WE RESPOND TO YOUR NEEDS 414-271-1440
Recent Blog Posts
The Value of Trial Experience to a Young Lawyer
A GRGB attorney was recently the alumni blogger for the MU Law School Faculty Blog. Here is what she had to say in her first blog:
As a new lawyer, I struggled to come up with blog topics. Being only two years out of law school, I don't pretend to have near the amount of knowledge or experience as the frequent contributors and readers of this blog. I contemplated a post about the recent United States Supreme Court decision inMissouri v. McNeely, but Dean O'Hear would cover that topic in a much more eloquent and researched fashion. I then contemplated a post about the privacy implications regarding the recent news on the NSA collecting phone records (or even more recently-the criminal defendants demanding the records as exculpatory evidence). However, as a past student of Professor Boyden's Law of Privacy class, I'm inclined to believe his post on that issue would make a much more interesting read. I finally decided on a topic that has monopolized my attention this Spring and Summer: jury trials. While a post on jury trials authored by Professor Blinka would likely be deemed so sage as to be cited by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, I'll tackle the area from what I've learned as a new lawyer.
The Calling of the Trial Lawyer - A Modern Day Atticus Finch
Perhaps you saw the opinion letter that was submitted in to the Milwaukee Journal last week regarding GRGB's Frank Gimbel and the recent high profile Spooner case. In case you missed it...here is what it said:
A man murders an innocent, unarmed young boy at point-blank range. Then, against the strong advice of his lawyer, he takes the witness stand to proclaim that justice was served by his heinous crime.
Properly convicted now and still without even a hint of remorse, he complains about his lawyer, who had the courage to represent an unpopular and manifestly guilty client ("Spooner says truth didn't come out,").
By taking this case, lawyer Franklyn Gimbel evokes the name of the model for all trial lawyers - small-town Alabama lawyer Atticus Finch. In Harper Lee's classic "To Kill A Mockingbird" Atticus explains to his daughter, Scout, his duty to defend accused rapist, Tom Robinson, this way: "It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what." Finch would be proud of Gimbel.
Jack Clark, Defamation, Pujols and PEDs - A Great American Pastime?
In recent years America's national pastime has been wrought with scandal. It seems that the use of performance enhancing drugs (PED's) takes up more headline space than the recaps of the latest box scores. With that said, yet another PED scandal is making headlines, and includes an accusation, denial, defamation lawsuit and now a possible polygraph test.
In early August, during his now defunct radio show "The King of the Ripper" former St. Louis Cardinal, Jack Clark, accused Anaheim Angels player, Albert Pujols of using steroids. Clark stated that he knew "for a fact" that it was true, citing a conversation from the year 2000, with Chris Mihlfeld, a former trainer for Pujols. Clark stated that in this conversation, Mihlfeld indicated that he "shot Pujols up" with drugs earlier in his career.
While Clark firmly stands behind these allegations, even to the point of losing his radio gig, Mihlfeld is not backing him up. Within a week of Clark's on-air comments, Mihlfeld submitted his own written statement noting that he would "bet my life" that Pujols would "never use illegal drugs in any way."
Video Introduction to GRGB
Warning: stripos(): Offset not contained in string in /home/ocvaws/public_html/system-joomla-shared-core/components/com_easyblog/easyblog.php on line 6
GRGB's Dall'Osto Weighs in on SCOTUS Cell Phone Ruling
In a recent blog, we discussed the ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States regarding the legalities of searching a person's cell phone without a warrant. The blog investigated two such cases that were before the court in which a defendant's phone was confiscated without a warrant and content on the phone entered as evidence.
GRGB's Raymond Dall'Osto was recently asked to provide insight about this case to the Wisconsin Radio Network. Dall'Osto applauded the US Supreme Court's finding indicating that they upheld the 4thAmendment privacy rights of the American people "in its application to modern technology."
Dall'Osto, who is a former director of the ACLU, noted that the information that a police officer can acquire on a cell phone is "critical evidence which law enforcement will still be able to obtain with relative ease, it just means they're going to have to have enough evidence to show probable cause, to get a warrant,"
Don't Wait Until it is too Late - Avoid Identity Theft Now
By Attorney Raymond Dall'Osto
According to a recent article in the New York Times, on January 12, 2015, President Obama proposed that Congress strengthen laws against identity theft by requiring notification to consumers when their confidential information is hacked and by providing greater annual access to credit scores, in addition to being able to obtain annual credit bureau reports. The President also called for stricter laws and more vigorous prosecution for those committing cyberattacks on businesses and government, with substantially increased criminal penalties.
Under current law, individuals can request their credit bureau reports each year, free of charge. This right was enacted into law in the 2003 Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), and allows individual consumers to obtain credit reports from the three major national credit bureaus - TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. President Obama’s new proposal would expand this free access to also include a person’s credit score.
Ask Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown, LLP - The Lowdown on Marital Property
Question: I am going to be getting married this fall. I currently own my own home as well as a rental property. Will I still be considered the "sole" owner of these properties once I get married?
This is a question that we hear a lot, unfortunately, sometimes it is after you've said "I Do." Before we go into too much detail, it is imperative to point out that upon marriage; all property is considered marital property regardless of how the asset is titled. If you wish to maintain any property as individually owned after you are married, you must enter into a comprehensive marital property agreement that delineates ownership of your assets under a variety of circumstances.
The Marital Property Actrecognizes that it takes both spouses to support a marriage, regardless of whether or not they are both earning a salary (or equal salaries). In general, the law states that whatever assets are brought to the marriage by both spouses and acquired during a marriage belongs, equally, to both spouses. This includes the debts of both spouses.
NJ Parents Forced to Pay College Tuition – Could it Happen in Wisconsin?
By Attorney Max Stephenson
In the category of “you can’t make this stuff up,” is a family law case out of Camden County, New Jersey. In the case, Temple College Junior, Caitlyn Ricci, sued her divorced parents after they refused to pay her college tuition. While the terms of their divorce settlement settled the issue of child support, there was no stipulation as to how her college education would be paid.
According to the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia, during her childhood, Ricci’s parents did their best to support each other in parenting their daughter. Upon graduating from high school in 2012 it was determined that Caitlyn would attend Gloucester County College and live at home with her mother. In an effort to prove she was ready to take the next step and live away from home, she accepted an internship at Walt Disney World. The internship, however, was terminated when she was sent home for underage drinking. After a dispute with her parents about living away from home and attending school out of state, she moved in with her paternal grandparents.
Knowing Your Rights When Purchasing a Car - Part One
Shopping for a car can be a daunting task. Factor in the desire to purchase a pre-owned vehicle and the job can become doubly disparaging. While we can't make the shopping component of the process easier, we can provide a few tips to give you the best chance of a favorable end result. The following six tips are the first in a three part series on Knowing Your Rights When Purchasing a Car. They are intended to give the consumer some pointers when purchasing a car, but do not negate the need for appropriate legal counsel in special situations.
1. Car-Fax Reports - Car-Fax is an online service that allows the consumer to obtain information on a specific vehicle before they decide to make a purchase. The report can offer a great baseline for vehicle maintenance and upkeep (if information is actually recorded) and will give a background on any accidents in which the vehicle might have been a part. However, it is important to remember that this tool only records maintenance that is conducted (and recorded) by a licensed professional. It will not note any upkeep, or lack of upkeep on the part of the owner. It is also crucial to remember that a clean Car-Fax report does not necessarily mean that the car was well taken care of...it simply means, no negative data was collected. One of the best ways to ensure that a car is in good working order is to spend a few extra dollars and have a mechanic look it over before you make your final selection.
Knowing Your Rights When Purchasing a Car - Part Two
Unpeeling Wisconsin's Lemon Law
After the purchase of a car, most owners assume that it will be smooth driving ahead. While this is generally the case, sometimes things don't go as planned and unwanted issues occur. The following blog offers insight in the Lemon Law in the State of Wisconsin, and what the consumer needs to know when purchasing a car.
The Lemon Law protection covers new car purchases and leases. Additionally, the situation must meet the following requirements:
- The vehicle must not conform to manufacturer's express warranty.
- There must be substantial defects affecting the use, safety or value of the vehicle.
- There must be manufacturer defects that occurred during the first year from the delivery date or the expiration of the warranty; whichever comes first.
- The vehicle must have been taken in a minimum of 4 times for the same problem or been out of service for a cumulative total of 30 calendar days.
