USLegal Newsletter - December 2009

Happy Holidays from all of us at USLegal, and welcome to our December Newsletter.This month, we have a special to the Newsletter - an article by USLegal Paralegals manager Carole Bruno on the benefits to attorneys of contracting with Virtual Paralegals. USLegal Paralegals is one initial success of our new Build USLegal program - we’ll reiterate the program’s details for you to pass along to interested members of your holiday gatherings. Finally, several new packages - Relative Caretaker, Standby Guardian, and Personal Loan - have landed at USLegalForms. Read on for details.

At USLegal, customer satisfaction is our greatest asset and goal. If we’ve made your legal life easier, please tell your friends and family about us. If you have a routine legal need, make us your first stop. And now, our news:

Build USLegal: Host and Manage Your Legal Content with Us

Our newsletter recipients have been some of the first responders to our Build USLegal program, and we’ve now gone nation wide with a press release. Join USLegal and help us continue to make USLegal the premier destination for legal information, products and services - and make money! To contact us about Build USLegal, and for more information on the program, click here. We’re searching for legal Authors, Subject Matter Specialists, Publishers, CLE Providers, and Legal Forms Databases. If you have written legal subject matter or form books, articles or seminar materials, learn how to leverage the power of USLegal to turn the works into continuing revenue. Manage your content with us and earn income on a continuing basis.

New Forms Packages - Relative Caretaker, Standby Guardian, and Personal Loan Purchase of these packages is a savings of more than 50% over purchase of the forms individually!

Relative Caretaker Legal Documents Package
This package contains summaries of your state’s laws along with forms and information to assist with placing a child with a relative.

Standby Temporary Guardian Legal Documents Package
This package contains summaries of state laws and links to resources to assist with creating a standby guardianship. A standby guardian is a person appointed by a parent or court to represent the person or estate, or both, of the disabled person or minor child. A standby guardian may be someone who has been appointed by the court as the person who will act as guardian of the child when the child’s parents die or are no longer willing or able to make and carry out day-to-day child care decisions concerning the child.

Persnal Loan Package
This package includes the essential forms needed for making and collecting a personal loan. These forms are an important tool for defining and protecting the rights of the debtor and creditor involved and avoiding future misunderstandings and disputes.

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Featured Product of the Month

* New Year’s Resolution: Your Last Will and Testament *
Dave Ramsey Recommends a Will from USLegalForms

Protect your Heirs with a valid Will. Last Will and Testaments are essential for everyone. A state-specific Last Will and Testament form from USLegalForms, with instructions for people with children, without children, divorced individuals, married couples, singles, widows, widowers and others - is just a click away. Mutual Wills and Wills with trusts for minor children are also available. Go to our Last Will and Testament page to hear radio host Dave Ramsey’s recommendation.

Legal News In Brief

We track breaking legal news at the USLegal Reporter. Check in regularly to stay updated on top national legal stories. The following are snippets from some of the items of interest we’ve spotted in the last month. Check the above link for our full reports:

Supreme Court Privacy Ruling: Texting on Company Equipment
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether employees have a constitutional right to privacy in their personal text messages sent on employer-owned pagers. The case involves text messages of a police officer in Ontario, California, Sgt. Jeff Quon, who sent and received hundreds of text messages on his city-owned pager, some of which were sexually explicit. Quon and three fellow officers claim their Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the city of Ontario. According to the officers, they were told they could send personal messages on the pagers, but they would have to reimburse the city for messages over a 25,000 word limit. The officers had signed an acknowledgment that they had no expectation of privacy when using computers or other devices issued by the city of Ontario.

Supreme Court Rules in Emergency Aid Exception to Fourth Amendment
Police officers responded to a complaint of a disturbance and a report of a man “going crazy.” Through a window, the officers observed a man who was screaming, bleeding, and throwing objects. A smashed pickup truck, damaged fence posts, and three broken windows on the home were visible from the outside. After knocking, the man inside told officers to get a warrant. The suspect was charged with assault with a deadly weapon after Officer Christopher Goolsby pushed open the door and observed the suspect with a gun.

Ban on Ohio Executions Lifted
The 6th U.S. Circuit Courtof Appeals in Cincinnati has declared moot an inmate’s challenge to the state’s lethal injection method, due to a policy change by the state. Kenneth Biros, Ohio death row inmate convicted of aggravated murder, challenged the state’s three drug vein injection method as being unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. The Ohio Revised Code mandates lethal injection as the manner of execution.

Check out controversial legal issues of all stripes with us at the USLegal Blog. Voice your opinion in the comments section. Recently - in one of our occassional asides on alternative energy - we’re looking at Oyster Power off the coast of Scotland. Complete with a really neat video explaining how this wave-powererd energy generator works. Let us know what you think.

Have a Legal Question? Ask a Lawyer

If you want to find out more information about a certain area of law, consider USLegal’s Ask a Lawyer service. The service enables you to submit your question to a lawyer who will provide you with legal information.

The charge for this service is $15.95 per question.

Legal advice is not provided. If your question cannot be answered without providing legal advice, you will not be charged. In the event you desire to retain an attorney, you will be provided with sources for choosing an attorney for you to consider.

Law and Legal Definitions

Medicaid

Medicaid is a medical assistance program jointly funded by state and federal governments for low income individuals. It was originally enacted as part of the Social Security Act of 1935. Today, Medicaid is a major social welfare program and is administered by the Health Care Financing Administration.

Medicaid covers in-patient hospital services, out-patient hospital services, laboratory and x-ray services, skilled nursing home services, physicians’ services, physical therapy, hospice care, and rehabilitative services, and other services. Patients must select from pre-approved physicians and other providers of medical care. Medicaid eligibility is not restricted by age or employment.

Federal law prevents states from reducing other welfare benefits people receive when they become eligible for Medicaid. Also, states may not impose citizenship or residency requirements other than requiring that an applicant be a resident of the state. Within broad national guidelines established by Federal statutes, regulations, and policies, each State (1) establishes its own eligibility standards; (2) determines the type, amount, duration, and scope of services; (3) sets the rate of payment for services; and (4) administers its own program. Medicaid policies for eligibility, services, and payment are complex and vary considerably, even among States of similar size or geographic proximity. Thus, a person who is eligible for Medicaid in one State may not be eligible in another.

For the rest of our information on Medicaid, read the full entry.

For more legal definitions, please visit USLegal’s free online legal dictionary.

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