Weekly Review for Miami Lawyer and Florida Legal News for Friday, February 20, 2015

weekly review for Law Practice Tips and Florida Insurance Law

weekly review for Law Practice Tips and Florida Insurance LawHere are some recent articles of interest that I found this week related to law practice management, law technology, and legal marketing. Enjoy!

How To Leave Your Law Firm And Start A Startup
To start a company that grows, you will eventually have to leave your job. But starting companies has never been less expensive. To get the first version of ReplyAll up and running, we spent only $20K on development. It sucked and didn’t gain much traction, but it was something to work with and we were able to use the the first version to iterate and build something a little better. What this means for you is that you can keep your job while having a freelance technical team build a lean version of your idea that you can test on nights and weekends to see if your idea has legs.

Read more here

Legal Tech Tips: How lawyers use Dropbox 
Dropbox is an online storage vault for your files that syncs with a designated folder on your computer and across mobile devices. It’s increasingly popular with lawyers as the 2014 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report indicates, with 65.3% of lawyers downloading Dropbox in 2014, up from only 15.2% the prior year.

Here are stories from lawyers who use Dropbox. Read more here… 

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Law Practice Tips and Florida Insurance Law!

Weekly Review for Miami Lawyer and Florida Legal News for Monday, February 16, 2015

weekly review for Law Practice Tips and Florida Insurance Law

weekly review for Law Practice Tips and Florida Insurance LawHere are some recent articles of interest that I found this week related to law practice management, law technology, and legal marketing. Enjoy!

Florida Legal News: FL Lawyer Says He Knows How People Can Drive Away Legally From DUI Checkpoints
One Florida attorney says drivers are not required to speak to police at sobriety checkpoints in the state, and he believes he has devised a way to legally prevent police from questioning them.

Read more here

Florida Law Updates: Florida considers law to protect digital assets after death
The Florida lawmaker who pushed through a bill to ban the use of biometric data in Florida schools now wants to protect the digital assets of the deceased. Those assets include emails, text messages, online photographs, documents stored in the cloud, electronic bank statements, and social media accounts.

Read more here

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Law Practice Tips and Florida Insurance Law!

Weekly review for Law Practice Tips and Florida Insurance Law for January 30, 2015

Weekly Review for Miami Lawyer and Florida Legal News

Weekly Review for Miami Lawyer and Florida Legal NewsHere are some recent articles of interest that I found this week related to law practice management, law technology, and legal marketing. Enjoy!

Legal Marketing Trends: Who are the 21st Century Companies Connecting Lawyers to Clients?
You may have heard of one or two or all three of the companies I will discuss. Some have huge investment dollars, others bootstrapping it. But each lend a unique value to the legal space and you should consider incorporating one or more platforms if their vision, ethics and toll structure work for you and your practice.

Read more here

The Practice of Law: Developing a Peacemaking Law Practice
Rather than being a financial disaster, my decision to be a non-court unbundled lawyer has resulted in rapid growth of my practice beyond my most optimistic expectations. My gross receipts increased by over 33 percent during the first year following my decision not to accept litigation engagements. My uncollectable fees went down from 30 percent of gross billings to under two percent.

Read more here

Legal Trends: Why Are So Many Lawyers Broke?
Many people don’t believe it. Even lawyers are known to scoff at it. But many of you know the truth — you go to law school, spend a small fortune and come out to find the pickings are lean.

Read more here

Legal Industry Trends: 80% of Americans Can’t Afford Your Legal Fees
It’s 2015. The stock market is sky-rocketing towards the outer edges of our atmosphere. Sounds exhilarating when we see television’s talking heads bobbing apoplectically. We’ve even just started a calendar year that ends in ‘5′ and rumor has it that every year that has ended in ‘5′, the stock market has gone up around 23% on average. Wow!

Read more here

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Law Practice Tips and Florida Insurance Law!

Weekly Review for Florida Insurance Law for Monday, January 12, 2015

weekly review for Florida Insurance Law

weekly review for Florida Insurance LawHere are some recent articles of interest that I found this week for the insurance industry, Florida insurance law, Florida insurance claims, and Florida insurance trends. Enjoy!

Flood insurance rates in Florida to spike for some properties
NON-PRIMARY RESIDENCES ARE GOING TO BE SEEING AN INCREASE IN THEIR PREMIUMS FOR PROTECTION AGAINST FLOODING – Although owners of primary residences have been breathing a sigh of relief over recent flood insurance news, the story for owners of rental properties and vacation homes will soon be quite different.

Read more here

Florida’s Citizens Drops Coverage Limits on High-Value Properties
Florida’s state-backed property insurer is lowering the amount of coverage it provides for high-value properties from $1 million to $900,000, per a 2013 law change. Citizens Property Insurance Corp. is implementing the change that will apply to all almost all new and renewal high-value business as of January 1.

Read more here

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Florida Insurance Law!

Weekly Review for Florida Insurance Law for Friday, January 2, 2015

week's weekly review for Florida Insurance Law

week's weekly review for Florida Insurance LawHere are some recent articles of interest that I found this week for the insurance industry, Florida insurance law, Florida insurance claims, and Florida insurance trends. Enjoy!

Florida’s Universal Insurance Raises $19M in Stock Deal
Florida’s largest private insurer has raised $19 million through a privately negotiated stock deal with an investment firm that specializes in natural catastrophe reinsurance and weather risk.

Read more here… 

What you need to know about Florida’s new child safety seat laws
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, 145 Florida children have been injured this year because of improper child restraints. Parents who violate the new law face fines of $60 and 3 points on their license. 

Read more here… 

New Florida Law for Smoke Alarms
In an attempt to reduce deaths from house fires, the Florida Building Code will now require homeowners to install a 10-year, sealed battery smoke alarm in the home when replacing outdated or nonworking alarms.

Read more here… 

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Florida Insurance Law!

Weekly Review for Florida Insurance Law for Monday, December 22, 2014

weekly review for Florida Insurance Law

weekly review for Florida Insurance LawHere are some recent articles of interest that I found this week for the insurance industry, Florida insurance law, Florida insurance claims, and Florida insurance trends. Enjoy!

Florida Legal News: Tampa Couple Wins Harassment Lawsuit Against Bank of America for $1Million+
Nelson and Joyce Coniglio of Tampa, Florida were tired of receiving a flood of automated phone calls (over 700) from the Bank of America after they fell behind in the mortgage payments in 2009. They got a lawyer, filed a lawsuit against the Bank, and they recently got a judgment of $1,051,000 against the bank. Their lawyer, Billy Howard, discusses the case.

Read more here

Florida Legal News: Florida Cop Pulls Man Over For Playing Anti-Police Song By N.W.A.
Cesar Baldelomar, a Harvard graduate, claims that he was pulled over by a police officer in Hialeah, Florida, on Thanksgiving morning.  Baldelomar was playing the classic 1988 rap tune “F— Tha Police” by N.W.A.  However, Hialeah Police Officer Harold Garzon was standing nearby when he heard the anti-police lyrics from Baldelomar’s car.

Read more here

Florida Legal News: Florida employers launch campaign for statewide LGBT anti-discrimination law
Florida employers, responding to rising public support, today unveiled Florida Competes, a campaign to persuade state legislators to update anti-discrimination laws.

Read more here

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Florida Insurance Law!

Weekly Review for Florida Insurance Law for Monday, December 15, 2014

weekly review for Florida Insurance Law

weekly review for Florida Insurance LawHere are some recent articles of interest that I found this week for the insurance industry, Florida insurance law, Florida insurance claims, and Florida insurance trends. Enjoy!

Florida Legal News: Is Jan. 6 Florida’s day for gay marriage?
Come Jan. 6, Florida may become the 36th state in which same-sex couples can go to their local county clerk’s office and get a marriage license.
Or Florida might become Kansas — a Balkanized state where some county clerks issue licenses, some won’t, and the whole issue of gay marriage is confused and unsettled.

The reason: A July memo from top law firm Greenberg Traurig advising its clients — the state association of county clerks — that if a state or federal judge threw out Florida’s gay-marriage ban the ruling would apply only to the parties in the lawsuit — not the whole state.

Read more here

Florida Insurance Law: Flood insurance generates more controversy in the US
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be examining whether or not it has the ability to force insurance companies to disclose information regarding the potential manipulation of flood insurance claims related to 2012’s Hurricane Sandy. The powerful storm battered the eastern United States, causing some $68 billion in damage, making it the second costliest hurricane in the country’s history. In the wake of the storm, many insurers have come under fire because of delayed claims payments and rejecting claims.

Read more here

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Florida Insurance Law!

Weekly Review for Law Practice Tips for Friday, December 12, 2014

weekly review for Law Practice Tips

weekly review for Law Practice TipsHere are some recent articles of interest that I found this week related to law practice management, law technology, and legal marketing. Enjoy!

Florida Debt Collection Law: To Collect a Debt or Take a Loss …That is the $Question$
The economy tanked several years ago. There is no way to sugar coat this. A lot of customers, income and sales were lost. And with bad business came bad debts. Often the bad debts had to be ignored as the more pressing problem was operating expenses, rent and payroll.

For those that survived, efficiency and automation were the key to survival. We now see tighter budgets, virtual employees, virtual offices, online stores, outsourcing and streamlined workflows. There are less workers doing more work while wearing more hats. As a consequence, business is stable and growing.

Read more here

Florida Debt Collection Law: Debt collectors target the elderly
For succeeding generations, retirement has been the time when older Americans reaped the benefits of their years in the workplace. Oftentimes at ceremonies, workers would receive a gold watch – a symbol of their entry into retirement and an era of “golden years.”

Today, few if any count on getting a gold watch. And what should have been the proverbial golden years are often tarnished by a struggle to keep pace with rising costs of living. These financial challenges are often worsened by aggressive debt collectors who hound older Americans about debts they may not even owe.

Sometimes, these collectors threaten to garnish their limited benefits.

Read more here

Florida Legal News: Undocumented immigrant to practice law in Florida
It’s never easy to become a lawyer.

But it was a different dimension of difficult for José Godinez-Samperio, whose quest to practice law in Florida took him not only through law school but also through the state Supreme Court and the Legislature.

Godinez-Samperio was sworn into the Florida Bar last week after lawmakers rewrote state law to allow an undocumented immigrant to practice law in the state.
“It was so incredible,” Godinez-Samperio said after taking the oath of admission at a Hispanic Bar Association gala in Tampa. “Everybody was there from so many parts of my life.”

Read more here

Florida Collection Law: Top consumer outrage? Debt collection for medical, other bills
Debt collection is the nation’s No. 1 complaint by consumers, a federal financial agency says — and hounding about medical debt is a big piece of the story.
A new report says consumers complain that their medical bills are often inaccurate or still unresolved with insurers, yet many say debt collectors resort to profanity or derogatory names such as “deadbeat,” “liar” or “fraud.”

One woman said a collector tried to get her to pay the medical bills of her late husband: “After my crying through the whole conversation, he offered for me to pay (three quarters of the balance due) on the doctors’ bills of my husband. No one told me I was not responsible for the debt.”

Read more here

Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Law Practice Tips!

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