31Oct/22

Ready To Fight Your Traffic Ticket?

October 31, 2022BlogJoseph M. Griffin

This Blog was brought to you by the San Antonio Traffic Ticket Attorney Gordon Slade 210-820-3033

Ready To Fight Your Traffic Ticket?

If you are steaming mad about your ticket and ready to fight it, then figuring out how to plead not guilty to speeding ticket charges is the way to win. Getting a speeding ticket is a humiliating experience, and you’re entitled to be upset. To add insult to injury, the system is rigged against you. The court system is intimidating and set up to efficiently extract cash from your wallet – not to administer justice. Don’t let them do this to you. You can beat them at their own game if you know how. To plead not guilty to speeding ticket charges is where to start.

The best way to start beating your ticket is to delay your court date. The first thing you do is plead not guilty, which starts the decaying process. This increases your odds of beating your ticket. A few things to remember: Only 5% of all tickets are contested. Around 40% or almost half of that 5% get ultimately dismissed, with the officer not showing up as the main reason. Delaying the case increases the odds of the officer not showing up, and you can ask for the case to be dismissed if they don’t. The judge will grant your request in over 95% of the cases where they don’t show up. The more time you put between when your ticket was written, and the court case, the less the officer will remember about your case. Writing tickets is routine for an officer. They write 5-10 per day. Just like any repetitive task, you quickly forget details. Your defense is now more accessible because the officer won’t remember the details of your case. More here

The following specific steps are how to plead not guilty to speeding ticket charges and start the delay:
Plead not guilty by checking the not guilty box on your ticket and mail it before the due date. You’ll get a response from the court system with an arraignment date. An arraignment is simply for you to enter your plea formally.
Plead not guilty and go home. You’ll then get a summons with a court date assigned.
Send back a request for a new date with any reason you want to make. This is called a Motion to Continue.
You’ll get a new summons with a new court date assigned.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you get a denial letter. They will usually allow you to do this 3 or 4 times before denying it. With the first step you take to Plead Not Guilty to Speeding Ticket charges, you have increased your odds of beating the system. I’m sure you told the officer off and put them in their place! All in your mind, just like we all have, of course. You’ve taken the first crucial step to beating your speeding ticket with the decision to Plead Not Guilty to Speeding Ticket charges. Once you have all the correct information on how to get out of your ticket, your day in court will be fun.

17Feb/22

Construction Litigation Attorney San Antonio

February 17, 2022BlogJoseph M. Griffin

This Blog is posted by The Bryan Woods Law Firm – Your San Antonio Construction Litigation Attorney

Bryan Woods Law Firm

1250 N.E. Loop 410, Suite 725
San Antonio, TX 78209
Phone: 210-824-3278
Fax: 210-824-3937

Construction Litigation Attorney San Antonio

If you have a problem with something that you purchase in a store, you can simply return the item most of the time and get a refund or another item that isn’t damaged. In the new home building construction business, this isn’t exactly how it works, all of the time.

All of the products that are purchased are brought to the job site and assembled into the new home. If any of these items are damaged, there’s a good chance that they will need to be removed, if possible and returned to the store that they were purchased from to make the exchange.

That’s okay and usually works… sometimes. If you install a couple of boxes of floor tile and you notice that there is a flaw of some sort after you have installed them, I don’t think the store is going to be happy or interested in having you return floor tiles that have tile grout or adhesive dried on to the back of them.

In other words, some new home construction defects are going to be bigger problems than others. If you notice there’s a chip in a piece of tile, bathroom sink or even a light fixture, don’t bother to install it in the new house. This is the point when it needs to be returned for an undamaged item.

By now you’re probably wondering, wouldn’t everybody do this, isn’t this kind of stuff called common sense. Not when someone’s in a hurry and isn’t really worried about the finished product. The biggest problems with construction defects in new homes is building materials that get damaged by other workers or building materials that are already damaged and installed anyway. construction attorney san antonio

There’s not a lot that you’re going to be able to do about building materials that become damaged after they are installed, but there is something that you can do before they are installed.

24Aug/21

Texas Statute of Limitations in Wrongful Death Legal Actions

August 24, 2021Blog, wrongful death casesJoseph M. Griffin

Texas Statute of Limitations in Wrongful Death Legal Actions

Time itself can also be a challenge to wrongful death lawsuits. For instance, the statute of limitations for a Texas wrongful death lawsuit is two years from the date of death. While this timeline can be extended in certain situations surrounding gross negligence, or if criminal charges have been filed against the liable party, a victim’s family most often only has two years to seek legal action against that defendant. While this may sound like a long time, it really isn’t, when a thorough investigation must be conducted. It is not unusual for a full investigation to take as long as a year in some circumstances, or if there is a large number of liable parties who must be investigated before determining which ones are truly liable. In addition, all defendants need to have their assets researched in order to assure that they can pay the damages they will owe you and your family once they have been judged to be guilty.

Aligned headstones in a cemetary with pink tulips in the foreground

However, there are some exceptions to this statute. But they all involve unusual circumstances. Below is a brief explanation of some of them.

A wrongful death claim on behalf of a minor child can not begin until the child is of legal age. The two-year statute of limitations, therefore, does not start to count down until the child’s 18th birthday. For example, if a 15-year-old child lost their father in a work-related accident, that child’s claim would be extended until two years after they are of legal age (their 30th birthday). Generally, a minor child has no legal standing to file any civil suit in Texas until they turn 18. There are is an exception where a minor child’s case can be heard before he or she is of legal age. A parent can file a civil case on behalf of the child. But the court will appoint an ad litem (a non-biased, third-party attorney) who will review the terms of the settlement or jury verdict to determine that the resolution was fair and in the best interest of the child. This keeps family members and other parties from appropriating the child’s damage award for their own interests. More on this website @ https://www.carabinshaw.com/dallas-wrongful-death.html

Texas wrongful death cases are subject to the “discovery rule” which states that the two years do not begin a reasonably prudent person would have known that they had a cause of action. A perfect example if such differences would be to compare a fatal construction accident injury and a fatal injury in a pharmaceutical case. Liability in a construction accident usually doesn’t take very long to determine if someone’s negligence leads to the death of a loved one since the discovery process (investigation) begins relatively quickly.

However, imagine that someone takes a prescription drug for a long period of time and dies due to complications from that drug. Then, a few years after this death, it is determined that the drug was defective and caused that loved one’s death. One of the decedent’s family members – typically the spouse – would more than likely be able to file a claim even though the standard two-year statute of limitations window had closed. The idea behind this is that the plaintiff did not know that they had a case until years later: which rightfully extends the statute. Find some helpful information on this website

In cases where the defendant deliberately concealed involvement in wrongful death, the statute may be extended to allow the family of the deceased to pursue civil action against the defendant once this concealment comes to light. In some situations, concealment may be criminal. Or the concealment may have been part of a larger conspiracy among two or more defendants. And when a defendant must answer criminal charges for wrongful death, it regularly strengthens your wrongful death civil case, even if the defendant is ultimately exonerated in criminal court.

If a plaintiff has suffered some physical or mental incapacity that keeps them from responding within the standard two-year statute of limitations, the statute may be extended to accommodate the defendant if there is a prognosis for future recovery. For example, if a man and his wife are involved in a car accident and the man dies but the wife goes into a coma for three years, her statute of limitations would likely be extended due to the fact that she was mentally or physically incapacitated and unable to participate in her wrongful death claim on behalf of her husband.

There are a few even more obscure exceptions to our state’s wrongful death statutes. So when you are in the process of interviewing potential attorneys to represent you, reserve a few moments to visit with each lawyer and ask them to help you understand how the statute of limitations might apply to your specific wrongful death claim or case, and if any exceptions might apply.

Contact our wrongful death attorneys at our toll-free number 1(800) 862-1260 for a complimentary, confidential legal consultation. We can answer all your questions surrounding the possible pursuit of a wrongful death civil suit in Texas. Our goal is to help you come through this difficult time and strongly assert your family’s legal right to be fully compensated for your loss from all liable parties who are fully accountable for their negligent behavior. And with that peace of mind, you and your family can move forward with your lives, and you allow your deceased loved one to finally rest in peace.