A Chart of Punctuation - And Congratulations to Weird Al

A first has occurred:

'Weird Al' Yankovic has the Number 1 Album in America this week according to the Billboard 200. Selling more than 104,000 copies, Mandatory Fun is his best selling album ever and the first album to appear at Number 1 on the list.

Since 1983, Weird Al has released more than 15 albums, having success into his fourth decade of work is impressive, more impressive, this is the first time a comedy album has made the top spot in more than 50 years. Weird Al has written more than 100 songs that did not even make it to his albums.

A talented performer, Weird Al established the parody genre popular all over the internet.
He even had a television Saturday Morning show on CBS, The Weird Al Show, for one season in 1997. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weird_Al_Show

Possibly my favorite song on Mandatory Fun is Word Crimes, a parody of Blurred Lines. You can listen to his new song Word Crimes on the album here: http://www.weirdal.com/ 

Word Crimes appears to have been written for all the grammar police on the internet and to teach some less articulate people why what they are saying is Literally wrong.
For a helpful list of punctuation marks and when they should be used look here:
http://editorial.designtaxi.com/news-punct1606/big.jpg

When you have something to say, proper grammar and punctuation can be the difference between properly conveying an important argument and initiating a resounding thud from your listeners.

Attorneys make arguments to courts using Facts and Law. While facts are individual to a case, Law derives from Code, such as statutes and written rules, and Case law, those decisions handed down by previous courts in similar situations. When a court is faced with similar Fact situations under the same rules, the results are expected to be similar. If the statute applies, it should be enforced, absent some exception found in another statute or case law.

Attorneys should be wordsmiths. Choosing the exact word or phrase to convey their client's business. If the parties were married, it may be a divorce but not a paternity action. If the attorney practices Collaborative Law, she may be cooperative in helping heal the family going through divorce. http://www.cfl-cfl.com/Legal-Directory.html

When an apology is appropriate, an answer may not appear satisfactory.

Sometimes, the wrong word hurts.
 

Congratulations to Commissioner Robert Stuart

After taking the month of May off from writing my blog, I thought it was important to note the swearing in of Robert Stuart as Commissioner of Orlando.

Robert is a dear friend, a trusted adviser, an excellent city commissioner, and my Sunday School teacher at College Park Baptist Church. Monday's swearing in ceremony at Orlando’s City Hall begins another four years of service for Robert, on top of his last eight years as Commissioner of Orlando's District 3.

Additionally, Robert has served as the executive director of the Christian Service Center for more than 20 years.

 

Writing Makes Me Happy

Unfortunately, writing is also work! Saw this and had to add my 2 cents. http://www.infobarrel.com/22_Habits_of_Unhappy_People

Happy People Smile More!

On Friday, I saw a night of one act plays produced by Valencia Community College. http://valenciacollege.edu/

It did not hurt that my daughter was the star of the final act. The plays were Hilarious, Dramatic, Irreverent, Socially challenging, and most of all Creative.

13 playwrights, 29 actors, 16 directors, and one professor used "Resentment Falls" as the theme for the evening. Some chose dramatic interpretations of human interaction where one party's resentment eventually changed to respect, love, or something else. Others used the phrase 'resentment falls' within the dialogue. One referred to a fictional river leading to it; another used an onstage film crew. Tow used painters depicting the beginning and end of different relationships to milk the drama; two used Facebook https://www.facebook.com/  or Twitter https://twitter.com/ to hold distant conversations onstage.

In my most humble opinion, the most creative piece was a horserace between Pride, Anger, Serenity, Confusion, Resentment, Worry, and bringing up the rear, Flatulence. Of course after Resentment falls, taking out Pride and Anger, Serenity wins the day over the others.

My favorite however, was 'Assisted Living'. This play introduced the Resentment Falls Retirement Community, where all your disgruntled relatives can live to their hearts' contentment. Of course grumpy old men complain about everything and Resentment Falls promises to give them much about which to complain. I wanted to purchase the script for our Elder Law Section meeting! Instead, I have asked the director to bring his actors to our annual seminar to perform for 50 lawyers who work hard daily helping elders negotiate the end of life.

Unhappy people have many things in common, laughing at their situation is not one! I hope you can laugh about this blog; at least the work today was fun. Aubrey

A Non-Stressful Way for Florida Couples to Divorce

Going through a divorce in Orlando, Florida, can be a difficult stage of a person's life. Floridians considering divorce should realize that divorce could sometimes be the largest legal, emotional and financial issue they'll ever experience. Ending a marriage severs the legal marital relationship, divides marital assets and sets parenting duties for children.

However, ending a marriage in Florida could be made less difficult if a couple engages in one of several forms of alternative dispute resolution, which may help spouses divorce without the traditional stress and challenge of litigation. Many people are currently choosing a collaborative divorce process because of its different advantages. Divorce and collaborative law is a novel approach that removes the "fight and win" mindset from a divorce process. Collaborative law allows both parties to use negotiation and mediation to settle legal divorce issues.

Collaborative divorce is a popular option for couples because it prevents parties from saying or doing things just to win. Unlike litigation, the collaborative divorce process helps spouses end a marriage amicably, which can also benefit parents who want to settle child-related issues without affecting the child. Because collaborative divorce encourages parents to act as a parenting team when raising their child, divorcing with the collaborative law process can have less emotional impact on a child.
Different professionals in collaborative law may guide divorcing couples through the emotional, financial and legal aspects of divorce. These professionals will remain neutral but will provide the parties with a forum and suggestions to come to a mutual decision.

Compared to a traditional Orlando divorce where the Florida court will decide the divorce settlement, the decision making in collaborative law is done by the spouses and the final outcome solely depends on mutual agreement. More importantly, collaborative divorce may work for both parties who are willing to actively participate in the negotiation.
Source: KERA News, "Three Reasons People Choose Collaborative Divorce," Stephen Becker, March 20, 2014
 

Attorney Ratings are Important - Ask!

Attorney Aubrey H. Ducker Jr has Achieved the AV Preeminent^® Rating - the Highest Possible Rating from Martindale-Hubbell^®.

Aubrey H. Ducker Jr, a lawyer based in Winter Park, FL whose primary area of practice is Family Law, has earned the AV Preeminent^® rating from Martindale-Hubbell^®

Winter Park, FL (PR Newswire) January 28, 2014 - Martindale-Hubbell^® has confirmed that attorney Aubrey H. Ducker Jr still maintains the AV Preeminent Rating, Martindale-Hubbell's highest possible rating for both ethical standards and legal ability, even after first achieving this rating in 2012.
For more than 130 years, lawyers have relied on the Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent^® rating while searching for their own expert attorneys. Now anyone can make use of this trusted rating by looking up a lawyer's rating on Lawyers.com or martindale.com. The Martindale-Hubbell^® AV Preeminent^® rating is the highest possible rating for an attorney for both ethical standards and legal ability. This rating represents the pinnacle of professional excellence. It is achieved only after an attorney has been reviewed and recommended by their peers - members of the bar and the judiciary. Congratulations go to Aubrey H. Ducker Jr who has achieved the AV Preeminent^® Rating from Martindale-Hubbell^®.

Aubrey H. Ducker Jr commented on the recognition: "The Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Rating is a credential highly valued and sought after in the legal world. It used to be a sort of secret among attorneys who used the rating as a first screen when they needed to hire a lawyer they did not personally know. Now, thanks to the Internet, the Rating is a great way for anyone – lawyers or lay people - to use to screen lawyers. I am thankful to my peers who nominated me for this distinction, and proud to have earned this, the highest possible Martindale-Hubbell rating."

To find out more or to contact Aubrey H. Ducker Jr of Winter Park, FL, call 407-645-3297, or visit http://www.aubreylaw.com.

As a result of this honor, American Registry LLC, has added Aubrey H. Ducker Jr to The Registry™ of Business and Professional Excellence. For more information, search The Registry™ at http://www.americanregistry.com.

Contact Information:
Aubrey H. Ducker Jr

Phone: 407-645-3297

Email Address: AubreyLaw@gmail.com

Website: http://www.aubreylaw.com

Attorney Aubrey H. Ducker Jr has Achieved the AV Preeminent^® Rating - the Highest Possible Rating from Martindale-Hubbell^®.

Excerpts from My Book

 Inside the Minds: Strategies for Family Law in Florida

Published by Aspatore Books, a Thomson Reuters business

 

Managing Family Law/Elder Care Law Nexus Cases Using Collaborative Law Strategies

. . . Guardianship in Florida is filed in the probate court. My first guardianship case involved a fifty-year-old deaf mute who had received a large settlement from a lawsuit, but because of his disabilities, the court did not want him to have access to that settlement. Therefore, a guardianship of the person was required and a trustee was appointed to manage his assets. (Funny how the Courts will sometimes set up problems for the people they are really trying to assist.)

 

I have also worked on cases involving long-term marriages—marriages of more than fifty years—where the parents were beginning to decline in health and their children were starting to apply for guardianships or having difficult conversations with their parents regarding what would happen to them in the future; i.e., where they would live, and/or if they would have to go into a nursing home. Many such “end of life” questions come up in the practice of elder law—i.e., how and where I am going to live out my life, and who is going to make decisions for me when I an incapacitated? In some cases, one or both of the parties are becoming incompetent due to dementia, Alzheimer’s, or other frailties of age affecting the decision making process and one spouse’s ability to care for the other spouse.

For example, I once had a case involving a couple who had been married for about sixty-two years. The wife wanted a divorce because she was concerned that her husband was trying to kill her. In all of her interactions with me she appeared to be perfectly competent, but during the divorce proceedings it became clear that she had some defects of the memory. The parties had been separated for two years and were living apart; they had homes in different areas of the state and in different states. They had three children; two were aligned with their mother and wanted her to receive all of the couple’s assets, and one child was aligned with the father. In my opinion, instead of talking to their parents about filing for divorce, the children should have been talking to me about filing a guardianship for both parents, because both parents had serious memory defects. Ultimately, the parents got divorced; and the children became engaged in what I refer to it as a pre-death probate process, because the children were basically dividing up their parents’ assets and aligning themselves with the parent who they were expecting to receive an asset from in future years.

As it turned out, some of the assets that the parents claimed to own were, in fact, non-existent, even though we had done due diligence in that area. For example, both spouses had certificates of deposit and bank statements that showed that they had a certain amount of money in the bank; we later learned that the parents had subsequently taken that money out of the bank and used it for their daily living expenses. Consequently, instead of having $200,000 in the bank, the couple only had $20,000. Indeed, between the time of the signing of a marital settlement agreement that had been negotiated with everyone’s full disclosure and knowledge and the time we appeared in court for a final judgment, it became apparent that both spouses had delusional notions regarding the extent of their assets. Therefore, the couple was probably not competent with respect to making decisions concerning a divorce; and we should have been pursuing guardianship issues instead.

In a similar case, I dealt with a couple who had been married for fifty-six years, and the wife had full-blown Alzheimer’s dementia. She did not know on a day-to-day basis where she was or who she was with; she did recognize her husband and her children, but only to a minimal extent. It was clear that she was fully incompetent. Her husband had been taking care of her for several years; and unfortunately, he had made some statements to his adult children, who were in their fifties, complaining about the care that his wife required. The children had interpreted the husband’s concerns and complaints as a reluctance to care for his wife; and one day, they simply took their mother out of her home, claiming that they were taking her to the beautician to get her hair done, and she was never returned to the home. Although the children were seemingly trying to protect their mother from neglect by her husband, they wound up destroying both parents’ lives. The husband died just nine months later, having never seen his wife again because of the actions of his children.

I believe that we are likely to see more guardianship cases in the elder law area in the future, largely because as our life expectancy increases we will see more couples who have been married for fifty, sixty, or even seventy years. Many of those couples have adult children who have been married for twenty to forty years; and those children are becoming the caregivers of their parents in much greater numbers than in previous years. Ultimately, as adult children become caregivers conflicts will arise over the definition of appropriate care. Indeed, we are seeing a growing number of conflicts over where elderly parents should live and who should be providing their care. Unfortunately, I am also seeing more cases involving parents who are outliving their retirement savings. When they retired twenty or thirty years ago they had significant assets, but now that they have become dependent on nursing home care their assets are gone and their children are applying for them to be enrolled in Medicaid.

All too often, the children of elderly parents receive bad advice that leads to very confusing family law issues, especially when you have one party to a marriage who may be suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s and may be incompetent, and their children want to control the care of their parent but they do not really know how to go about doing that. For instance, in the case I referred to where the adult children took their mother away from the home where she had been living with her husband of fifty-six years, those adult children started cleaning out bank accounts so that they would have sufficient assets to take care of their mother. The husband then went to an attorney who advised him to file for divorce so that the court would freeze the couple’s assets, thereby ensuring that that husband would be able to protect his half of the assets. However, that was not an effective strategy—in fact, the children used the divorce filing as evidence that their father no longer wanted to have anything to do with his wife. In this case, the husband’s original attorney wound up making his client’s problem far worse than it was to begin with. When the husband consulted me we immediately withdrew the divorce petition and filed a guardianship petition instead. Unfortunately, the children had already used the divorce petition which was filed in Florida as evidence in their case for a conservatorship in California, where they had taken their mother by plane, even though she did not know where she was going; and she never returned to Florida until after her husband’s death.

My Name: Aubrey Harry Ducker Jr.            

My Firm Name: The Law Offices of Aubrey Ducker, PLC
My Title: Managing Member
My Phone #: 407-645-3297
My Email: Aubreylaw@gmail.com

My Website: www.aubreylaw.com

Business Address:  2020 Mizell Avenue, Winter Park, FL 32792

Aubrey Harry Ducker, Jr., is a member of the Orange County Bar Association and the Florida Bar  and the American Bar Association. He has received a AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating from Martindale-Hubbell.  Mr. Ducker serves by court appointment as a Guardian Ad Litem, advocating for children in contested custody and abuse or neglect cases. After serving six years in the U.S. Navy onboard the USS George Bancroft, SSBN-643, Mr. Ducker attended the Valencia Community College, the University of Central Florida and the University of Florida Levin College of Law in Gainesville.  

Mr. Ducker’s practice focuses on Collaborative Divorce, Elder Law, Family Law and Guardianships. He also shares Mortgage Mediation Education Inc. as a co-owner and lecturer on Ethics. Mr. Ducker is previously published under the Aspatore Label with Inside the Minds, Strategies for Family Law in Florida. He also serves on the board of Director of several non-profits and Chairs the Board of Christian Ethics Today.

Mr. Ducker previously served as Attorney for the City of Eagle Lake, Florida

 

Seniors were Green before Being Green was Green!

In a checkout at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

 

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."

 

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

 

She was right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day.

 

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over.

So they really were recycled.

 

But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

 

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings.

 

Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.

 

But too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

 

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

 

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

 

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

 

But we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

 

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing." We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

 

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?

 

When you need an attorney, or want to find an attorney to help with Elder Law, Guardianships or Family Law, Call me at 407-645-3297 or visit my website at www.aubreylaw.com 

 

The MustardSeed of Central Florida is having a PARTY!!!

Chairs 4 Charity Event Details

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Chairs 4 Charity is a Happening Thursday, April 3, 2014,
Benefiting the Mustard Seed of Central Florida!
This is our Fourth Chairs for Charity event, and it will be a “Shabby-chic happening”
at The Winter Park Farmers Market, located at 200 West New England Ave,
Winter Park  Florida , 32789.
The evening is from 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm, and will be FUN!
The Mustard Seed will showcase eclectic donated furniture pieces and dinnerware for guests to enjoy signature cocktails, hors d’oeuvres entertainment and  a silent auction while viewing your one-of-a-kind artwork.
The Youth Symphony Orchestra will provide the music, we will show case local artist  who have chosen a chair from our donated items, the Artist will then turn their chair into a piece of Art. Our artists will be listed on our website , Monday, March 3rd. So be sure to check back!
We also will have scheduled appearances by retired NBA Legends, we will keep you posted. We hope to see you at this “Happening” event.
Cost of a single ticket is $50 and $85 will buy two tickets!
Download the Event Flyer Here!

Ticket Options

Individual $50.00 USD For Two $85.00 USD

Thank you in advance for supporting The Mustard Seed of Central Florida.

Elder Law and the Attorney

This is an article I drafted for the Orange County Bar Association "Briefs" to be published next month. www.orangecountybar.org

 

Elder law can be a very broad area of practice, as it primarily encompasses the client, rather than the issue. Elder law attorneys typically answer questions regarding Medicaid qualification, Medicare, social security, guardianships, estate planning, end of life planning, living wills, testimonial wills, trusts,  special needs trusts, qualified income trusts, Medicaid trusts, the list goes on and on. Elder Law speaks more to Client Constituency than individual issues handled. Elder Law Attorneys address issues of Competence and Guardianship, End of Life and Healthcare Directives, Medicaid Planning as well as Estate Planning. Over the past few years, a new area has emerged: Foreclosure of Mortgages against new nursing home residents. What does the average practitioner need to know to competently advise those asking questions?

Most important in any discussion of Foreclosure is what is the assets value, and what is actually owed. Because many houses in the Orlando area and surrounding communities have lost significant value as a result of the foreclosure crisis that began in 2008, many seniors who moved to Central Florida and put a sizeable nest egg into their homes have witnessed the evaporation of equity at unprecedented levels. In 2007, if you purchased a home for $200,000, it is probably valued at less than ½ the original purchase price. If a mortgage was used for the purchase, the balance due after 7 years may be significantly higher than the current market value. This Negative Equity may place seniors at risk due to limited income mobility, rising taxes and expenses and the inability to refinance to a lower interest rate. 

One issues many seniors question is that of their homestead and mortgages. In recent years, especially following the 2008 recession, seniors have witnessed a significant decline in the value of their homestead. In many cases, seniors watched their home equity evaporate, and their mortgage holder became under secured. The federal government has been active in addressing the foreclosure crisis resultant from this negative equity situation by passing programs such as  HAMP, HAMP 2, HAFLA and finally the National Mortgage Settlement. It’s unfortunate that in Florida our Attorney General opposed the National Mortgage Settlement, even though it has helped thousands of Floridians to modify their mortgage on much more favorable terms than they could have otherwise achieved.

            Attorneys have been instrumental in the mortgage modification process, from many different standpoints, notably the bankruptcy court began a mortgage modification mediation program and started in Central Florida, the Orlando Division of the Middle district Federal bankruptcy court. This mediation program through the bankruptcy court system allowed debtors in bankruptcy to force the mortgage holder to attend mediation. While mediation was an option in state court foreclosure process, the success rate of people being able to stay in their homes was significantly less than 10%, estimated at about 4% statewide.

In the Orlando Division middle district success is measured similarly, and those seeking mediation and completing mediation with the ability to remain in their homes, measured at 74% of all modifications signed. Additionally the mediation process in the bankruptcy court has allowed many debtors the dignity of negotiating to surrender the home, rather than just waiting until the bank foreclosure process is completed and they are eventually evicted. Many seniors are afraid of bankruptcy because they don’t realize how fully their cards are stacked against them with regard to credit.

I am proud to be a part of the Mortgage Modification Education Inc. MME provides training to attorneys throughout the State of Florida and has trained attorneys from Indiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and New Jersey. www.mortgagemodificationeducation.com is our website and training is scheduled for New York City in April. Please get the information you need and seek assistance of competently trained counsel.

A

Domestic Violence, Trials and the Congressman

The Orlando Sentinel (www.orlandosentinel.com) reported today that Congressman Alan Grayson is embroiled in a particularly distasteful divorce which has now included allegations of Domestic Violence. Domestic Violence is all too common and can be investigated here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_violence

Spousal Abuse occurs against Women and Men. It is NOT primarily focused on one gender, even though the United States funds the Office on Violence Against Women. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_on_Violence_Against_Women.

The Tamp Tribune picked up the story too. http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/alan-graysons-wife-says-he-shoved-her/2168521

Also today, a caller to my office asked whether there was any need to report an incident of domestic violence because "the officer said it was just 'he said she said."'

Whenever I have a client who relates incidents of domestic abuse, threats or violence, my advice is as follows:

1. Call the police. If you call, there will be a record in the future that at least you sought help.
2. File for an Injunction. If there was a negative impact to your person, or a threat of harm in the future, ask the courts for an injunction.
3. Do not dismiss the injunction prior to hearing. Dismissal of an injunction is almost always used to show that there was NO VIOLENCE in the first place, also showing that you were not truthful.
4. Get the advice of an attorney. You are not prepared to represent yourself in a courtroom environment. An attorney should know the rules and procedures to maximize your case. An attorney may be able to offer solutions that prevent court hearings while protecting you from allegations of untruthfulness.
5. Do Not Touch another person negatively.
6. Do Not Yell.
7. Do Not Threaten.

If you have been the victim of abuse, or if you have been falsely accused of abuse,
Please Seek the Help of A Qualified Attorney.
I am available by phone at 407-645-3297, or you may visit my website at www.aubreylaw.com
I look forward to meeting you and helping in your time of need.