The countdown to the holiday season is upon us. Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away, which will roll us right into Christmas festivities, and then, before we know it, we will be yelling "Happy New Year" hanging up our 2014 calendars. You've likely noticed that in a rush to get the edge on the money to be made from Black Friday shoppers, many popular retailers have moved up their opening hours so that the...
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What are the most dangerous impairments for a person who is behind the steering wheel of a car? For many of us, drinking alcohol is likely the first problem that comes to mind. We know that deciding to have a few drinks and then drive a car is not smart. Texting while driving also has gotten rightful publicity recently, with some studies now showing that the distraction of reading or answering a text can be...
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With Halloween over and the calendar flipped to a new month, holiday shopping soon will move into high gear. As the malls and parking lots fill with customers eager to cross off long shopping lists, Texas attorney Tony R. Bertolino has advice for those seasonal workers stocking the shelves and standing behind cash registers - know your rights as an employee. To handle the rush of shoppers, large chain stores like Target and Toys R Us...
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As more states are passing legislation permitting same-sex couples to get married, the latest being Illinois just this week, the polls of citizens here in Texas demonstrate that such action is not likely to be successful in the chambers of the Austin state house anytime soon. That does not mean, however, that our state is exempt from dealing with the family law questions that develop when gay couples make their union legally binding in another...
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Statistics gathered and released by the Pentagon show that divorces among couples in which one or both of the spouses is a member of the military decreased slightly in 2012, with 3.5% of all married military couples divorcing last year in comparison to 3.7% divorcing in 2011. While one year cannot indicate future expectations, this shift should not be discounted. Repeated and lengthy deployments, which became so common in the decade following September 11, 2001,...
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In today's world of Facebook and Instagram and Twitter, there is very little that seems to be private anymore. Old and embarrassing yearbooks photos from 1983 suddenly show up for public viewing. Skip out of work to attend a ball game? Better make sure your friend in the next seat doesn't "tag" you as being there. And when you are a celebrity, take this social media intrusion and multiply it by a thousand. Everywhere you...
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Look around your local grocery store or doctor's office, or place of worship. We are all getting older. There are more men and women than ever in our country living well into their senior citizen years. The most recent census, conducted in 2010, showed that there are now more than 40 million people in the United States sixty-five years of age or older. This age bracket accounts for around thirteen percent of our total population....
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Do not get behind the wheel of an automobile after a night of drinking. This is advice is commonly accepted as being wise, right? You become a danger to yourself and every other person on the road when you decide to operate a car with slowed response time, vision problems and general mental impairment that comes from consuming too much alcohol. But still, despite warnings being issued from high school classroom, television PSAs and highway...
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After three years of marriage, a couple petitioned a Texas family court for a divorce in 2009. For most couples in this position, deciding issues of custody, spousal support, and property division are the keys, and those who can work out these matters with the help of a divorce attorney at Bertolino LLP can draft a divorce settlement, dissolve their marriages and move on with their lives. This couple, however, was not able to do...
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Maybe in the back of your mind you know that you should have a written Last Will and Testament in place. Perhaps you see a tragic news story about the death of a parent with young kids and you think about what would happen to your own kids in that situation. But then, days and weeks get away from you and this task on a long to-do list never gets done. If this sounds familiar,...
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