brainy accompaniment with which the act is done (the mens rea, accusable mind). For example, in annihilation the ‘actus reus is the actionable killing of a person, while the ‘mens rea is acerbity aforethought (the ambition to annihilate or account afflicting injury). The bent law additionally capacity the defenses that defendants may accompany to abate or abate their accountability (criminal responsibility) and specifies the abuse which may be inflicted. Bent law neither requires a victim, nor a victim’s consent, to arraign an offender. Furthermore, a bent case can action over the objections of the victim and the accord of the victim is not a aegis in best crimes.

Criminal law information in best jurisdictions both in the accepted and civilian law traditions is disconnected into two fields:

* Bent action regulates the action for acclamation violations of bent law

* Substantive bent law capacity the analogue of, and punishments for, assorted crimes.

Criminal law distinguishes crimes from civilian wrongs such as abomination or aperture of contract. Bent law has been apparent as a arrangement of acclimation the behavior of individuals and groups in affiliation to civic norms at ample admitting civilian law is aimed primarily at the accord amid clandestine individuals and their rights and obligations beneath the law. Although abounding age-old acknowledged systems did not acutely ascertain a acumen amid bent and civilian law, in England there was little aberration until the allocation of bent law occurred in the backward nineteenth century. In best U.S. law schools, the basal advance in bent law is based aloft the English accepted bent law of 1750 (with some accessory American modifications like the description of mens rea in the Model Penal Code).

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Disputes Over Boundary Lines

Posted by in Real Estate Law on April 29, 2012

When your property sits along the line of another person’s property questions may come up as to how far each of your line of ownership extends. Boundary disputes can also come up if you are just building your home and are looking to determine the correct location to place your fence. While the ground may have no visible marking for where your property ends and another’s begins, legally there is line that is important to have clarified. Failing to do so can result in legal complications either now or down the road. Some businesses or home owners may try to pass those lines, taking over the property of their neighbors to profit themselves. Other times you may rightfully own the land that you have placed your fence on, but your neighbor has taken it upon themselves to argue against it.

There are a number of factors that can be reviewed to determine who has the rightful ownership to the land. A survey can be taken to assist with defining the correct line a fence can be built on. Both neighbors may even come to an agreement by signing a quitclaim deed. Through this, they will agree on a fence (possible even a hedge) or another object that serves as the border line between their two areas. The land that is on either side of the defining object will be considered their property. This allows them to both have a say in the matter, as well as making the boundary lines clearly noted. Zoning restrictions can also be considered, such as a neighbor that is using the land in a manner that goes against the standards that are allowed.

In development housing, the original plan can be investigated to see if there are any guidelines or information to help make a correct determination. In a large amount cases, one neighbor may have been using some of the property of their neighbor and would like to continue this use rather than defining which property actually belongs to each individual. When situations arise in which a fence has encroached on your property, if it is not dealt with immediately, after a number of years the ownership may legally change to belong to your neighbor. When you cannot come to an agreement yourselves, you may need to look to the legal system to make a verdict on a boundary dispute and draw a clear line. If the property is rightfully yours you will want to take action to prevent it from being removed from your possession.

By Aaron Finter

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The Process of Dying

Posted by in Elder Law on April 29, 2012

In one of my last reviews with a client, I was mortified to sum up that the bill for the last 8 weeks of her husband’s life far exceeded his entire Estate’s net worth. In years past he may have had the dignity to remain in his own bed watched over by friends and family. As his organs would have started to fail, he may have slowly slipped into a coma and his breathing would have become shallower. If possible, he may have been able to whisper a last good bye and I love you, before passing on. Instead, this once vibrant man, much like many elderly in our country today, was tied to a bed in ICU as hydration was engaged via ivy, a tube was cut into the walls of his stomach to deliver food, and a tube was placed down his throat into his lungs so a ventilator could breathe for him. This slow torture, as I saw it, ended as he finally died in a cold room, alone and unable to speak or communicate. In my opinion, in some cases modern day technology has enabled us to prolong death, not prolong life.

As Americans we have somehow started to regard death as a condition that is curable. Instead of educating ourselves on the options we have to die peacefully at home with our dignity intact, we regard death as a condition where a proper diagnosis will somehow cure us of this disease. This change in perception has ballooned into a 17% allocation of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP); yes, our National Health Expenditure accounts for more than any other expenditure on our national balance sheet. In fact of every dollar spent on health care almost 80 cents is being spent on the last year of life.

How do stop being so afraid of dying naturally?

According to Dr. Bruce Foster, a practicing emergency medicine physician with over 25 years experience, there first needs to be a paradigm shift in the way Americans think about the process of dying, and a willingness by physicians to help gently lead families through the labyrinth of difficult and often painful decisions. The solutions he believes won’t actually come from the health care industry as there is too much incentive to maximize revenue and the fear of litigation if anything less than maximum care is delivered. In fact as our population ages, the potential for revenue increases as more Americans age and flood our health care system.

A solution to this tidal wave may not come from our government either, as no one wants an anonymous panel to decide who should receive what care. Dr. Foster believes that the first step to changing the way we die can only begin with our personal assumption for the responsibility for the process of our own death.

Dr. Jeff Berger, Chief of Hospice and Palliative Medicine at Winthrop Hospital in New York, counsels many patients and their family member on this final stage of life. He states that this discussion should take place as soon as possible in one’s adult life. He points out the more recent case of Terri Schiavo, as an example of proper discussion and pre-planning that didn’t take place and nightmare it created. Dr. Berger counsels that first a health care proxy should be set up. He recommends assigning the “job” of taking care of your medical treatment to the best equipped relative or friend, not the closest relative. The health care proxy is also a good tool to use when a need to exclude someone from becoming your proxy is warranted. Because the absence of a proxy automatically names your next of kin as those able to make the decisions for your health care, should your beliefs, values or preferences differ from your next of kin, you may want them excluded from the decision process and that’s where the health care proxy can be best used.

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