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08.04.2015

A couple’s marital status determines who gets the estate

By Nathan Vinson, Attorney English, Lucas, Priest & Owsley, LLP Facebook has a neat little box that you can check to indicate your relationship status. There are some options that are clear cut – or at least seem to be: married, divorced, single. There’s another option that’s becoming more popular as of late called “it’s complicated.” It’s a handy box to check when life is messy. Unfortunately, though, there’s no “it’s complicated” box to check in legal documents. In the eyes of the law, you’re either single, legally separated or married. There’s no in-between for marital status. The lives of Luther and Shirley Mills definitely fell under the “it’s complicated” category, and the Kentucky Court of Appeals recently ruled on whether or not the couple was legally married at the time of Luther’s death. At stake was Luther’s estate. ' Read More

07.28.2015

Amusement park accidents and injuries

By Kyle Roby English, Lucas, Priest & Owsley, LLP Amusement park rides are designed to entertain and delight adults and children. But the very nature of what makes them fun – the thrill of a fast ride that careens you up and down hills and through loops – can be the very thing that makes amusement park rides dangerous. There are well-maintained parks and those that are not, and chances are, you may not know the difference by looking at them. In Kentucky, one of the most recent amusement park accidents that comes to mind is an incident at Six Flags in Louisville, Kentucky, which is now closed. In 2007, a 16-year-old girl was riding the Superman Tower of Power ride, which takes riders straight up 20 stories and drops them towards the ground at speeds up to 54 miles per hour. A cable on the ride became loose and wrapped around the girls’ feet, severing her feet. The ride was immediately closed, and the girls’ family successfully sued the park. Also in Louisville, the Louisville Zoo faced lawsuits from patrons who were riding on a small train meant to carry children and their parents when it went careening out of control. The Zoo train was closed for four years. Although the Zoo itself could not be sued, a judge ruled, the individual employees operating the train could, and were. Injuries from that accident were severe for some of the riders. One man had his leg pinned under the train and had a series of eight surgeries to repair the damage. He had missed 18 months of work at the time of the lawsuit. A small child had disfiguring face injuries, and many others were injured in other ways. As with those cases, different legal claims are available to people who have been injured on an amusement park ride. Although the specific claim depends on the nature of the incident or accident, two of the most common are negligence and product liability. Injuries do not have to be that severe to recover. Read More

07.23.2015

Big rigs are required to keep truck log books, but few do

By Kyle Roby, Attorney English, Lucas, Priest & Owsley, LLP Tractor trailer drivers are required to keep log books. Log books record the time a truck driver has been driving or on-duty. It's one of the first things we examine when we're called on to help someone who has been injured in an accident that involves a truck. Few drivers, however, are as dutiful with keeping those truck log books as they should be. Log books are hand-written, and simple to read, and easy to keep up with if a driver wants to do so. The truck log books require the following of a driver and the company he or she works for: Log books must be kept as the driver goes. Every time a driver begins the day, he or she is required to note the city, state, and time. The driver is to keep track of the amount of time driving - time left, time arrived, and time spent on breaks throughout the day. The name of the company that owns the truck and its headquarter's location are required at the top of each log book page. The driver must sign the log book to indicate that the information in it is accurate and truthful. If the driver is following the law, the truck log books should show that he or she abided by the time limits specified by law. Police officers, state troopers and officials from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration are allowed to examine the log books at any time to check to see if the driver is following the law. Many times, though, drivers do not keep up with log books, or falsify the books to indicate he or she has abided by the law. Read More

07.21.2015

Same Sex Marriage and Tax Law

By Nathan Vinson, Attorney  English, Lucas, Priest and Owsley, LLP As early as 2000, states began grappling with the issue of same sex marriage. Some states allowed unions. Some allowed marriage. Some didn’t allow either. Now, with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, all states must allow and recognize same sex marriages. So moving forward, what happens at tax time if you’re married in one state but live in a state that previously didn’t recognize same sex marriages? The American Bar Association offered an online Continuing Legal Education seminar by attorneys Patricia Cain and George Karibjanian recently to help tax attorneys sort through some of the more difficult legal issues surrounding same sex marriage. It’s been a mess, frankly, for same sex couples. Read More

07.16.2015

Truck driver fatigue often the cause of accidents in Kentucky

By Kyle Roby, Attorney English, Lucas, Priest and Owsley, LLP The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations apply to all tractor-trailers and truck drivers  in the U.S., including those in Kentucky and Tennessee. These regulations cover every aspect of operating, maintaining, and driving a truck. One of the most important, but also most ignored, part of these regulations concerns how long a driver can be behind the wheel in a given day, called hours of service rule. The hours of service rule provides that a truck driver may work no more than 14 hours in a day, with only 11 of those hours actual driving time. The rule is intended to limit truck driver fatigue. A truck driver can only operate a vehicle for 8 consecutive hours before taking a break, which must be 30 minutes or longer. The truck driver must record his hours of service in a drivers log book that he or she must keep updated at all times while driving. These rules are hard to enforce. Often, when we handle a truck accident case for a client, this is one of the first things we examine, and we often find that the trucking company and truck driver has violated this rule, falsified their log book, or exceed their hours of service. Having an experienced attorney examine the drivers log books and hours of services is critical when a truck driver has caused a wreck. Read More

07.09.2015

Tennessee injury accident brings lawsuit against driver, owner of vehicle

If you drive or ride in an automobile, there's a pretty good chance that you will be involved in an accident at some point in your life. If and when this happens, it pays to seek legal counsel early in the process, even if the negligent driver's insurance company seems cooperative. This is because the legal process can be complex. This Tennessee injury accident case shows why it is important to have a qualified attorney involved in your lawsuit as soon as possible. Unexpected issues such as the timeliness of service of process or the determination of whether a negligent driver is covered under a vehicle owner's insurance policy can pop up even in a seemingly simple car accident case in which fault is clear. Read More

07.03.2015

How to select a qualified tax preparer

By Nathan Vinson Attorney, English, Lucas, Priest & Owsley, LLP Tax season is behind us (ahh, it feels nice to type this…) but it’s never too early to remind folks what to look for in a tax preparer – particularly given the news out of the U.S. Department of Justice earlier this year. The U.S. Department of Justice banned a Kentucky man from preparing tax returns for life after auditing several of his clients’ returns. He offered a service in which he would go to the home of a client and prepare their tax returns on the spot, but he filed fake deductions, including using his own relatives as dependents on their returns and falsifying letters from churches indicating that people had donated money that they had not. He is banned from preparing taxes for life, and rightly so. The Internal Revenue Service takes incidents like this very seriously and has taken a necessary step to help keep the tax preparation industry free of con artists. Read More

06.24.2015

Tennessee Car Wreck case affirmed

When someone is injured in a car accident, there are several different types of damages that can be included in a settlement or judgment, assuming that a case of negligence can be made against the negligent driver. Depending upon the circumstances, possible damages include past and future medical expenses, lost wages, loss of future earning capacity and property damages. Non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life, are more difficult to calculate than economic damages, such as medical bills and lost wages. Often, these are the most heavily contested elements of a car wreck case, once liability has been established. Sometimes, those types of damages are even the subject of an appeal. Read More

06.23.2015

What happens when you don’t have a will, and you leave behind a spouse and adult children?

By Nathan Vinson Attorney English, Lucas, Priest & Owsley, LLP Many people have a misconception about Kentucky law when it comes to how your property is distributed after your death. People assume (as would be logical) that given that a husband and wife… Read More

06.16.2015

Kentucky Statute of Limitations for Car Accident Determined by Date of Issuance of Replacement Check, Not Date of Original Check That Was Lost – Beaumont v. Zeru

Most civil lawsuits involving personal injury are subject to a statute of limitations, or time limit, after which a party has no legal recourse unless a special exception applies. When this happens, it is often said that the statute of limitations has been "tolled." Both the length of the limitations period and the possibility of tolling can vary widely, depending upon the state in which the accident occurred. The recent case of Beaumont v. Zeru discussed the extent to which an insurance company's payment of certain benefits affects the time period during which an injured motorist may file suit against the responsible party. Read More