Are you facing a legal issue?  Have you been sued, or are you wondering about foreclosure?  Did you just have a medical procedure that didn’t turn out as you expected?  Is bankruptcy looming?  What about your family life – are you and your spouse considering divorce?  Do you need to update your will?  Has someone you love been arrested for a DUI? 

These are examples of only some of the most common legal issues.  The fact is we actually deal with the law more than most people think.  More importantly, when we face a legal issue, many of us might not know where to turn for answers.  The legal system can certainly be overwhelming – especially because the consequences are often so grave. 

Since 1994, LawInfo has been providing the public with quality legal resources they can count on.  The idea for the company even came out of the founder’s own legal needs!  How do you find the right attorney?  How do you know the attorneys you contact are in good standing with the state bar association?  What if you want to learn about a legal issue before you talk to a lawyer?  Well, these are the reasons LawInfo was established!  LawInfo has a whole library of information about the most common legal issues including answers to frequently asked questions, articles, legal guides, legal forms, and other information – ALL FREE TO THE PUBLIC!  The really great thing is this – you can also easily find an attorney who will understand your legal needs.  It’s all designed to help the public – help someone find answers they need and find an attorney who can help them. 

Learn more about LawInfo’s Free Legal Resource Center and Find the Right Attorney in your area today!

It’s the newest, latest trend among school kids, and it’s not downloading songs on iPods or playing the current edition of Grand Theft Auto. It’s called “sexting”—sending graphic images and pornographic videos via text message to friends. It’s becoming such a problem that major metropolis cities, such as San Diego, have an entire team on their police department dedicated to sexting and internet crimes—often working on 60-70 cases at a time.

Although in this context sexting is generally done between school friends, it’s important to note that no matter the circumstance, it is illegal to possess, distribute or manufacture pornography involving anyone less than 18 years of age. Therefore, students who are minors themselves and are found distributing or possessing such images can be found guilty of child pornography…and can face up to 10 years in prison.

On October 3rd, police in Newark, Ohio, arrested a 15-year-old girl on juvenile child pornography charges for allegedly sending nude cell phone photos of herself to classmates. Authorities are also considering charges for students who received the photos.

In La Crosse, Wisconsin, a 17-year-old boy recently was charged with child pornography, sexual exploitation of a child and defamation for allegedly posting nude photos of his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend on his MySpace page. The girl had taken the pictures with her cell phone at her mother’s home and e-mailed them to the boyfriend, authorities said.

Under federal law, child pornography is a criminal act, and is defined as a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting, photograph, film, video, or computer-generated image or picture, where it depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct and is obscene. These illegal images can be produced and presented in various forms including print media, videotape, film, CD, the internet, and yes, cell phones.

Parents today face many challenges staying abreast of their child’s involvement in all things, legal and otherwise. However, something that appears as innocent as texting can in fact be a catalyst to a world of legal woes. If you have a teenager in your household who does have a cell phone and does engage in texting (this is probably redundant), it is recommended to talk with your teen and make sure that the images and photos that come to and from his or her cell are within legal boundaries. Being busted for child pornography, when a person is a minor themselves, is not something to be taken lightly. Even if the intentions were without intent to harm, being convicted of such a crime is not mere “child’s play”—and can cause irreparable damage to a budding future.

For more information on child pornography or other sex crimes, contact a Lead Counsel Criminal Law Attorney in your area today.

Gotta go back…. back…. back to school again!! Oh no… we gotta go… back to school…… AGAIN!!

Most students heading, or returning, to college campuses this fall need help paying for the cost of their annual tuition, books, housing and other school costs.  The federal government and many private lenders offer a variety of loans to help students pay education after high school.  Check out the information below – some valuable resources to help get started on your journey to paying for college: 

U.S. Department of Education Direct Loan Program

Federal Student Aid on the Web

Federal Student Loans: Learn the Basics and Manage Your Debt

College Cost Reduction Act of 2007

Tax Benefits for Education

FAFSA – Federal Student Loans

Students.gov Financial Aid Resources

With the mortgage crisis, there are obviously fewer and fewer homeowners these days – which means fewer property taxes being paid.  Since school district budgets rely heavily on local property taxes, many schools are struggling with increased budget cuts as kids go back to school this year.  This usually translates into teacher and staff layoffs, cuts in school supplies, delaying needed improvements on campuses, and cuts in various school programs.  Some school districts are even going to a 4-day week to save on bussing, school lunches, and other daily costs. 

Can schools be successful at appropriately educating our students within such tight budgets?  A lot of teachers I know end up paying for classroom supplies out of their own pockets.  Can teachers pay enough attention to each student with increases in class sizes?  Will students be able to compete for college entrance if vital programs such as sports, music, art, and foreign languages get cut?  Will students with special needs receive an appropriate education?  If teacher salaries and benefits don’t keep up with inflation, will our best teachers be lost to other professions? 

On the other hand, if there isn’t enough money in the budget, then what alternatives are available?  Where can we better reallocate precious funds?  How can we manage programs more effectively?  Are these even the right questions to ask? 

Learn more about the education budget from the U.S. Department of Education. You can also find information about your state education budget as well.

An anonymous note was recently left at an apartment complex near Western Illinois University, officials said.  Security  measures have been increased and students are free to skip-class.  Northern Illinois University, Virginia Tech, Columbine, Santana, Red Lake High… even school shootings in the peaceful Amish community.  Even one is too many to report.  School safety is a major concern and is only accomplished through the joint effort of administrators, teachers, students, parents, law enforcement, government and the community at large.  The legal system is doing its part. 

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal on a case about a gang-related drive-by shooting at a Seattle high school.  While the legal issue in that case is not primarily about education law (the appeal has to do with the accused challenging his conviction as an accomplice to the murder), the Supreme Court’s review of the case reflects the growing concern and attention given toward the issue of school safety in society today.  

In the same week, the Supreme Court heard a case involving the constitutionality of a broad prohibition against handgun ownership in Washington D.C. (District of Columbia v. Heller (No. 07-290)).  The lawyer in the case argued in favor of the gun ban, noting that guns can be taken into schools and other public areas.  While that case didn’t focus on school violence, Justice John Paul Stevens did ask the lawyer challenging the city’s gun limits whether a state university should be able to bar students from having guns in dormitories. Of the many supporters of the ban, far and wide, the Chicago board of education submitted a brief to the court detailing that 29 students had been killed the prior year, and 8 more had been killed in the current semester, as a result of firearms-related violence. 

Those accused of school shootings are charged with murder, attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, and other related criminal offenses.  In addition to criminal penalties, perpetrators of school violence are often sued for civil damages by the victims and their families for negligent or wrongful death. 

Last week in the court case In re Rachel L. the court ruled that to legally provide for a child’s education parents must do one of three things: send them to a public school, enroll them in a private school, or provide them with a state certified tutor.   California’s home school policy consisted of conducting inspections and approving a home school’s curriculum, that inspection evidently is no longer relevant.  If a parent chooses to educate their child at home, for religious or any other reason, and the parent is not a licensed tutor the parent is breaking the law. 

Because the court decided to invalidate home schooling as a whole it is doubtful that this ruling will be the last one for this case.  The case has already been appealed to the state Supreme Court, and the US Supreme Court may hear it as well because it involves freedom of religion.  Whoever hears it next should overturn this opinion.

The opinion started to go awry on its third page when the court incorrectly asserts that state statutes may limit constitutional rights.  A court may interpret and limit the application of a right granted in a constitution, but a court may not use a statute as the means of doing so.  Here, the court held that parents do not have a constitutional right to educate their children because the state Education Code requires a child be enrolled in a public or private school, or be taught by a licensed private tutor.  The Education Code should be subordinate to a parent’s rights, not the other way around.

In a case dealing with the Amish religion the Supreme Court ruled that children must be educated and a parent does not have a right to deny an education to their children. But in that case the court was silent as to how a child must be educated.  Here the state court ruled that the only way to educate a child in California is exclusively through those means provided for in California’s Education Code.

The parents in this case may be bad parents.  The case was originally brought because one of the children complained of abuse, and the trial court found that the teaching skills of the mother were “lousy.”  But that does not justify a bad decision by overreaching.  The correct decision would be for the court to acknowledge that there are minimum standards under both the federal and state constitutions regarding the education of children and to determine whether the parents met those standards.  Hopefully one of the supreme courts will realize this.

Four years ago the fixed interest rate on a federal Stafford student loan was at an historical law, 3.37%.  Today it is 6.3%, an increase of 186% in just four years, and is still rising.  Interest rates for home loans have not risen as much percentage wise because they were never as low as student loans, but they have risen so dramatically in dollar amounts that Congress is about to rewrite the bankruptcy laws.  Bankruptcy judges are about to be allowed to rewrite mortgages to allow homeowners to stay in homes that they can no longer afford.  While students who are increasingly borrowing six figures to get a job are seeing no relief.

Educational loans are unsecured notes while mortgages are secured notes. A secured note has property attached as collateral, in a mortgage it is the home.  If a borrower defaults on their repayment of a secured loan the lender has the right to foreclose on the collateral, even if the borrower files for bankruptcy.  If a borrower defaults on an unsecured loan and declares bankruptcy the lender’s only recourse is to go to court to try to collect what the borrower can repay, like a credit card.

Congress is about to pass a law that will allow a homeowner to go through bankruptcy and come out with their home loan substantially rewritten.  Right now there is no such relief for student loan borrowers.  Most student borrowers would not receive a benefit by filing for bankruptcy because most educational loans are federal Stafford or Perkins loans, and federal loans are explicitly exempt from discharge in any bankruptcy proceeding.

A million dollar home is a luxury not a necessity.  Today’s economy makes a college education a necessity not a luxury.  Congress will allow irresponsible homeowners to escape while responsible students who have no choice but to borrow more and more will sink into unaffordable debt.