Florida Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

How many times have we heard or uttered those words? When we take the Bar Association oath of office, we promise to “uphold the Constitution”. But what is in the Constitution? Have you ever actually read it? (And I’m not talking about the Cliff Notes version!)

This past several years, I’ve had the pleasure and honor of meeting two Supreme Court Justices (Justice Alito and Justice Thomas) and having dinner with another (Justice Scalia). All are extremely intelligent men whose main job it is to interpret the Constitution and its Amendments (there are 27). Here are some (I hope) fascinating facts about the Constitution and the men and women who have and still do interpret it for us: (I hope these peak your curiosity enough to make you want to give it a read!)

1. The U.S. Constitution has 4,440 words. It is the oldest and shortest written constitution of any government in the world.

2. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, never signed the Constitution. He was serving as U.S. Minister to France (now called Ambassador) at the time of the convention.

3. At first, the Constitution wasn’t even called the “Constitution” – it was called “The Articles of Confederation”.

4. When the Constitution was signed in 1787 in Philadelphia, the U.S. population was 4 million. Now we are approaching 300 million. Philadelphia was the nation’s largest city with 40,000 inhabitants.

5. At least seven Constitutional Amendments were passed in order to reverse Supreme Court decisions. Some of the most notable ones: the Thirteenth Amendment (1865), barring slavery, and the Fifteenth Amendment (1868), protecting the citizenship of African Americans, effectively overturned the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision of 1857. The Sixteenth Amendment (1913) gave Congress the power to levy an income tax, which had been previously outlawed by the Supreme Court in Pollock v. Farmer’s Loan & Trust (1895). And the Twenty-Sixth Amendment (1971) overturned Oregon v. Mitchell which, among other things, held that Congress could not regulate the voting age in state elections. The Amendment set the voting age at 18 years.

Continue reading " That’s Unconstitutional! " »

Posted by Richard D. Schuler | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Palm Beach County Bar Newsletter

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According to the National Center on Caregiving, a traumatic brain injury is an insult to the brain caused by an impact, internal damage or loss of oxygen, and although not always visible, may cause enduring physical, emotional, intellectual and social changes for the survivor.

This organization also reports that there are about two million head injuries of all types each year in the U.S., with 300,000 individuals suffering brain injuries severe enough to require hospitalization, and 99,000 resulting in a lasting disability. A total of 56,000 people die each year as a result of traumatic brain injury.

The victim in this case was an 18 year old woman who had just left her mother’s home and the police report indicates that she was making U-turn when the accident occurred. Not only was the victim injured to the point that she was unable to communicate or remember this incident from her substantial head injuries, but the passenger in her vehicle died at the scene of the accident. An eyewitness indicated that the other driver operating a truck, was in the far right lane and believed to be turning right. However, he changed lanes as she commenced her turn resulting in the collision between the two vehicles.

The defendant driver in this Florida truck accident case was in the course and scope of his employment and the permissive user of a motor vehicle owned by his employer at the time of this accident. He stated that he did not see the victim’s vehicle prior to the impact, and denied changing lanes before the accident.

Continue reading " Truck Accident in West Palm Beach, Florida Causes Traumatic Brain Injury " »

Posted by Schuler, Halvorson & Weisser | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Truck Accidents

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The Center for Disease Control (CDC) states that 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year. Almost one in five of those bitten (885,000) require medical attention for dog bite related injuries. Sadly, most of the victims who receive medical attention are children, and half of them are bitten in the face.

The victim in this case was a mother and grandmother who had worked for an elderly socialite in Palm Beach, Florida as a housekeeper and companion for more than thirty years. Her employer was 84 years old and had lost her husband twelve years earlier. At the time of this incident, the victim’s employer owned a dog, a Jack Russell Terrier named Target that she had adopted shortly after her husband had passed away, and understandably this lady had formed quite an attachment to her little dog.

There were other employees in the house and it was mutually agreed that whoever had time would walk Target. No one person was assigned this task. Usually they would just walk him to the end of the street, then turn around and come back. Sometimes they would just walk him on the owner’s property, but always on a leash. Everyone agreed that this little dog had never gotten off of the property without a leash and he had never attempted to bite anyone or go after any other dog.

On the day of this particular incident, no one else was at home so our victim in this dog bite case offered to walk Target. They were just going to the end of the street and back.

They walked down the middle of the road because there was no sidewalk there and no traffic to speak of. All of a sudden this huge black Doberman came bounding out of one of the neighbor’s yards, came up behind the victim and grabbed her right elbow with his teeth and clamped down. He was pulling and tugging at her and when she tried to push him away, he wouldn’t let go. Finally he let go of her arm and grabbed her right wrist. The victim was screaming the entire time but no one came to her rescue.

Next the dog came in front of the victim growling and bearing his teeth and lunging at her. She said all she could think of was to keep him away from her face, so she began kicking at him and at that point he grabbed her left foot and kept biting her left foot. It seemed like an eternity to her, as he kept biting her and she kept screaming, but on one came.

Continue reading " Dog Bite Case in Palm Beach, Florida Causes Permanent Injuries " »

Posted by Schuler, Halvorson & Weisser | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Dog Bite Litigation

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For those of our members who don’t read the Daily Business Review, but who practice law in almost any specialty, you need to familiarize yourselves with House Bill 1121 and Senate Bill 2108 pending in the Florida Legislature. The question is: will this legislation make our Court System and Clerk more efficient with better use of our limited economic resources or is it a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” which, under the pretense of economy and helping to relieve the Court’s funding crisis, will provide an avenue for the State to funnel more local money into its coffers?

The Courts’ Position

1) This legislation is supported by the Chief Judges of all Circuits and by all Justices of the Florida Supreme Court. It is sponsored by two “political heavyweights” - former Senate President Pruitt and Representative Bogdanoff.

2) It is in keeping with Chief Justice Quince’s “Seven Principles for Stabilizing Court Funding” – namely principle 2: User fees should be dedicated to the Court System and not other areas of government, and principle 7: Court filing fees should go into Court trust funds.

3) Clerk’s budgets have grown 33% to $539 million in the last four years compared with 13% to $433 million for the Courts.

4) The clerk’s budgets are not approved by the legislature and need more oversight.

5) Some Clerk’s duties that are really “court-related” services, (some of which were previously handled by the Courts years ago) such as case maintenance, records management, the assignment, reopening and re-assignment of cases; processing jurors, collection and distribution of fines, fees, service charges and court costs should be shifted to the Courts to help streamline the process and save money.

Continue reading " Clerks v. Courts (or Really the State of Florida?) " »

Posted by Richard D. Schuler | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Palm Beach County Bar Newsletter

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