The Legal section explores developments shaping the justice system—from landmark court decisions and legislative updates to consumer protection issues and civil rights cases. Our Legal section coverage helps readers understand how new laws, legal trends, and significant verdicts impact individuals, families, and communities nationwide.
The debate about auto insurance coverage in the State of Florida is about to get hot. Currently, Floridians are required to carry a minimum of $10,000 in Florida No Fault Benefits, otherwise known as Personal Injury Protection or PIP benefits. At its inception, the idea…
Consumers — that means you — often hear about things going on in state legislatures, but pay little heed until the legislation is passed and its effects are felt (usually in your wallet). Right now the Florida Legislature is considering the elimination of Florida No-Fault,…
Can law enforcement take your personal property, sell it, and keep the proceeds? Under current North Dakota law, if law enforcement believes the property was used in a crime, this is legal. Regardless of whether a person is convicted of the crime alleged, police can…
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt Fear: the greatest tool of manipulators. When you listen to politicians, pundits, or anyone for that matter, and they are telling you to be afraid, the first thing you should do is…
Have you ever read the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution? It says “the right of trial by jury shall be preserved.” (emphasis added). Wouldn’t it be great if our elected officials were as concerned with preserving consumers’ Constitutional right to a trial by jury in…
In State v. Ballard, 2016 ND 8, the defendant, Jeremy Ballard was on unsupervised probation as a result of pleading guilty to two misdemeanor drug crimes. A few months later, a deputy sheriff saw Ballard driving a vehicle with two passengers. The deputy knew Ballard…
In an era when individuals are bearing more of, if literally not all, the financial burden for their health care coverage, we are seeing a much more heightened selection process in regards to where these consumers go for medical treatment and how they are willing…
On February 22, 2017, The Forum published an article on the North Dakota Legislature’s potential elimination of income-tax breaks for new businesses and residents in Renaissance Zones in cities across the state. (“Tax break reform plan could ‘cripple’ downtown Fargo growth, officials say,” http://ww
This past December, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall of six models of Barnett Outdoors crossbows after hunters were seriously injured while using the crossbows. The recalled models are the Barnett Ghost 415 Monochrome Model #78044, the Barnett Ghost 415 Mossy Oak…
E-cigarettes or electronic vaporizers are battery-powered devices that simulate tobacco smoking by producing a heated vapor. According to an October 2014 article by the U.S. Fire Administration entitled, Electronic Cigarette Fires and Explosions, E-cigarettes were first patented in 2003 and have bee
Anyone familiar with the Hippocratic oath understands the undeniable bond between medical care and ethics—ideally, physicians are driven by the desire to help patients, not hurt them. Yet, harm does sometimes occur, and patients have the right to hold such doctors accountable in a court…
[Annually, Smith & Johnson, Attorneys, P.C.’s law partner, L. Page Graves, is a featured speaker at the joint State Bar of Michigan’s and Institute of Continuing Legal Education’s Upper Michigan Legal Institute where he reviews and discusses the latest appellate cases in Michigan’s No-Fault Jurispru
