Q&A: What can I do if I am caught driving without a license again?
Question: What can I do if I am caught driving without a license again? I was in an accident; I do not have a license. Took a chance to get back and work. I have been caught before and this will make it my third felony driving while suspended. The ticket written was only for not providing a license, what can I do?
Answer: Okay hotshot let’s get real here. What you say doesn't make sense: there is no charge of felony driving while suspended, so I'm guessing there is more going on than you've alluded to. Otherwise, the answer to your question will depend upon the reason you don't have a license in the first place. Are you suspended or barred? Why are you suspended or barred? What happened the prior times you were arrested? What else is in your criminal history? Are you on probation or parole? Depending upon the answers to those questions you could be looking at a very minimal fine or as much as prison, and additional license suspensions.
And one more thing, stop making excuses for criminal behavior. You said, "Took a chance to get back and work." What does that mean? I suspect the devil is in the details behind that statement. Where were you driving to? Huh? Cat got your tongue? The judges aren't stupid, you think the prosecutor is going to be played that easily? You didn't say you were heading to work so throwing that tidbit in won't get you to first base.
The fact is you just struck out.
Iowa’s Governor Branstad is not happy with what he perceives as the unfairness of traffic cameras. He says he’d sign a bill banning the use of them in Iowa. He's wrong. They are working on some roads especially on I-235 between Des Moines and West Des Moines. 
The Des Moines Register picked up Froma Harrop’s piece titled “
Question: Do I have any legal recourse in an auto accident if I was not injured? I am a truck driver involved in an accident in a company truck. The other driver admitted to being at fault along with two witnesses that stated it was his fault. He had minor injuries and was taken to the hospital. I had a stiff neck for a few days, but did not seek medical attention. I was laid off a week later. I had a clean driving record until this happened. Now I'm having a hard time getting driving jobs because of this accident. Do I have any legal recourse against the other driver from this accident?
Surely the hate mail over this lawsuit will drive the U.S. Postal Service into the black. This past week the gloves came off when the Iowa Industrial Commissioner (Chris Godfrey) personally sued Governor Terry Branstad (and others in his administration) for discrimination, defamation and harassment over the Governor’s reduction in Godfrey’s annual salary by nearly $36,000. It left me wondering how any of this serves the people of Iowa.
Human Capital Wears Out
Here are another 12 wrong-way interstate highway driver accidents in the news. This group includes wrong-way driving events from the following states: Connecticut (intoxicated driver); Alabama (driver being sought); Texas (
Hancock County, Iowa - I’ve been reading about these accidents and one guy has a blog dedicated to accidents where trailers become unhitched and crash into other cars, trucks or motorcycles. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen one in Iowa, right up until this week, that is. It happened on December 5, 2011 at around 5:58 a.m. on Highway 18 about 2 miles west of Garner. A 2000 Peterbuilt semitruck pulling a trailer (driver shown on police report as being from Garner, Iowa – 38 years old) was westbound on Highway 18 when as the officer describes it, “VEHICLE 1 (THE SEMI ) WAS WESTBOUND ON HWY 18 WHEN ITS TRAILER BECAME DETACHED FROM THE TRACTOR THE TRAILER THEN SLID ACROSS THE CENTER LINE AND STRUCK THE EASTBOUND VEHICLE 2 HEAD ON.”
To answer that question let’s look at some of the recent accidental deaths while on the job.
A recent school bus accident that killed an 11-year-old boy and another accident striking an 84-year-old pedestrian have school officials evaluating their fleet drivers. No driver can have a squeaky clean driving record, but there shouldn’t be anything that makes one conclude their driving, based on past issues, would endanger the children or other pedestrians. While I think the effort is a good one, I don’t think the article sheds light on what convictions should keep a person from driving a school bus once they pass the standard qualifications.
I ran across several articles posted on the Insurance Journal’s website. One title was 
For today’s article we have several real life rollover accidents. The 
Question: What should I do if my employer assaulted me at work? Out of rage, my employer struck me in the face at work. There has been similar behavior in the past. The police were called and a report was filed. The officers said that the charges would likely stick. Should I seek some sort of civil action against my employer as well? Would I need an employment lawyer or a personal injury lawyer for a case like this?
Here is a trial tip: The lawyer with an intersection collision case should get a copy of the video from the intersection traffic camera. Which means we have to learn where these cameras are located. As for clients who are in an intersection collision it’s better to get a lawyer onboard sooner rather than later. This is also a reason for the lawyers to get out to visit the accident scene. You just never know where a camera may be recording the events. The camera may be on a nearby building used as a security camera.
The estate of a teen who died after walking in front of freeway traffic will be paid 
This story takes the cake, well maybe not…
The dangers of Anhydrous work - In Pilot Mound, Iowa a Boone County farmer died a 74-year-old man, Richard Shaw died after exposure to 
My office mate and I recently litigated and successfully settled a cow-in-the-road case in southern Iowa. The facts are as simple as a black cow weighing 1,000 pounds out on a county road after dark where there are no lights doesn't show up in your headlights until it's too late to stop. In that case the driver's wife died. The driver was a family doctor and we thought that would help him in the community with farmers who admired his dedication to Iowa families. Think again. No one in the community came forward to admit ownership of the cow.
Dead Men and Punitive Damages - In Iowa you can't sue an estate for punitive damages. 
This week I received another call about an engagement ring dispute. He bought the ring, spend nearly two thousand dollars for it, they broke up and she moved out of state. He’s been trying to get the ring returned, but she’s refusing. I’m guessing she’s enjoying making his life just a little bit miserable. As my mother is fond of saying, “Steve, misery loves company.” Yes Mom it does.
For a measely 
This time it was a 12 year old boy from Sioux Center. The news report has the youngster losing control and striking a utility pole. On the ATV was a five year old passenger. This story brought to us by Radio-Iowa. 
What’s going on in Iowa courts? That depends on what you read and who you talk with. There are many different cases of interest from the Heartland. There is one I just couldn’t help but report about.
A 
Oral arguments before the Iowa Supreme Court are now live and 
A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am." The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude. "She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be an Obama Democrat." "I am," replied the man. "How did you know? "Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me.
Listening to personal injury clients discuss and distinquish the McDonald’s verdict case from their own is like drinking a cup of sulphuric acid while watching Rain Man.
The answer isn’t as simple as one may hope it would be; sometimes it's yes and sometimes no. It depends on several factors one of which is whether or not you were covered under workers’ compensation at the time of the injury and whether the accident occured within the scope of your employment. Also if not covered under workers’ compensation then do you have a short term disability policy that covers you? If neither of these apply then probably not unless the insurance company providing liability coverage sees some benefit in doing so. But don’t hold your breath waiting for insurance companies to pay because that would require some adjuster to grow a heart; an event not likely to occur before you starve to death. So cut down on your bills, get the spouse out of the house to work and plan ahead, because it's going to get a lot harder before the lawyer can settle your case. 
David Muir from ABC World News with Diane Sawyer has a new series on Made in America. This is the best series that can start the conversation about how we can take the largest consumer economy in the world, America, and refocus our attention on keeping America working. I've seen in the last ten years. Someone is actually getting it. If just 1% of what you spend on consumer goods we would create 200,000 new American jobs. That's $0.18 cents a day and you can create 200,000 new American jobs.
This lawyer's website info looks all about 
Is the legal system rigged against people; and in favor of big business or does it just seem that way?
Crimes of hyperbole?
This is one of three blogs I write for and this past weekend was very busy. One attorney I coordinate blogging with is from Texas. The more blogging you do the more you find yourself talking to people from different states. I like people so I tend to take most of those telephone calls. More and more I work for clients to place them with attorneys from different states. Brooks, the Texas lawyer, and I have jawed about doing this for several years now and so this past month we started this process of helping clients all along Interstate 35 from Texas to Minnesota. If you have an auto-truck-semi-truck-motorcycle-suv or any other type of crash on i35 contact us and we’ll do the best we can to help you either directly or indirectly through a referral. Today let's talk about the weather in Iowa.
A few years ago I heard about this kind of an accident, but have no knowledge of such it occurring in Iowa; till now. In the December 31, 2010 Des Moines Register tells a story of it ice falling from the top of a semi-trailer on Interstate 80 and a female passenger being injured. This one occurred in Colfax, Iowa on Interstate 80, Jasper County. The people in the car are from Pekin, Illinois. Apparently a thick sheet of ice came off the truck’s trailer, slid down into the windshield of the oncoming car and struck Linda Mickley seated in the front passenger seat. She was taken to the Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines. There is no indication as to the exact details.
I did a quick search of the Iowa stories on the notion the remaining four justices that authored Brien vs. Varnum (the gay marriage license case in Iowa) and came up with a list of stories that is both interesting and disturbing. To have lived the law for over 30 years and assisted people, not corporations, with people problems of significance to their lives, I must say this one stumps me. We have so many economic problems right now; and so it’s difficult for me to understand why the gay marriage license issue is worth all the time, money and effort being put into it. Vote No morphed into what now appears to be a show-down in the Iowa legislature over judicial impeachment procedures involving the remaining four justices. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Scalia’s strict constructionist point of view expressed this week further inflamed those proposing impeachment. To say that a point of view about Constitutional law is a reason to impeach a Justice is to ask for a dumber society and a pathetically weak judiciary. Points of view are nothing more than an opinion, but in the case of the judiciary it’s a learned point of view developed after law school and a long distinguished career. How did we ever get to throwing justices out of office because of a learned point of view? This is a prime example of the tail wagging the dog. If you want Judges and Justices with no backbone, a lack of intelligence and the will to do nothing, but what the public asks, then just keep up the flames of the impeachment process.
I read the story about the Fayette County, Iowa mobile home fire that killed two children and an adult this past Saturday, January 01, 2011. The Des Moines Register news story gives few details about causes or ownership so from that story I can draw no firm conclusions. [ 
Today the question presented would be something like this:
Cedar Rapids Iowa has found a different way to cash in on law breakers; 
If you want to read a good story about a courageous young man from Waterloo, Iowa and his equally courageous and loving sister read the news story, 
I chose this title because interpretation of the Iowa Constitution isn’t a matter of public opinion or the will of the legislature; it’s a matter of judicial study over a long period of time and after a lifetime of education, training and professional development. To believe or hope that the Iowa Constitution and the rights it created are something a person without a law degree can interpret is asking for chaos. In this case the Vander Plaats interpretation is complete and utter foolishness which if implemented would lead to lawlessness.
You can tell its winter in Iowa. The first 
Hickory County, Missouri – I ran across this little noticed news story about an accident in Missouri where one Iowa resident was killed and another person injured. The person that died was only 45-years-old, the driver 49. According to the 
I’ve lived in Iowa since 1978. I arrived on a bus from Chicago via a train from Providence. With me I had one trunk and a typewriter. The trunk was large enough that no taxicab driver would stop to give me a ride. I finally figured it out and hid the trunk behind the electric train's iron support beam and stood there with only the typewriter. Once in Iowa City I stayed overnight in a local hotel before being picked up the next day and dropped off at temporary housing in Reno Hall. Everyone thought I talked funny. I admit to being different from Iowans in many ways. What I soon discovered about Iowans was how accepting they were and surprisingly how open-minded. People back home asked why Iowa? (Actually they asked why Idaho, or Ohio or Utah… but we won’t talk about New England’s version of geography.)
Already having pleaded guilty to federal charges in a $1.3 Billion Florida Ponzi Scheme a woman is free while she cooperates with the U.S. Government. The law firm where the Ponzi was being carried out is now bankrupt and shuttered. So the office manager finds herself unemployed. My source sends me a news 
Growing up in a seaport town you learn early that when rats are leaving the ship it means it’s going to sink.
You can do this personal injury work only so long before it’s clear to you that the system is rigged to make money for insurance executives and not to resolve personal injury claims. To the insurance executives that run our insurance system, injured people are nothing more than a necessary evil, a mere nuisance. For that matter so am I. They love to hate me. The system simply tolerates injured people while claiming payments to them are a waste; all the while the system is the waste that feeds the pigs running it.
This week I’m going to cover stories that answer the question, “Are we really this naive?” All week I’m going to blog about recent news stories that frankly I just don’t get.
Every time I read about a robbery or the killing of convenience store or motel clerks I cringe. Night time store clerks are so vulnerable and exposed to the lesser elements of what society has to offer. Lately I’ve come into contact with a motel night-clerk employee because of a workers’ compensation case where he was shot in the leg during a robbery. And it’s not just convenience store employees. There are hotel and motel clerks that have the same issues except some of those employees are better protected. The problem with protecting the employee is how it looks to the customer. They put the employee behind bullet-proof glass or re-barred window and when the customer's walk in they have to wonder: If you’re afraid of the criminal element then what am I doing in your store? Yeah it’s one of those “Wow!” or an "Oh sh_t! moments".
Why should any parent be allowed to release from liability any adult for behavior that has yet to occur and causes injury to their minor child?
What is an elocution?
If you’re going to bash gays you may at least have the decency to do it openly and without the guise of hiding your fears and anger behind a smear campaign against judges that you know aren’t going to be able to defend themselves.
Even Good Parents Can Raise a Juvee - Not every apple falling from the tree is ripe.
An 
It’s odd, but the three Justices given the task of writing an unpopular decision about handing out marriage licenses to gays and lesbians were 
Mike Glover, a political writer for the Associated Press writes today in the Seattle Times and has a an excellent article on Iowa’s anti-gay sentiment and what it means to the Supreme Court retention vote. “
Call it tort reform, tort deform or whatever you want to call it, but the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision in Feld vs Borkowski, demonstrates why lawyers are gun shy about spending the lawyer’s money to litigate certain personal injury cases. Yes, the Plaintiffs' lawyers won in the High Court, but the law they are being sent down with isn't helping the injured.
In the July 27, 2010 WSJ I read where Steve Jobs in the past ten years has been paid over 
Do you believe lawsuits are about blame? Do you say to people that we need to kill all the lawyers? If so, you’re missing the point and should ready yourself for the day when the unreasonable and the irresponsible rule the world. As trial lawyers our goal is to explain to a fact finder in simple terms what made America the greatest country on earth.
Some would-be 
The title of Reuters news item (September 7, 2010) as reported by Maggie Fox, 
A friend of mine from New England was bidding for government work. He’s been out of work for several years and he’s an honest guy so his bids were accurate and came in very reasonable. For some reason he wasn’t getting the work. He wondered if his bids were too high so he sharpened his pencil and added more detail to his bid. Still no work was awarded. He wondered what was he missing, because after losing the bid he would get contacted and then hired as a subcontractor for the guys who were awarded the bids. It became obvious that he knew more about the cable industry than the guys winning the bids.
An Iowa worker died at Eaton's shop in Belmond. Death in the workplace is never a good thing, but we need not condemned the employer; they simply need to heed this call to action. Here is the news story.
The flooding in Iowa is too almost Biblical proportions. We are so tired of rain, rivers overflowing their banks and dams breaking, that the idea of buying a boat and moving north to a lake is looking pretty attractive to most of us. So what are Iowans with flood damage supposed to do when insurance companies tell them there is no coverage? The answers may surprise you when you find out this is going to turn into an expensive lesson for many people.
As I suspected the questions involving the ISU architecture student that died earlier this past month after visiting a night club centered on whether she was given drinks from the bar or by other bar patrons. One question has been answered. There is one issue yet resolved. An Ames man, age unknown, has been charged with a misdemeanor involving providing alcohol to a minor.
For my east coast friends who remain geographically challenged Missouri is a state, a part of the United States and just south, that’s down, of Iowa. Missouri is the “Show Me State” which once again Iowans are stuck showing them the errors of their ways. Missouri’s elected officials are picking on exotic dancers a-g-a-i-n. If Missourians are going to pick on exotic dancers then we may as well debate the merits of that age old tradition, the demolition derby. Boiled down to its essence, assuming there is an essence, the demolition derby is a contest that seeks to find several people dumb enough for a small cash prize, to climb into a car or truck and ram other contestants until you’re the last fool moving. Sounds a little like some marriages, but let’s leave that comparison for another day. In the derby the cash prize comes from a promoter who sells beer, pretzels, popcorn, hotdogs and maybe a t-shirt or two. Exotic dancers on the other hand are usually young woman dancing on a stage or in someone’s lap for tip money. The promoter is a bar owner who charges an entry fee and gets paid handsomely for selling inebriated patrons watered down drinks containing a small portion of alcohol. They aren’t selling t-shirts; in fact clothing is optional, well … at least it is for the dancers. 
I can always tell when FOX’s ratings are slipping because the producers decide it’s time once again to pick a fight with lawyers who help the injured. Either that or my Republican Party needs campaign contributions and they are going to stir up the doctors to get out their credit cards. I read the teaser on FOX titled, 
Yesterday we discussed lawyers providing estate and trust services to a man later charged with the killing of another man; the effect was to make the grieving widows efforts to enforce a civil judgment somewhat difficult. My point was that what the lawyers did was ethical and that it wasn’t the lawyers’ job to delve into the motives or reasons for the accused farmer asking for that legal advice. Today let’s go a step further with what the general public doesn’t get and seems it will never get because they aren’t schooled in the law. Let’s say the Iowa Bar Association’s ethics committee decided to investigate the lawyers who created the trusts and executed the transfers of titles for the accused farmer and his wife. Would they be successful in gathering evidence? No they would not. Because even if the Iowa Bar Association investigated the lawyers those lawyers under investigation would never be able to disclose what they had learned from the farmer and his wife at their meetings that took place following the killing. What a client says to a lawyer can’t be disclosed without the clients consent. And it’s doubtful the client would ever consent to such a disclosure. It’s called the attorney-client privilege and it’s there to protect the client – which someday may be you.
Some of you, who can’t mow grass, cut weeds or afford to fix city parks may wonder how you too can help.