Victory for Elderly Client

We just successfully got a trial court to confirm that a client we were representing in a criminal matter was truly “incompetent” to stand trial.

This poor older man had difficulty finding our office and the courthouse, and it was next to impossible to get him to the court-ordered evaluation appointments so that they could actually perform the competency exam.

Now, with the court’s help, this man can get the mental health help he needs. We are very happy for his family.

Is Bullying Illegal in Ohio?

The simple answer is yes.

If your child is victim to “harassment, intimidation, or bullying that is written, verbal, electronic, or physical,” then you have the right to pursue action from his/her school.

Ohio has anti-bullying policies in place to protect each and every student. Every Ohio school district is legally accountable to ensuring a safe, healthy environment where each student can thrive.

With recent experience that includes a victory for a mother who fought to protect her son from constant bullying, we took on the school district and families involved with great success.

If your child is not getting their rights met at school, we encourage you to let us help and contact us today.

Successful DUI Outcome

We recently obtained a very favorable result for a young adult client of ours who picked up a DUI arrest.

After taking a serious review of the video of the arrest (something you have to have the knowledge and time to do), we were able to politely convince the prosecutor to reduce the DUI offense to a much less serious offense.

This client is a young man looking to make this a growth experience and (at the same time) not let this one terrible night become a blemish on his adult career.

Federal Criminal Case

We are working on a somewhat serious federal criminal case where we successfully got the federal prosecutor and the court to agree to have an in-depth mental health exam done for the client.

The client had a history of mental health issues, and the crime involved (threatening a federal official) seemed to be a result of mental illness.

This will allow the client to get a large amount of resources for his health issues, that would have otherwise been unavailable.

This is a very important result that we worked hard to attain.

Elderly Woman Injured at Her Semi-Retirement Community

We are currently representing an elderly woman who slipped and fell on a sidewalk on a cold winter night at her semi-retirement community.

A broken water fountain had spilled water onto an unlit sidewalk turning the sidewalk into a very serious danger.

The client slipped and fell on her way to her apartment and seriously broke her leg (multiple surgeries and hospital stays - $160,000 in medical bills), only to have to lay there for almost two hours in the freezing cold until help found her.

We are close to resolving this case.

Slip and fall cases are difficult to resolve in Ohio, and we hope this woman can get this matter as far behind her as she can.

Child Support Case

We are assisting a nice father who had a child with a professional woman, and now they have ended their relationship.

We are working to assist him in setting up child support payments and a good parenting plan.

In April of this year, the child support guidelines are going to be significantly modified. We expect much confusion and complexity with these new amendments.

Stay tuned here, as there will be lots of motions once this new amendment goes into effect.

Personal Injury Bullying Case

We are trying (in our personal injury practice) to resolve an emotional case for a Summit County family who had a son who was bullied at school over a number of years.

We have resolved the case with a few of the families whose children bullied our client. However, some parents have chosen to fight the lawsuit in almost the same way that their children bullied our client.

Stay tuned for this one as we continue to help the victim and his family.

Federal Drug Charges Case

In our criminal practice, we are in the process of trying a Federal case in Akron with very serious issues, serious facts and very serious consequences for the defendant.

We were appointed by the Federal Court to represent a man who has a long criminal history (we are on a certified list of qualified attorneys who are called for this work), who is accused of selling drugs out of his car repair business.

If he is convicted, he might spend (because of his long criminal history) the next 30 years of his life in a federal prison.

This is a very serious case that requires our knowledge and experience in the Federal Court.

Our Personal Injury Practice - And the “Subrogation Wars”

These days, a good part of our personal injury practice involves what can only be described as a full-scale war with health insurance companies (both governmental and private) who seek to take all of the settlement or verdict compensation from our clients to “reimburse” those insurance companies for what they call their “subrogation” rights.

These companies can claim that they must be reimbursed under federal or Ohio law because of the medical payments they made for our client under the health insurance policy the client had.

The problem is that (A) the client and our firm does all of the expense and work to get the proceeds and (B) often this leaves the client (who suffered the injury) with little or nothing for them for compensation.

Our office has to spend large amounts of time fighting these subrogation battles in order to ensure our clients get the compensation they deserve.

Having said that, given what we know about how the system works, we are often very successful in getting these subrogation something-for-nothings to significantly reduce their subrogation demands.

This is a war we must fight every day.

An Out-of-Towner DUI Client

We recently represented a man from Florida who had been in Cleveland on business.

On his way home from a business dinner meeting, he got lost - and was pulled over by the Ohio State Patrol because of the unique way his car was moving around (he was lost and was trying to get his bearings).

After reviewing the video evidence produced by the prosecution, we were able to show the prosecutor how some aspects of the field sobriety tests were not done correctly.

After that, we were able to get the prosecution to reduce the charge to what is called “physical control.”

A very happy client indeed - and he did not lose his job.

Victory for a Good Dad

We recently finished (for the most part) a very long custody battle where we represented a young father who had a very short relationship with a woman that resulted in a very beautiful baby boy.

Although this was not something that the father had planned, he stepped up completely and sought to be a serious part of his baby’s life.

In fact, after from protracted litigation, our client was able to secure full custody of his child because of the unique facts of the case.

What made the case even better for us was when we received a thank you card in the mail with a picture of the client and the child.

Not an everyday event for us. A good day for that Dad.

Our Federal Defense Practice

We spend a large amount of time these days in federal court defending persons accused of committing serious federal crimes.

Currently we are involved in defending serious drug trafficking cases, a money laundering case and a large white-collar economic crime involving an international group accused of internet fraud.

These are often very complex cases involving many thousands of pages of digital discovery. We are part of a group of lawyers who meet tight qualifications to practice criminal defense in federal court.

We love the work, and being in a federal courtroom is a very honorable and interesting experience.

Interesting Recent Criminal Defense Case - and the “Castle Doctrine”

We just got done representing a man who was accused of shooting his step-son in our client’s home.

The step-son did not die from his wounds, but our client was charged with a serious crime called “Felonious Assault.” As indicted, the charge required my client to spend at least three years in prison.

However, by working with the prosecution and pointing out how the “Castle Doctrine” worked in Ohio, we were able to get the prosecution to reduce the charge to a very low level misdemeanor - for which our client received no jail time whatsoever.

In Ohio, a law called the “Castle Doctrine” provides that a person is permitted to use deadly force in their home if a person enters that home without the homeowner’s consent. The doctrine is somewhat complicated, but it can apply to situations faced by people like our client.

The step-son in this case had been thrown out of the home, and charged back in anyway (with some in the home suspecting he might have gone to get a gun).

A very good outcome to a very serious situation.

Defamation Lawsuit

We are currently assisting a client in the defense of what is called a “slap” lawsuit filed by an angry local and wealthy business owner.  

Our client had a disastrous cosmetic treatment from this business, and complained on a website called “Yelp.” In order to “slap” customers or persons into not complaining about a business, these businesses file bogus defamation lawsuits against complaining customers in order to coerce them into withdrawing their complaint and forfeiting their First Amendment rights.  

It will take some time, but this case will eventually be dismissed against our client – but not without a fair amount of work.

Intoxication Plea to a Misdemeanor

We recently resolved a unique criminal case where our client (while extremely intoxicated) engaged in some inappropriate behavior while on an airline flight to Cleveland.  

He was actually arrested by the Cleveland Police, indicted by the Cuyahoga County Grand Jury and the case received media attention. We were able to resolve the case in such a way that involved a plea to a misdemeanor that the client will be able to get expunged in a couple of years.    

The good thing is that the client is now in active and progressive treatment for his alcohol issues.

Custody Battle

We are currently representing a single Dad who is working to obtain full custody of his infant son.

He made the mistake of having a short affair with an older woman who he has now learned had lost custody of her other two children and has a long string of criminal convictions.

Nevertheless, this mother of his infant son has thrown many legal tangles in his way and has even tried to have false criminal and county services investigations commenced against him.

Fraudulent Misrepresentation

We are currently representing a client who was trying to start a business on the premises of an old golf course.  

As it turns out, his intended business partner had engaged in a number of acts of “fraudulent misrepresentation” and “fraudulent non-disclosure” – both of which are different types of fraud.  

We just filed the complaint on this case (and obtained a temporary restraining order), so stay tuned for details.

Defamation of Character

We are currently in the evidence discovery phase of a serious defamation case.

Our clients (2 police officers) were seriously defamed by a disgraced former mayor and her safety director. Their sole purpose in these character attacks was to help the mayor boost her re-election possibilities.  

This is a very troubling case and we are working hard to protect these two police officers. 

Immigration Divorce

We recently had to represent a divorce client who was facing serious immigration issues associated with the divorce.  

We had to frame the truth of his marriage and divorce in a way that reduced the heightened paranoia immigration officials are forced to deal with these days.  

Given the climate we have today, it was not an easy task.
 

Concealed Permit Dismissal

We recently helped a client who was charged with a violation of the CCW law – even though he had a valid CCW permit.  

When the police pulled him over for a traffic incident, our client disclosed that he had a CCW permit and was carrying his weapon. However, the police officer felt that our client took “too long” to make the disclosure.    

After we dissected the body cam video, we were able to convince the cop and the prosecutor that in fact the client had disclosed his CCW license and the fact he was carrying with reasonable promptness. It was refreshing to see a cop willing to second guess himself after he had initially charged the client.  

It often helps to be professional in the context of criminal defense of a client, and we think this definitely helped here.