Angela Martin’s Legal Blog

As most people know, in the current market it is vital that you keep a close eye on your credit.  The good news is that many people are requesting copies of their reports to review them.  The bad news, they don’t know what they mean.
A common term that many people may encounter and don’t understand is […]

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My mother always taught my brother and I to be polite and generally respectful to those around us.  For example, look at someone when they are talking to you.  Say please and thank you. Acknowledge a “hello” with a response of your own.  Apparently, not everyone follows this example.
I received a link to a California […]

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This has been a relatively busy season for the Supreme  Court.  Just yesterday, the Court issued three opinions, two of which involved employment discrimination. 
 Often employers are informed about certain discrimination laws and institute training or other policy in which to avoid this.  It is surprising, however, that regardless of this training, after a claim is […]

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You may or may not be aware of a little legal term called, “Piercing the Corporate Veil!”  What that basically means, is that sometimes a corporation is so closely held that although on paper there are two separate entities, the shareholder and the corporation are really just one person.  Because they are not really two […]

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Recently, a friend asked me what were the basic changes in the Bankruptcy law that were made in 2005.  Although the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA) became effective in late 2005, I thought I would just proide a VERY brief list of select changes that had a large impact on Bankruptcy […]

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This weekend I attended my brother’s college graduation from the University of Southern California, Fight On!  (There . . .  I have said it in public, Josh.)  Our family is extremely proud of him, and we were more than happy to celebrate over the course of the weekend with family and friends.
As many people can […]

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This morning the California Supreme Court issued its written opinion in the In re Marriage Cases, Case No. S147999.  According to the Supreme Court, the California Constitution does not permit a statute to limit marriage to only between a man and a woman.

 The ruling was in response to a challenge to the 2000 initiative, Proposition 22.   The […]

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 “I never did very well in math - I could never seem to persuade the teacher that I hadn’t meant my answers literally.”         ~Calvin  Trillin  
 
I think that one solid thing that led me to practice law, was not any difficulty with math or science, rather it was an annoyance that there could only be […]

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Today, many business contracts reasonably insert an arbitration clause that requires certain disputes to be decided by an arbitration panel either through an organization such as JAMS (Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services) or the AAA (American Arbitration Association).  Some contracts have specific terms that describe a unique method of arbitration.   
In any case, the key to […]

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I have quite a few friends that are not attorneys.  After we get past most of those wonderful lawyer jokes, there is usually a legal question that I will either have no idea how to answer (in a polite way, because these are friends) or will be able to recommend they look for a different […]

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