When It’s Time to Revisit The Support Order

When It\’s Time to Revisit The Support Order

By: David Siegel

How long has it been since your order for support was entered before the court? Have circumstances changed since that order for support was signed by the judge? Has there been a significant change in circumstances such as job loss or job enhancement? Has the need for support increased or declined since the order for support was entered?

If you are like most people, you are currently operating under a support order, which is currently out of touch. Whatever the statutory guideline amounted to at the time the order was entered; it’s likely that the terms are not being complied with, under the terms of the order. For example, if the court ordered that 20% of the payor’s net income go towards the support of the minor child, and the payor has had a significant increase in income since the time the order was entered, the child is clearly not receiving what the court nor the legislature intended the child to receive. Play to counteract this, is to bring a motion before the court for a modification and/or increase in child support. The payor will have to produce proof of income, which can include recent paycheck stubs, the most recent year’s income tax filing, and any other source of income that he or she may have received in the last year. The payor may be willing to submit this information voluntarily or he or she may produce such information only after the filing of a subpoena to produce such documents. In any event, once the information is provided, the attorney for the payee can make an educated estimate of what the proper amount of support calculates to at the present date.

The payee may be surprised to see that the payor’s income has increased significantly. The payor may be shocked that he or she must pay an additional amount per month then what was originally ordered by the court.

The bottom line is that the court and the legislature provided a means to determine the proper amount of support. The court also provided the means to go back to court and have the amount adjusted for present day circumstances.

When It’s Time to Revisit The Support Order
...

Gem State Idaho Child Support
...

What About Alabama Child Support!
...

Oklahoma Child Support in the Sooner State
...

The goal is to simply get the proper percentage corrected. The goal is not to provide an arena for protracted litigation on the issue of support.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/legal/article_1080.shtml
.

Published by: legaladvicefree on August 27th, 2008 | Filed under Uncategorized
Comment now »

Legal Thriller Author Analyzes Paper Trails Scams

By: Jack Payne

If 75% of women wear the wrong bra size, and 75% of men wear shirts with the wrong sleeve length, is it any wonder that so many people do not understand paper trails, do not understand their critical roles in con games? Fraud, shell games, scandal-revelation and creation, and rip-offs of every kind flower from this tell-tale debris.

And, alas, most importantly, it is essential to understand how all of this paper trail information is tied together by social security numbers. (For the intent to rob you blind, this information collecting method is, obviously, patently illegal. For the lawn mower manufacturer, in his search for demographics trying to sell you a new riding mower, however, society seems to feel this is O.K)

Spreading like wildfire, with the aid of an internet stage setting, what are paper trails anyhow? Let’s be more specific.

Simply put, as they might affect you, they are every sort of record, kept anywhere, that link business transactions back to you. These can be any paper document such as a bill of sale, promissory note, receipt, application, resume filing, customs claim, insurance form, notarized statement, any legal form. These spell out into computer records.

It’s largely society’s propulsion into the computer / internet era of the 1990s that has brought about this current-day fleshing out of the “paper trail.” It’s now so efficient that the structural schematic of this thought-police invasion–this total assault on your privacy–should indeed frighten you. What next? you might ask. Will you be marked with a tracking device so the government always knows where you are?

In this day and age it’s computers, computers, internet, internet. Far and wide. They are to blame. It’s computer records that pull all these bits of paper information together, to the delight of con artists.

Examples: Credit card purchase? Computer. Bank deposit? Computer. House purchase? Computer. And, the list goes on and on. Endlessly.

Take a simple, one-time credit card purchase. This is stored in the bank’s computer, as well as several way stations along the path back to your bank, in the network’s computers. When you deposit cash into your checking account the information is stored in a computer. when you deposit cash into your savings account the information is stored in a computer. when you buy a house you get a triple-whammy, the transaction is stored in a computer, in paper form, and on microfilm at your county recorder’s office. Every time you turn around and blink these days, it seems, something about you is recorded in a computer.

And, sad to say, the common link that pulls all of your business transactions together is your social security number. It is the commonly used identifier of the present day age. By using only your social security number the con man can put together a near-total list of your business transactions stretching back over the years.

So, stealing your ss number–it being the string-tying mechanism which pulls everything together– then packaging it neatly and presenting your financial affairs to the world as the “whole you”–makes it easy for the con man. These data include such invasion-of-privacy issues as what assets you have, where you shop, what you buy, and what you owe on various credit accounts and loans. The skilled con artist knows precisely how to pull this string.

Unfortunately, too many people today regard this as only a mild irritation, like talking to robots on the phone while trying to make a warranty claim on a defective computer. Red flag! It’s far more serious than that So, like it or not, the challenge is on you, to weave, dodge, confuse, and bewilder any scam artist who might be about to stalk you.

How do you do this? How do you fortify your defenses?

You must disrupt your paper trail. This can partially be done in several ways, or combination:

1. A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (seemingly), cash was used. Stash your credit and debit cards. Earmark them for occasional or emergency use only, and for the most part rediscover cash money, paper and coin. Go back to this simpler form of exchange wherever possible. We all feel nostalgia isn’t what it used to be, but this step alone will go far toward masking your paper trail.

2. Set up a Trust. This is like turning the porch light on, with nobody home. It somewhat confuses the paper trail by disrupting the con man’s view, due to the linkage between you and your Trust.

Chemtrails - Poisioning The Very Air We Breathe - Look To The Skies
...

Phishing Scams and Identity Theft
...

Hi-Profile Identity Theft Scams
...

Watch Out for These Internet Scams - Be Cyberstreet Smart
...

Fictitious Credit Cards Scam
...

3. Refuse to star in the con artist’s psychodrama. Go offshore. Not physically. Just export some of your assets This is not considered socially acceptable. Not patriotic, either. But, it’s not illegal, and it is most effective. If you make yourself invisible to the bureaucrats–and the scam artists–they will have no address with which to find you. (A page torn from a legal thriller?)

4. You ask, what if the Hokey Pokey is really what it’s all about? Incredibly, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that bank records enjoy no privacy protection. That’s right, none. They are considered property of the bank, You are not, however required to reveal your social security number when opening a non-interest bearing account, e.g. checking, debit, credit card. So, don’t. You are only required to reveal your social security number to a bank when interest-bearing accounts are involved. This is because the bank must report to I.R.S., for tax purposes, on how much they paid you.

5. You can even out-con the con man. Follow the New Hampshire state motto: “Go away and leave us alone.” Get yourself a post office box, then write, “Moved, left no forwarding address” on the face of every envelope that the postman tries to deliver to your home. That would certainly leave anyone trying to steal your identity hanging by a quickly-shrinking thread. This would be like giving a seeing-eye sled dog to a blind Eskimo..

These are just a few of the steps you can take to shore up your privacy. These steps will not totally obliterate the scam artist’s view of your financial structure. But, it will hinder it to the point of nearly crippling him, leave him babbling to himself, wondering how to write zero in Roman numerals. Consultation with an expert attorney would undoubtedly reveal more avenues of privacy restoration.

If such preventive steps were universally adopted, it would be quite a blow to the scamsters. It would leave con men everywhere quaking in their Hummer SUVs and calling their analysts on their cell phones.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/legal/article_1039.shtml
.

Published by: legaladvicefree on August 26th, 2008 | Filed under Uncategorized
Comment now »

Madrid Protocol

By: Michael D. Stewart

THE MADRID PROTOCOL

The Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks - the ?Madrid Protocol? is an international trademark treaty which has been adopted by the United States and provides US businesses with the opportunity to obtain international trademark protection with minimized administration and cost.

The Madrid Protocol allows a US trademark applicant or registrant to file a single trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and have that application serve as a basis for an International Registration extended for the same goods/services to any of the more than 70 member countries of the Madrid Union designated by the applicant.

Any trademark owner with an application (the “basic application”) or registration at the USPTO and “who is a national of, has a domicile in, or has a real and effective industrial or commercial establishment in the United States” may file an international application through the USPTO.

Among the advantages to a US trademark owner or applicant utilizing the Protocol rare that renewals, assignment recordals, changes of name and/or address of an International Registration may be effected by filing one document with the International Bureau in Geneva, Switzerland.

In order to obtain an international registration, an applicant submits the application to the USPTO with the required fees. The USPTO then reviews the application and “certifies” to the International Bureau that the application is in conformity with the “basic” US application or registration.

Once the International Bureau has received the application, it will review the application to ensure it complies with the requirements of the Madrid Protocol. If the requirements are met and the fees paid, the International Bureau will register the mark and publish it in the WIPO Gazette of International Marks (WIPO Gazette).

The Bureau will then notify the individual country trademark offices to which the International Registration has been extended. These trademark offices will, in turn, examine the application using the same standards as they would if it were an application filed directly with that countries trademark office. The offices have a maximum of 18 months to object to registration of the extension of the application to their country. If the trademark office of a respective country fails to object within this time, the mark will automatically be granted protection in that country. This is particularly interesting with respect to certain African, Asian and South American countries wherein the trademark application process can take years. How and whether the laws of these jurisdiction are changed due to the Protocol will be interesting to follow.

If the trademark office in one of the designated countries issues a provisional refusal to register the mark, US counsel will most likely work with counsel in that foreign jurisdiction in an attempt to overcome the refusal.

Once an applicant has obtained registration in those countries in which an extension was obtained, the applicant can then later decide to further extend the International Registration to other countries by filing a further extension to other countries with the USPTO.

An International Registration lasts for ten years, and may be renewed through a single filing thereafter.

Importantly, however, for the first five years the International Registration is completely dependent on the US application or registration.

International Trademarks and the Madrid Protocol
...

Trademarks - Important Things You Need to Know
...

Disclosure in Criminal Proceedings
...

HIPAA Compliant FTP Hosting
...

Personal Injury Claims UK - The Facts
...

After the five year period, the International Registration is no longer dependent on the US application or registration.

One important downside to this, or upside to a potential opposer, is that during the initial five year period, a company holding conflicting trademark rights can choose to “centrally attack” the US application or registration and, if successful, can effectively eliminate the extension of the trademark to the other designated extension countries. If the trademark holder is successfully attacked, however, the trademark holder has the opportunity to re-apply within three months of the cancellation of the International Registration in each foreign jurisdiction while retaining the priority date of the International Registration. After the five year period, the International Registration can only be attacked under the respective trademark and other laws of the specific extension countries.

The Madrid Protocol, together with other trademark treaties and conventions, such as the European Community Trademark (which may also be extended to an International Registration) are steps forward for the US in international trademark protection. However, while the Madrid Protocol reduces costs and administrative fees, counsel experienced in international trademark law is needed to effectively utilize the various complexities of the system.

The law Offices of Michael D. Stewart can assist you in these and a variety of other issues. You may contact us at:

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/legal/article_953.shtml
.