can you sue a country

Can You Sue a Country?

Legal AssistantCriminal Law, International Law, Personal Injury Law

In a 2019 ruling, a federal judge ordered Iran to pay Jason Rezaian and his kin almost $180 million in damages. The Washington Post reporter took to the courts to sue the Middle Eastern country for his unlawful detention, imprisonment, physical abuse, and the psychological torture he endured at the hands of Iranian authorities.

This ruling raised many questions, key among which was – Can you sue a country, especially if you’re doing it in an entirely different nation-state? Here’s what you need to know about it.

Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act

The 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, or FSIA for short, is the legal framework that allows individuals or organizations to bring a lawsuit against foreign states or their agencies. The provisions of the Act set out a series of procedures to be followed when suing a foreign nation and how assets are to be attached for international debt recovery purposes.

While the spirit of the Act is to grant immunity to foreign countries against litigation, there are certain exceptions where this protection does not apply.

What Is Foreign Sovereign Immunity

Sovereign immunity is an international law doctrine that grants immunity to a foreign country against the jurisdiction of the courts in a foreign state. Until recent years, there weren’t many exceptions to this rule. It was almost entirely impossible for governments, their agencies, private organizations, or even individuals to sue foreign nations. This isn’t the case anymore.

As more governments engaged in commercial transactions with public and private entities alike, sovereign immunity gave them an unfair advantage. FSIA was created to provide exceptions where foreign governments would not be able to hide behind this veil when disagreements arise.

These exceptions allowed private parties to seek judicial remedies, including enforcing arbitration contracts in their commercial dealings with foreign states.

FSIA Exceptions

FSIA provides several exceptions to a foreign state’s immunity from US courts. Here’s a list of some notable ones.

  • When a foreign country implicitly or explicitly waives its immunity
  • When a foreign state conducts commercial activities in, or when those activities directly affect the United States
  • When there’s a dispute over property taken in violation of international law
  • When there’s a dispute over the rights to property – immovable or otherwise – situated in the United States acquired by gift or succession
  • When monetary damages against a foreign country are sought for loss of or damage to property, death, or personal injury resulting from its tortious conduct in the United States
  • When enforcing an arbitration agreement between a foreign and a private entity
  • When there’s an admiralty lawsuit based on commercial activities enforcing a maritime lien on cargo or a vessel of the foreign country
  • When monetary damages against a foreign country are sought for death or personal injury resulting from acts of hostage-taking, extrajudicial execution, torture, aircraft sabotage, or material/resource support to such acts, if the country in question is a designated sponsor of terrorism

With that in mind, can an individual sue a country? The short answer is – yes, based on the exceptions provided by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

In the case of the Republic of Argentina v Weltover, the company filed a suit on the basis that Argentina had defaulted on the $1.3 million worth of bonds it had issued. The case was brought in a New York federal court on the grounds of breach of contract, based on the commercial activities exception created by FSIA. The bonds were commercial in nature, and the activities had a direct impact on the United States.

Can you sue a company in another country? Again, the answer is – yes, provided you can demonstrate that the harm you suffered was the direct result of activities that fall outside the scope of normal and legitimate commercial dealings. The provisions of FSIA apply to both foreign governments and foreign organizations alike.

Vatican Immunity Appeal Catholic Church Child Abuse Cases

In 2002, a plaintiff – known only as John Doe – filed a lawsuit against the Vatican alleging several counts of sexual abuse in his teenage years by a Roman Catholic priest identified as Fr. Andrew Ronan.

The Vatican appealed based on sovereign immunity under FSIA, which the US Supreme Court rejected, allowing the suit to proceed. In its decision, the Court cited an exception to the law stating that the priest was an employee of the Vatican. As a result, his actions fell within the scope of his employment, making the Vatican liable in the suit.

Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act

In September 2016, Congress enacted the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA for short. Earlier that month, President Obama had vetoed the Act, but both the US Senate and House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to override that veto, effectively making the Act law.

Before discussing why JASTA is significant, it’s important to provide a bit of context into how the law ties into the concept of foreign sovereign immunity. As mentioned before, the whole premise of sovereign immunity is that a country’s government, its agencies, and officials cannot be sued in the courts of another nation for actions they took in their sovereign capacity.

However, as seen in the previous section, the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act was created to provide exceptions to the doctrine. JASTA was drafted to address the unfortunate events of September 11, 2001, to assist the victims and families in seeking legal redress against the Saudi Arabia government.

Nonetheless, the provisions of JASTA weren’t just limited to lawsuits against the Saudi nation. It was also enacted to facilitate potential actions by US courts against foreign states that qualify for legal liability. The Act further waters down the doctrine of sovereign immunity by introducing exceptions in situations involving acts of international terrorism in the US.

It’s important to note that JASTA doesn’t create a liability against foreign nationals for the actions taken by their home governments. Instead, the Act is meant to address lawsuits brought by US citizens against culpable foreign nations. It is designed to allow civil litigants to seek relief against foreign countries.

Exceptions to Sovereign Immunity Introduced by JASTA

The US already has several exceptions to sovereign immunity. One of them includes seeking monetary damages against a foreign country for death or personal injury resulting from acts of hostage-taking, extrajudicial execution, torture, aircraft sabotage, or material/resource support to such acts if the country in question is a designated sponsor of terrorism.

JASTA takes this particular exception one step further. Federal law states that any US citizen who is injured or whose property or business is harmed by an act of international terrorism, they or their surviving kin can file a lawsuit in any US district court for damages amounting to three times the cost of the losses they incurred, including the cost of the suit. This type of lawsuit is referred to as an International Terrorism Suit.

Before the enactment of JASTA, a US citizen could not bring an International Terrorism Suit against a foreign government, agency, employee, or officer of a foreign state acting in their sovereign capacity. JASTA changed all that.

Two of the most notable amendments it made to sovereign immunity law are:

  1. A US citizen can bring an International Terrorism Suit against a foreign government if the state in question doesn’t have immunity by virtue of (2) below.
  2. A US court may hear a case involving monetary damages sought against a foreign country for death, physical injury, or damage to property that occurs in the US as a result of:
    1. An act of international terrorism against the United States
    1. Tortious conduct of the foreign government, or any agency, employee, or officer of the foreign state, while performing duties that fall within the scope of their employment or mandate, regardless of where that tortious conduct occurs

It’s important to note that foreign nations don’t lose their sovereign immunity on the basis of what JASTA describes as “mere negligence.” The law requires the government, its agencies, employees, or officers to have carried out actions that go beyond that.

Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act

Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act

The 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, or AEDPA for short, was enacted as one of several pieces of reform legislation designed to “get tough on crime.” The law was passed in response to a public outcry that prisoners were abusing the writ of habeas corpus by filing multiple petitions challenging their convictions.

These petitions were often filed on frivolous grounds, with several of them being lodged years after the convictions were finalized.

The writ of habeas corpus allows imprisoned individuals to use it as the last resort when seeking relief from the criminal sentences they receive. It is particularly important for those facing the death penalty as it is the last line of defense standing between life and death.

The provisions of AEDPA are designed to expedite the legal process from sentencing to execution. It significantly limits the avenues through which prisoners on death row or otherwise can seek using the “Great Writ.” The law also includes several other restrictive provisions that permit eligible states to adopt stricter sets of limitations.

Some of those “opt-in” provisions require a petitioner to file a habeas corpus application within an unrealistic and unattainable timeframe; other provisions of the Act strip federal courts of the power to reverse convictions. Prisoners in states that adopt those provisions will have no chance of getting their convictions overturned once their petitions reach the federal habeas review stage.

Antiterrorism Provisions of AEDPA

Although the Act is controversial for the changes and limitations it imposed on the writ of habeas corpus, it does have several provisions designed to deter terrorism and provide justice to victims of such attacks.

Here are some of the notable antiterrorism provisions of the legislation:

  • Designate foreign terrorist organizations and place funding limitations
  • Implement changes in criminal procedures and increase penalties for individuals involved in terrorist offenses
  • Jurisdiction clarifications and changes in funding for terror-threat-related law enforcement activities
  • Place limitations on chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons
  • Provide restitution for victims of international terrorism attacks
  • Remove or exclude alien terrorists and modify asylum procedures

Perhaps the biggest take-home is that AEDPA removed legal immunity in cases where foreign states were found to be sponsors of terrorism. It effectively gave US citizens the right to sue foreign state terrorism sponsors. Unfortunately, however, the Act did not include a provision for the collection of damages.

The Flatow Amendment

As a result of the gap left behind by AEDPA, Congress later enacted what is commonly referred to as the Flatow Amendment. This crucial change in legislation now granted US courts the power to award monetary damages to victims of foreign state-sponsored terrorist acts. The amendment states, in part, that foreign countries that sponsor terrorism would be liable for death and personal injury caused by terror activities.

What does this mean for victims of terror attacks? Can an individual sue a country that sponsors a terrorist attack? The answer to this question is – yes, if they can demonstrate the injury they suffered was as a result of terrorist activity.

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008

In January 2008, President George W. Bush signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008. The objective of the legislation was to authorize funding for the US defense forces, national-security programs, military construction, and US interests overseas.

The NDAA 2008 also expanded the scope of the foreign state immunity exceptions provided in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. The creation of this law was set in motion after a 2004 DC Circuit Court ruling that foreign nations known to be designated sponsors of terrorism could not be held liable for what it termed as “private causes of action” under the provisions of FSIA – even with the Flatow Amendment.

The exceptions that were added to the Act include hostage-taking, extrajudicial execution, torture, aircraft sabotage, or material/resource support to such acts. These exceptions ensured that foreign countries that support state-sponsored terrorist activities were held liable for the actions of their agents and officials in what would be deemed as “private causes.”

Although foreign nations enjoy sovereign immunity, there are exceptions to the rule. Can you sue a country? Yes, you can – if its actions fall outside the scope of legitimate commercial and state-sponsored activities.

If you need legal advice on international debt recovery, international dispute resolution, or foreign litigation and arbitration, chat online with an experienced Laws101 attorney right now.

Builder working on top

How Long Is a Builder Liable for His Work?

Legal AssistantBusiness Law, Personal Injury Law

You’ve recently moved into your new home. Your local municipality, city, or town had a building inspector check that everything was built to code before issuing a certificate of occupancy. As far as you were concerned, that meant your new home was safe for occupation at the very minimum.

Unfortunately, this may not always be the case. An inspection certificate does not guarantee that everything in a new home will be in good working order. You’ll need at least a year’s worth of changing seasons to discover whether or not a brand new house is free from defects.

How long is a builder liable for his work? Can you sue a city building inspector for issuing a certificate of occupancy once you discover defects in your newly constructed house? Here’s everything you need to know.

What Constitutes a Construction Defect

It’s important to understand some critical legal concepts that will come in handy when evaluating liability. “Construction defects” happens to be one of them.

There are generally two principal types of defects you need to be aware of:

  1. Those that occur in a commercial or residential building’s design phase
  2. Those that occur in the construction phase

As a general rule, the building engineer or architect would be responsible for any defects in a construction project’s design. The builder, who is usually the contractor or subcontractor, would be responsible for the defects that occur if they fail to carry out the project based on the design specifications provided by the building engineer and architect.

The same applies to defects that arise when they fail to adhere to the accepted industry standards. Some of the issues that may result from construction defects include:

  • Incurring additional costs to rectify the problem
  • Injuries to the construction workers on site
  • Injuries to future occupants of the building, visitors to the property, or pedestrians walking past the building

Contracts

The laws governing construction defects all revolve around the concept of contracts. Any single building project will have several contracts in force. For instance:

  • The building owner enters into a contractual agreement with an architect to come up with the design for the property or renovation
  • The architect enters into a contract with a building engineer to ensure the designs they develop comply with engineering code and standards
  • The building owner gets into an agreement with a general contractor to execute the plans
  • The general contractor enters into contractual agreements with dozens of subcontractors to help with the plan implementation

Each one of those contracts would have clauses pointing to the party or parties responsible for specific types of defects. As a result, all parties have to pay close attention to the liability provisions in the contract during the negotiation phase.

As a general rule, liability usually goes down the chain. This means that the building owner lays blame on the general contractor in the event of any defects. The general contractor may then lay blame on the subcontractor for the defects.

The Concept of Indemnification

This process of passing liability down the chain is generally done in line with indemnification provisions. Here’s what that means.

If a subcontractor “indemnifies” a general contractor for certain defects liabilities, they (the subcontractor) would have to pay for any judgment rendered against the general contractor in the event of a lawsuit.

To cushion themselves against this eventuality, subcontractors often take out insurance policies to protect against potential defects liabilities. As a result, it is the insurance companies that usually pay for construction defects in liability lawsuits.

How Long Is a Builder Liable for His Work – Call Back Warranties

Construction contracts usually have a call-back warranty that details the duration during which a property owner can “call back” a builder to rectify any work that may not have been done correctly. In most cases, the call-back period is usually one year, although different contracts may specify longer or shorter durations.

That being said, call-back warranties are often one of the most notoriously misunderstood provisions in the construction sector. Most builders believe that they’re absolved from all potential defects liabilities that may arise beyond that period once they pass the one-year mark. This is a gross misinterpretation of how call-back provisions work.

In the event of a construction defect, the call-back warranty details the duties and obligations of each party in the contract. The property owner has the right to notify the contractor of any issues within the development and allow them to carry out repairs on their own accord.

On the flip side, once notified, the contractor has the right to repair the defect in question before the owner takes matters into their own hands and embarks on (more expensive) measures to get the faults fixed.

Defects That Fall Outside the Call Back Duration

Suppose you contracted a builder to install a new roof in your home. 10 months later, you notice a leak due to an improperly sealed skylight. Since you noticed the defect within the standard one-year call-back period, the contractual obligations will still be in force. You’ll need to inform the contractor of the leak in your roof and allow them to return to the site to repair it.

At this point, the contractor can proceed in one of three ways:

  1. They could show up to your home and repair the leaking roof
  2. They could inspect the roof and decide to dispute it, perhaps blaming you for the leak
  3. They could ignore the notice you gave them altogether

Now, this is the point where things may get a little sticky. If the contractor decides to ignore your notice, you’ll be left with no choice but to fix the defect at your own cost. This may involve finding another contractor to carry out the repairs, most likely at a higher cost.

Once they complete the work, you can sue the original contractor in small claims court to recover the costs you incurred by retaining the new contractor. On the other hand, if you discovered the leak after the call-back period elapsed, you are effectively released from the obligation to notify the contractor of the problem. As a result, you can go ahead and seek the same legal remedy outlined above.

The call-back period doesn’t apply to all warranties under the contract. It only applies to the specific provision of the contract – the right to cure.

This right only refers to the owner’s obligation to notify the contractor of the defect. It affords them an opportunity to rectify their mistakes.

Just because the call-back period has elapsed doesn’t mean the contractor is off the hook. They are still liable for their defective work, meaning that a property owner can still sue them for damages over breach of contract, accidents, or bodily injuries resulting from the defect.

The statute of limitations for such claims ranges anywhere between 3 and 10 years in most states across the country.

Are Home Inspectors Liable for Anything

Are Home Inspectors Liable for Anything

First off, what does a building inspector do? Their work revolves around examining a property’s basic structural system, plumbing, electrical system, mechanical systems, and other critical parts of residential or commercial developments to confirm that everything is in good working order.

It is the responsibility of a residential or commercial building inspector to identify any material defects in the property in question and indicate them in their inspection report. A material defect is anything that affects the safety, occupancy/livability, or value of the property.

Can You Sue a City Building Inspector

The short answer is – yes, you can. A building code inspector is required to conduct residential and commercial inspections in a manner that would be considered “consistent with the existing industry standards.” That’s part of their job description.

That being said, if they fail to identify a critical material defect, which goes on to affect the building itself or its occupants, the residential or commercial building inspector can be sued for damages arising from their negligence.

Depending on the party that employed their services, a building code inspector can also be sued for breach of contract.

Keep in mind that the law prohibits building inspectors from:

  • Altering the findings in their report based on financial incentives
  • Inspecting properties their employer has an interest in
  • Inspecting properties that they have an interest in
  • Making repairs to the property that they are inspecting
  • Waiving contract liability with any party in the transaction

Condo HOA

More often than not, any residential community will usually have a homeowner’s association (HOA). This structure serves to ensure that the neighborhood maintains a clean and cohesive living atmosphere.

Membership to a condo HOA is mandatory for all property owners within the condominium. However, there are some associations where membership may be voluntary. In such instances, the laws and regulations in these HOAs differ from those that require mandatory membership.

What Do Condo HOA Fees Cover

Condominium associations collect fees from all unit owners within the development. This monthly assessment usually maintains the shared living spaces, enforcing the applicable restrictions within a particular residential area, addressing safety and legal issues within the development, and anything else that would serve the interests of the condo residents.

HOAs not only have the right to assess monthly fees; they can also levy fines and liens on members that go against the provisions of the association’s rules and bylaws.

Condo Association Liability

A condo association is a lot like any other homeowners association. It sets regulations and restrictions that building tenants are required to adhere to.

Every condo association has an elected board whose leadership roles revolve around meeting the responsibilities and carrying out the association’s functions. This responsibility comes with several strings attached.

If something goes awry and a tenant or visitor gets injured in a common area, the condo association is held liable. The same thing applies if shared living spaces get damaged.

Condo Board Liability

As long as a claimant can demonstrate impropriety, the directors and officials of the condo association can be held liable for damages to and accidents or injuries that occur on the property. Even if the board members are legally at fault, the costs of fighting such disputes in court are significantly higher than what typical insurance companies would cover.

Some of the most common causes of condo board liability include:

  • Breach of contract
  • Discrimination
  • Funds misuse or misappropriation
  • Negligence
  • Wrongful foreclosure

In addition to the liability placed on the association, there are two other types of legal responsibilities following property or bodily injury that occurs at a residential condominium building.

  • Unit Owner Liability – When property damage or bodily injury is the direct result of the condo owner’s negligence
  • Joint Liability – When both the condo association and unit owner are jointly responsible for property damage and bodily injury that occurs on the property

When matters of joint liability arise, court involvement is often necessary to address the proportion of liability assigned to each party.

Florida Condo Collapse

Contractors were scheduled to carry out major roof repairs on the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, on the morning of June 24, 2021. In an unfortunate turn of events, the building collapsed at around 1.30 a.m. earlier that morning, hours before the workers were supposed to show up on-site. At the time of publication, the death toll had risen to 97, with at least a dozen people unaccounted for.

Survivors and victims’ family members have taken to court to sue, among others, the condo association, the project architects ( SD Architects), and the structural engineering firm (Morabito Consultants) for failing to warn residents of the building’s potential collapse. Others have filed lawsuits against the condo HOA on the grounds that failed maintenance was responsible for the June 24th disaster.

The Bottom Line

How long is a builder liable for his work? Depending on the state you reside in, the statute of limitations could be anywhere between 3 and 10 years. If you’ve suffered injuries due to a construction defect, get in touch with a personal injury attorney as soon as you can to explore all the legal remedies available to you.

Do you have any legal questions for us? Chat online with a Laws101 attorney right now.

fire is burning at the ExxonMobil Olefins Plant

Worst Industrial Accidents in Texas

Legal AssistantPersonal Injury Law, Regulatory Law

They say everything’s bigger in Texas – and with good reason. The Lone Star state is the second-largest in the country after Alaska, and with a resident population of roughly 29 million, it also happens to be the second most populous state in the nation.

Boasting a GDP of $1.7 trillion, Texas has one of the most advanced economies in the United States and is the single largest exporter of goods in the country. On a global scale, the Texas economy ranks the 10th largest in the world.

With an economy of that magnitude, the industries operating within the state are equally as massive. As a result, when accidents occur, the workers bear the brunt of it all. This article explores the worst industrial accidents of all time in Texas.

Main Causes of Industrial Accidents

The term “industrial accident” generally refers to an accident that an industrial employee suffers in the course of performing their day-to-day tasks. It also refers to an accident that occurs in an industrial company, affecting the people working and living within a large geographic zone.

The major cause of industrial accidents is negligence. In Texas law, an injured party can pursue monetary compensation (damages) resulting from the negligence of another party. Plaintiffs in personal injury claims in Texas have to demonstrate five key elements to prove negligence.

  • Duty – The plaintiff will have to demonstrate that the defendant was obligated to act (or not act) in a particular manner.
  • Breach of duty – The defendant failed in their responsibility to act (or not act) in the manner in question.
  • Cause in fact – The injury suffered by the plaintiff was the direct result of the defendant’s breach of duty.
  • Proximate cause – This addresses the question of whether a “reasonable person” would find the breach of duty obvious.
  • Damages – The plaintiff has to provide factual proof of the hardship they suffered as a result of the injuries and the compensation they are entitled to.

Once an injured party is able to establish each of these five elements, the Texas civil justice system will be able to award damages to the plaintiff in a lawsuit. Keep in mind that the Lone Star state adopts a modified comparative fault system. According to this standard, the courts apportion fault proportionally when awarding damages to the victim.

Worst Industrial Accidents in Texas

Firefighters battle blaze after explosion at the ExxonMobil Baytown Olefins chemical plant

With that brief background in mind, here’s an overview of some of the deadliest industrial disasters in the Lone Star state.

The Texas Chemical Plant Accident at LyondellBasell La Porte

One of the most recent chemical plant accidents occurred in July 2021 at LyondellBasell in La Porte, killing two people and leaving 42 others injured. According to the company chemical plant operator and other site officials, the accident was due to a leak that released approximately 100,000 pounds of acetic acid into the atmosphere.

While officials are yet to identify the root cause of the Texas chemical plant leak, a lawsuit filed by one of the victims alleges that the company was made aware of the leak earlier in the day but failed to take the appropriate steps to have it sealed before the fateful incident later that night.

In another suit, one of the victims cited the company’s failure to properly train the workers on safety procedures, particularly those stationed in the chemical plant zone. It also listed the failure to provide a safe working environment and the lack of adequate safety equipment as contributory causes of the industrial accident.

The injuries sustained by the victims include physical bodily harm as they scampered to safety and respiratory injuries from inhaling the toxic fumes emanating from the Texas chemical plant leak.

The Texas City Disaster

In April 1947, a ship containing 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate caught fire, causing one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions in the country’s history. Five hundred eighty-one people lost their lives in the accident, with as many as 4,000 others suffering grievous injuries. One hundred thirteen victims were marked “missing,” and their remains were never found.

Eight thousand four hundred eighty-five victims directly and indirectly linked to the Texas City Disaster filed a class-action suit against the US government for compensation.

The Phillips Disaster

The phillips disaster 1989

In October 1989, several explosions were witnessed at the Houston Chemical Complex facility located close to the Houston Ship Channel in Pasadena, Texas. The fire that resulted from the initial blast took 10 hours to put out. Unfortunately, 23 employees were killed in the explosion, with 314 others suffering injuries ranging from minor to major.

Investigations into the incident revealed that the detonations occurred when highly flammable process gases were released into the atmosphere from one of the reactors in the plant. The reactors were used in the production of high-density polyethylene, a key ingredient in the manufacture of plastic containers. Phillips paid a $4 million fine for OSHA-related violations.

The Texas City Refinery Explosion

In March 2005, an explosion occurred at the Texas City Refinery, resulting in 15 fatalities and 170+ injuries. The blast that took place in the state’s second-largest refinery was attributed to a host of organizational shortcomings and a multitude of technical failures.

The poor communication between the refinery employees, alongside the apparent lack of supervision and training, were found to be the root causes of the deadly explosion.

The West Fertilizer Plant Blast

In April 2013, ammonium nitrate in storage at the West Fertilizer Company plant caught fire and exploded, killing 15 people and injuring 160 others. The explosion, which occurred in West, Texas, damaged and destroyed more than 150 buildings in the area. It later emerged that OSHA officials had last inspected the fertilizer plant in 1985.

If you get injured in an industrial accident in Texas, you can file for workers’ compensation. According to the Texas Labor Code, you would be entitled to income, medical, vocational rehabilitation, and death benefits to your next of kin.

If you are not covered under workers’ compensation, ensure you consult with an experienced industrial accident lawyer to get the compensation you deserve.

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Writing note showing Hipaa

What Is HIPAA Law?

Legal AssistantAdministrative Law, Consumer Law, Regulatory Law, Resources

Several federal laws govern health insurance. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) happens to be one of them. The Act provides a wide range of protections to millions of workers in the US who have some type of underlying health condition that exposes them to the risk of discrimination, limitation, or exclusion in group health coverage.

More often than not, when people talk about the HIPAA law, they are usually referring to the Privacy Rule provision that was established in 2003. However, this is just one facet of the broader law that Congress initially passed in 1996.

So, what is HIPAA law, and why does it matter? Here’s everything you need to know.

What Does HIPAA Stand For

HIPAA is short for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The law mainly applies to employer-based health coverage. It is designed to protect you if you have an underlying health characteristic or preexisting medical condition that an insurance company would deem undesirable when it comes to providing you with health insurance.

Additionally, the law also requires doctors, other healthcare professionals, and service providers to ensure that patient medical records are kept confidential.

Today, many of the provisions of HIPAA are no longer required because of the protections provided by the newer 2010 Affordable Health Care Act. Nonetheless, if you are currently on an older healthcare plan, you and your family can still benefit from the protections HIPAA offers.

How Does HIPAA Treat Preexisting Conditions

HIPAA defines a preexisting medical condition as a health characteristic for which you have received a medical diagnosis, treatment, care, or advice in the six-month period leading up to your enrolment in an existing insurance plan.

The law confines insurance providers to a six-month “look-back” limit as far as identifying preexisting conditions goes. It essentially means that a health insurer cannot exclude coverage for a condition you received a medical diagnosis, treatment, care, or advice longer than six months before enrolling in your current plan.

On the other hand, if the condition occurred within the look-back window, a healthcare provider can exclude it from coverage.

The whole premise of HIPAA is to regulate how health insurance providers operate by placing restrictions on the number of ways available to them to exclude coverage for certain underlying medical conditions. Here are some of the notable protections HIPAA provides to American workers.

Protections for Pregnant Women

Before HIPAA was enacted, pregnancy was considered a preexisting condition if you enrolled in a new healthcare plan. This is no longer the case. Pregnant women can now switch to a different group health plan without running the risk of being excluded from coverage.

Protections for Newborn and Adopted Children

Before the enactment of HIPAA, preexisting exclusions applied to newborn children and minors who were adopted or put up for adoption. The provisions of the Act now allow newborns, adopted children, or children put up for adoption to be entered into the health plan provided that it is done within 30 days of birth, adoption, or adoption placement.

Genetic Information

The Act bars health insurance providers from treating genetic information as a preexisting condition if there is no accompanying diagnosis. Additional protections under state law may be available to individuals on a plan provided via a health maintenance organization or private insurance company.

Shorter Exclusion Periods

Individuals with preexisting medical conditions on group coverage can now enjoy shorter exclusion periods. The maximum exclusion duration is typically 12 months from the date of enrolment in your existing plan.

Protections When Changing Jobs

If changing jobs results in switching from one health plan to a different one, the provisions of HIPAA protect you from any new preexisting condition exclusions, provided that the break within your coverage is no more than 63 days.

Protections Against Discrimination

HIPAA prohibits insurance providers from discrimination based on any health-related characteristics a patient may have. Health insurers cannot exclude you from coverage or charge you more because of your existing health status.

HIPAA Privacy Rule

In most cases, when people talk about HIPAA compliance, they are generally referring to the provisions of the Act’s Privacy Rule. This federal law prohibits healthcare providers, businesses, and medical professionals, including health insurers, laboratories, pharmacies, administrative staff, and so forth, from disclosing your information to third parties without your authorization.

Congress enacted the Privacy Rule after the sale of country singer Tammy Wynette’s medical records to the tabloids and the public revelation of tennis star Arthur Ashe’s HIV status. The two incidents raised public concerns about the safety of their genetic information, particularly because the internet made it easier for privacy breaches to occur.

Why Is the Privacy Rule Important

HIPAA’s Privacy Rules give individuals the right to control the way their health information is disclosed to third parties. It’s important to note that HIPAA doesn’t protect all kinds of health data. It applies to medical information held by specific kinds of health care providers.

For instance, the Act doesn’t cover the data stored on your Fitbit or Apple Watch. The same applies to the genetic data entered on DNA match websites like Ancestry.com. While the privacy disclosures required on such apps may be governed by other laws, HIPAA does not protect that information.

What Is Protected Health Information

HIPAA defines protected health information (PHI) as personally identifiable information related to an individual’s present, past, or future health status. This information can only be collected, created, maintained, or transmitted by a HIPAA-covered entity, for use in healthcare operations and the provision or payment of healthcare services.

Examples of protected health information include:

  • Demographic information such as gender, ethnicity, and birth dates
  • Diagnostic information
  • Medical test results
  • National identification numbers
  • Prescription information
  • Treatment information
  • Emergency contact information

PHI generally refers to physical records, while ePHI refers to health records created, stored, or transmitted in electronic format.

An important distinction to make here is that protected health information doesn’t relate to data contained in employment or educational repositories, even for HIPAA-covered entities in their capacities as employers. Instead, it only applies to the health information on patients or members of a health plan.

The rule of thumb when determining whether or not a piece of information is considered PHI is if the data in question can be used to identify the individual to whom it belongs. If the health data is stripped of all identifiers, the information is no longer considered protected, and HIPAA’s Privacy Rule no longer applies.

What Is a HIPAA Violation

What Is a HIPAA Violation

A HIPAA violation occurs when the access, acquisition, disclosure, or use of PHI results in a substantial personal risk to the patient.

There are two categories of HIPAA violations:

  • Criminal, where the individual committed the violation with malicious intent. This attracts stiff penalties, including fines, jail time, or both.
  •  Civil, where the individual committed the violation without malicious intent, mainly as a result of negligence or ignorance. Penalties consist of fines ranging between $100 and $50,000 for each count of the violation.

Some examples of HIPAA violations include getting hacked, phishing attacks, lack of encryption, loss/theft of company devices, unauthorized access, improper PHI disposal, unsecured access, among others.

What Is Health Insurance Portability

Title I of HIPAA grants individuals certain rights pertaining to how insurance and health plan providers treat preexisting conditions. Title I also contains provisions related to portability rights.

Health insurance portability refers to an individual’s option to retain their health plan benefits when changing employers. HIPAA provisions give an employee the right to be provided with health coverage without exclusions, provided they meet certain enrollment criteria. These portability requirements are detailed below.

Title I:

  • Requires health-plan and insurance providers to provide coverage and limit the restrictions placed on benefits for preexisting conditions. A group health plan can only decline coverage related to preexisting conditions for 12 months after an individual’s enrollment.
  • Requires group health plans to take into account the duration of coverage an individual had before enrolling into a new plan, inclusive of any breaks. That way, workers can limit the exclusion period related to their preexisting conditions.
  • Requires the application of “creditable coverage” to the exclusion periods related to preexisting conditions. Creditable coverage refers to previous health plans that meet certain criteria. Health-plan and insurance providers can apply it as a day-for-day credit against that of the exclusion period for a preexisting condition when an employee migrates from one health plan to another.
  • Requires the application of day-for-day creditable coverage by health plan providers to minimize exclusions on preexisting conditions, provided the individual’s break in coverage is no more than 63 days.
  • Allows group health plans to apply the maximum length of exclusion for a preexisting condition if the individual had a “significant break” in coverage during their transition from one group plan to the other. Title I defines a “significant break” as 63 days or more.
  • Requires health insurance providers to offer policies with no exclusions to employees exiting from group health plans that had creditable coverage spanning more than 18 months.

HIPAA’s portability requirement as provided by Title I means that insurers are obligated to provide policies without exclusion to individuals transitioning from one job to another, allowing them to retain their right to be enrolled in group health plans.

Who Enforces HIPAA and Who Does It Apply To

There is often a lot of confusion over who HIPAA applies to since the Privacy Rule – which requires healthcare entities to protect personally identifiable health information for every individual – forms a very small section of the entire law.

First, it’s important to understand that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is a federal law. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the federal agency responsible for enforcing it.

With that in mind, who does HIPAA apply to? Broadly speaking, the short answer would be – everybody in the United States. Nonetheless, the scope of HIPAA for healthcare providers is a lot smaller. According to the HHS, the rules set out by HIPAA apply to any entity and business associate covered by the Act.

A covered entity is any healthcare provider whose operations consist of electronic transactions. Examples of covered entities include healthcare clearinghouses and health plans.

On the other hand, a business associate, as defined by the Act, is an individual conducting business with covered entities and whose operations include exposure or access to protected health information from the entities in question.

HIPAA and Telehealth

Does HIPAA cover telehealth? Yes, it does.

The HIPAA guidelines for telehealth apply to any healthcare entity or medical professional that offers remote services to patients outside their designated health facility. HIPAA compliant telehealth requires secure channels of communications between patients and their providers that meet the following criteria.

  • ePHI should only be accessible to authorized users
  • The integrity of ePHI should be protected by secure systems of communication
  • A communication monitoring system should be implemented to prevent malicious or accidental ePHI breaches

Is FaceTime HIPAA Compliant for Telehealth

No, it’s not. Using unsecured channels of communication such as FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, email, or SMS goes against the HIPAA guidelines for telehealth. These should not be used for ePHI communications. Here’s why.

When electronic-based protected health information is created by a covered entity (healthcare organization) or healthcare professional, third-party providers store this information. The covered entity and the third-party service need to have a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) in force, detailing the methods used to store and protect the integrity of the data. It also contains provisions for regular security audits.

Copies of communications containing personally identifiable health information sent via FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, email, or SMS are stored on the service provider’s servers. To comply with the HIPAA guidelines for telehealth, a covered entity would need to have BAAs with each of these third-party providers (such as Apple Inc., Skype, etc.).

Since no agreements exist with these providers, the covered entity would be liable for civil action should a breach result in the unauthorized disclosure of ePHI.

Get Help From an Attorney

Knowing whether your HIPAA-guaranteed healthcare rights have been violated can be quite difficult, particularly when switching jobs. It’s always a good idea to consult with an experienced lawyer to ensure your health coverage rights are protected.

Do you have any legal questions for us? Chat online with a Laws101 attorney right now.

U.S. Secret Service agent stands guard

What Does the US Secret Service Do?

Legal AssistantAdministrative Law, Resources

You’ve seen them in the movies. The dapper agents in crisp black suits, dark sunglasses, fancy earpieces, and a stoic superhero demeanor. You can tell they mean business—their mission: To guard the President and his family against any potential threat.

But, the mandate of the US Secret Service goes beyond what is usually depicted on TV. The agency employs more than 3,000 special agents, over 1,000 officers of the Uniformed Division, and more than 2,000 professional, administrative, and technical support personnel.

What does the US Secret Service do, and who do its agents report to? Here’s everything you need to know.

When Was the Secret Service Created?

The Secret Service history dates back to 1865, making it one of the country’s oldest federal law enforcement agencies. It was originally created as an investigative branch of the US Treasury Department to combat counterfeiting, which was running rampant at the time. It was such a huge problem that an estimated 33-50 percent of the currency in circulation was believed to be counterfeit money.

Following President William McKinley’s assassination in 1901 in Buffalo, New York, the Secret Service’s mission expanded to include providing protection to the President, Vice President, and their families.

What Does the Secret Service Do

The US Congress tasked the Secret Service with two critical and distinct missions: To protect the country’s leaders and keep the nation’s critical and financial infrastructure safe. Here’s a detailed look into the agency’s two primary mandates.

Protective Mandate

The Secret Service’s protective mission involves working with local and state law enforcement personnel in the coordination of logistics and manpower, conducting advance venue and site assessments for protectees, and carrying out intelligence operations to identify and investigate all potential risks they may be exposed to.

It’s also important to note that the Secret Service is the lead agency charged with the planning, coordinating, and executing of National Special Security Events (NSSE). Part of its mission revolves around the prevention of incidents before they occur, reliance on the rigorous threat assessments developed by the agency’s Intelligence Division to identify, eliminate, or mitigate all potential risks for the ultimate safety of the individuals they are supposed to protect.

Who Does the Secret Service Protect

The law authorizes the Secret Service to protect:

  • The President and Vice President of the United States
  • The President-elect, Vice President-elect, or any other individual next in line for succession to the Office of the President
  • The immediate families of the individuals listed above
  • Major candidates for the presidency and vice presidency in a general election and their spouses for the 120 days leading up to the election date
  • Former presidents and their spouses except when any of their spouses remarry
  • The children of former presidents up until they turn 16 years of age
  • A visiting head of a foreign state or government and their spouse traveling with them
  • Any distinguished foreign visitor to the United States
  • Any official representative of the US on special missions duty abroad
  • Any other individual designated by way of a presidential executive order
  • Any event designated as an NSSE by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security

In 1994, Congress enacted a law that required former presidents who held office before January 1, 1997, to receive Secret Service presidential detail for the rest of their lives. On the other hand, presidents who held office after that date would receive protection for a maximum of 10 years after leaving office.

Investigative Mandate

In addition to its protective mission, the US Secret Service also has an investigative mandate that centers on safeguarding the nation’s financial and payment systems from cyber-based crimes and all manner of financial crimes.

The Secret Service investigates:

  • Counterfeiting of US currency and any other government obligation
  • Theft or forgery of US Treasury securities, including bonds and checks
  • Telecommunications fraud
  • Credit card fraud
  • Computer fraud
  • Identity theft or fraud
  • Crimes that affect federally-insured financial institutions
The Secret Service and Cyber Crime
Secret Service and Cyber Crime
Image Source: Unsplash

An increasing number of Secret Service agents and specialists are stationed in field offices worldwide to curb financial crimes, many of which are perpetrated via cyberspace. While the agency’s investigations are designed to address counterfeiting of the US currency, the focus of its investigative work has shifted to address banking fraud, wire fraud, credit card fraud, ransomware, network intrusions, and internet-enabled financial crimes.

The Secret Service’s Cyber Fraud Task Forces (CFTFs) were created in partnership with other law enforcement agencies, state and federal prosecutors, academia, and private industry players to detect, investigate, prevent, and mitigate cybercrime.

The agency also set up an integrated Global Investigative Operations Center (GIOC) to monitor, coordinate, and support strategic local and international investigations into activities that threaten the integrity of the country’s financial infrastructure. The GIOC analyses both traditional and non-traditional sources of data and works collaboratively with various CFTFs to combat transnational organized criminal associations.

The cybercrimes that the Secret Service investigates include:

  • Access device fraud – The illicit transfer of funds involving credit cards, debit cards, or other devices that provide access to financial accounts
  • ATM attacks – Involves network breaches and the manipulation of access devices
  • Business email compromise – The compromise of legitimate business emails to conduct unauthorized or illicit wire transfers
  • Identity theft – The illegal theft and use of personally identifiable information for monetary gain
  • Money laundering and illicit financing activities – The investment of illicit monies in an attempt to disguise them as legitimate proceeds
  • Point-of-Sale system compromise – The unauthorized access to cashier or checkout systems that rely on electronic payment transfers for products and services
  • Ransomware – Malicious software (malware) designed to lock users out of computers or networks until a ransom is paid to restore access

Who Does the Secret Service Report To

The US Secret Service is a federal law enforcement agency. It is maintained as a separate entity within the Department of Homeland Security. Its functions and operations are not and cannot be merged with any other functions of the Department.

Secret Service agents report to the Director of the US Secret Service, who, in turn, reports directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security.

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Organized Crime

What Is Organized Crime?

Legal AssistantCriminal Law

Movies have an incredible way of making anything look glamorous – even the dangerous world of organized crime. You would be surprised by the number of people who’ve contemplated becoming a mobster after watching Robert De Niro pulling up in front of a nightclub in his shiny, vintage Aston Martin moments before shooting up the entire place.

Make no mistake about it, though. This is not a world you want to get caught up in. The legal repercussions that come from a criminal conviction are hefty and will no doubt change your life forever.

What is organized crime, and what happens if you’re found guilty of engaging in such activity?

Organized Crime Definition

Organized crime is often described using sweeping phrases like “mafia-related,” “mob-linked,” and other suggestive terms that differentiate this category of illegal activity from conventional crimes.

The FBI defines organized crime as illegal activities carried out by groups or associations seeking to obtain monetary gains, power, and influence. If these criminal activities extend beyond the geographical borders of any single country, it becomes Transnational organized crime.

The structure of these associations varies based on their networks, cells, and hierarchies and may even evolve into more elaborate models. The majority of organized crime groups are insular. They protect and perpetuate their criminal operations by employing various methods, including violence, corruption, coded communication mechanisms, and international commerce. They may even adopt an organizational structure that exploits national boundaries.

More often than not, the primary goal of most organized crime associations is economic gain. As a result, they rely on a wide range of both legal and illicit schemes to generate revenue and turn a profit. The law criminalizes participation in organized crime in two ways: Criminal association and conspiracy.

It means that any individual, who willfully participates in or contributes to the criminal activities of organized crime groups, is criminally liable for their actions. The penalties are designed to hold individuals who associate with such groups responsible even if they have not directly committed any offense. In other words, criminal liability extends to situations where a crime is anticipated to occur, but a specific violation has not yet materialized (conspiracy).

Organized Crime Examples

As mentioned before, the primary goal of any organized crime association is to generate profit. To do this, they employ a wide range of illicit schemes, including:

  • Drug trafficking
  • Counterfeit goods
  • Cybercrime
  • Extortion
  • Human trafficking
  • Illegal gambling
  • Migrant smuggling
  • Money laundering
  • Trafficking of firearms
  • Cultural property and wildlife smuggling

Because of the massive sums of cash involved in these activities, organized crime directly impacts government agencies with corrupt officials and even compromises legitimate economies.

What Is Racketeering

The legal racketeering definition is – criminal activity in which an organization runs illegal businesses (rackets) or uses legitimate business enterprises to embezzle funds. A “racket” comes about when a criminal organization creates a problem for other entities or individuals for the sole purpose of using extortion to “solve” that particular problem.

Examples of racketeering include criminal activities such as embezzlement, kidnapping, arson, bribery, drug trafficking, extortion, counterfeiting, prostitution rings, tax evasion, blackmail, forgery, trading in illegal weapons, illegal gambling, etc.

Given the devastating effects that such criminal activities have on both public and private institutions, federal and state governments have developed a system of laws designed to prosecute individuals who may otherwise slip through the cracks of the American criminal justice system. One of these laws is the RICO Act.

What Is the RICO Act

In 1970, Congress established the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, or RICO, for short. This federal legislation makes it illegal to make money from or participate in organized criminal activity.

According to the Act, a racketeering conviction can result in imprisonment and government seizure of illegally obtained revenues. It also allows the injured parties that suffered financial harm to file lawsuits against the perpetrators and sue for damages.

RICO targets organized criminal associations such as the Mafia and Mexican Cartel and legitimate enterprises or associations that engage in illicit activity. Some of the offenses that have been the target of RICO include political corruption, fraud, and white-collar crime.

Criminal Activities Targeted by RICO

RICO makes it a federal crime to:

  • Use any proceeds obtained from racketeering activity or from illicit debt collection to establish, operate, or acquire any organization or business that affects interstate commerce;
  • Maintain an interest in or acquire any organization or business through racketeering activity;
  • Use racketeering activity to conduct the lawful or illicit affairs of an organization or business;
  • Conspire to participate in any of the activities listed above.

A successful conviction requires federal prosecutors to prove to a jury that:

  1. A pattern of racketeering exists
  2. A criminal enterprise exists
  3. The crimes had an impact on interstate commerce

The sections below explore these three elements in detail.

Pattern of Racketeering

For a RICO prosecution to stick, federal prosecutors must prove that the organization or individual in question has displayed several instances (a pattern) of criminal wrongdoing. Racketeering charges consist of underlying illegal acts referred to as “predicate crimes.”

A predicate crime may include anything from a drug crime, bribery, money laundering, and embezzlement; to robbery, kidnapping, and murder.

Prosecutors have to show that the defendant committed a minimum of two such violations within a 10-year period, excluding any imprisonment term they may have been serving at the time. For a pattern to exist, prosecutors have to show that the accused engaged in ongoing criminal activity.

For instance, a single bank robbery would be considered an isolated crime. However, if several bank robberies occur over a specific time frame, by the same group of criminals, using the same tactics, that shows a pattern.

Keep in mind that several criminal acts committed when perpetuating a single illegal scheme would not constitute a pattern.

A pattern of illegality needs to have the following components:

  • The number of illegal acts
  • The methods used to carry out these acts
  • The duration over which these crimes are committed
  • The number of victims
  • The number of perpetrators involved
  • The number of criminal schemes
  • The nature and complexity of the criminal schemes in question

For instance, one successful act of murder, regardless of the number of unsuccessful attempts leading up to it, would not constitute a pattern.

On the other hand, two attempts to extort money from a public official would be considered a pattern. One attempt to extort money and one successful act of bribery would also be considered a pattern.

Criminal Enterprise

RICO defines a criminal enterprise as a group of associated individuals working together informally (such as a criminal gang) or a distinct legal entity (such as a union, partnership, or corporation).

For a group or legal entity to be considered a criminal enterprise, it needs to:

  1. Be an ongoing association that operates as a single unit
  2. Exist separately from the criminal activity of the members
  3. Have a common purpose

An enterprise may have a legal and valid purpose or an illegal objective. For instance, if two criminals collaborated to kidnap someone, this would not constitute a criminal enterprise.

On the other hand, if a group of businesspeople held regular meetings and even worked together for several years to (among many things) bribe public officials to receive lucrative city contracts, this would fall in the realm of a criminal enterprise.

A successful conviction would require federal prosecutors to prove that the defendant(s) in question participated in the management or operation of the criminal enterprise. To do this, they would have to show that the defendant(s) had some level of influence over the group’s activities.

Even if the defendant was merely a mid-level dealer in a drug cartel, as long as they had some level of decision-making power and acted with some level of discretion (for instance, setting drug prices), prosecutors could use this fact to show control.

Interstate Commerce

Last but certainly not least, a successful RICO conviction would require federal prosecutors to show that the violations in question had some effect on interstate commerce. Criminal organizations that move significant amounts of money, commodities, or people from state to state, or have a significant economic impact, will usually meet this requirement.

Punishment for Racketeering

Punishment for Racketeering

Each count of racketeering is punishable by a prison term of up to 20 years. If the underlying predicate crime is punishable by life imprisonment, the racketeering offense in such instances is punishable by life imprisonment as well.

Additionally, the court can use its discretion to impose a fine worth double the illegal profits amassed by the defendant. RICO also allows government seizure of all assets acquired or controlled through racketeering, giving it legal title to the assets in question.

If a criminal enterprise owned property such as land, vehicles, and equipment, the ownership rights to those assets would now belong to the government.

Civil Remedies

In addition to federal criminal prosecutions, RICO also allows private citizens to sue defendants if they suffered financial harm due to racketeering activities. For example, suppose a competitor was undercutting the owner of a private nightclub due to them engaging in illegal business practices such as prostitution and gambling. In that case, the club owner could sue for damages.

A plaintiff in a civil suit would have to prove that the RICO violation was directly responsible for the economic harm they suffered. To do this, they have to demonstrate the same things that federal prosecutors show in criminal court proceedings. That is:

  1. A pattern of racketeering exists
  2. A criminal enterprise exists
  3. The crimes had an impact on interstate commerce

In such suits, the federal court may order the defendant to:

  • Pay the plaintiff three times the amount in damages they incurred
  • Pay the plaintiff’s lawyer’s fees
  • Cease and desist from engaging in certain businesses or activities

The courts may also provide equitable relief by dissolving the defendant’s organization.

What Is a Cartel

The general definition of a cartel is – a group of independent organizations or enterprises that collude to manipulate the prices of commodities in the market. Their goal being – total market domination. In the world of organized crime, the word “cartel” takes on a slightly different meaning. In most cases, it always has a drug connotation to it.

A drug cartel can generally be defined as an association that is significantly involved in, controls, or promotes drug trafficking. The elaborate structure and organization of cartels make them extremely dangerous. Mexican cartel rings such as the Sinaloa, Los Zetas, and Jalisco are known to wield an incredible amount of power and influence, capable of destabilizing entire communities.

Cartels are known to not only engage in the illegal drug trade but also in racketeering activities, including extortion, embezzlement, murder, intimidation, money laundering, fraud, gambling, and more.

What Is Extortion

Attempting to obtain monies or assets from an individual using the threat of violence, threatening to publicize damaging or private information about them, or threatening to falsely accuse the victim of a crime are all acts that fall within the realm of extortion.

Is extortion a crime when it targets private citizens? It ultimately boils down to what the law in your state has to say about it.

Generally, extortion applies to public officials. Some states define extortion as acts committed by government officials, whereas blackmail refers to acts committed by private citizens – even though the activities involved in both instances are the same.

With that in mind, what is considered extortion? There are four main elements to consider:

  • Threats – Extortion must involve the perpetrator threatening to injure or commit a harmful action against the victim.
  • Intent – The threat is made with the specific intention of forcing the victim to part with something of value, such as money or property.
  • Fear – The threat must elicit fear in the victim. It could be based on social stigma, economic loss, the fear of violence, or anything else that may cause the victim to yield to the perpetrator’s demands.
  • Property – The asset that the perpetrator tries to obtain when extorting their victim encompasses anything that would be considered valuable to either party.

The penalties for extortion vary by state. However, more often than not, it is punished as a felony offense with a fine of up to $10,000, a minimum sentence of one year behind bars, or both.

Organized crime charges are severe and carry severe legal consequences. Oftentimes, organized criminal groups coerce or deceive unwitting accomplices in their criminal scheme. If you find yourself in this situation, get in touch with a competent criminal defense attorney to get the best possible outcome in your case.

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discovery in law concept

What Is Discovery in Law?

Legal AssistantPersonal Injury Lawyers, Resources

Civil lawsuits are often protracted, drawn-out processes riddled with progressive phrases, legal jargon, and an infinite amount of prodding that seems foreign to all but those in the legal fraternity.

Understanding how the entire process works and the responsibility that comes with each phase can be daunting for anyone without a legal background. One of the most important stages of a lawsuit is the discovery process.

What does discovery mean in law, and why is it so important? Here’s everything you need to know.

What Is Discovery in Law

The trial process is designed to be fair to all parties involved in a lawsuit. One side presents a series of questions/accusations, and the other side gets the chance to come up with an appropriate rebuttal to each of them. This also means that there can be no surprises in court. Forget everything you’ve watched in courtroom dramas.

That’s where the discovery process in a lawsuit comes in. It refers to the formal exchange of information between both parties to a civil lawsuit based on the witnesses and evidence they intend to present at trial.

The whole idea behind any legal discovery process is to prevent either party from getting ambushed during the trial, aptly christened “trial by ambush.” This might occur when one of the parties only learns about the other side’s witnesses and evidence during the trial. As a result, they’re denied the time and opportunity to gather answering evidence.

Additionally, the legal discovery process allows the trial to proceed uninterrupted once each side receives all the information pertinent to the case beforehand. This avoids holding up the trial process, which would otherwise drag on for longer than necessary.

That being said, the discovery process does have its limits. Privileged information (including trade secrets, and attorney-client, doctor-patient, and husband-wife communications) and the work product of the opposing side are excluded from discovery.

Depending on the type of case being litigated, other types of protected information that cannot be included in the discovery process are certain psychiatric and other medical records, juvenile criminal records, among others.

If the information under discovery is stored in electronic formats, such as in a smartphone or computer, this process is known as electronic discovery or e-discovery for short.

Types of Discovery in a Civil Case

Below is an overview of some of the most common modes of discovery.

Interrogatories

An interrogatory is a list of written questions that one party submits to the opposing side to be answered in written format under oath. Once the opposing side receives the interrogatory, they have a maximum of 30 days to provide answers. This period is subject to Rule 29 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or can otherwise be adjusted by court order.

Depositions

Depositions

These are one of the most common modes of discovery. A deposition or “depo,” for short, is a statement submitted under oath, outside of a court of law, by one or more of the participants in a civil case. This can be made via video or written transcript and can be used in the preparation phase of a trial or during the trial itself. All parties to a suit have the right to be present during the deposition process.

A court deposition – which typically takes place in attorneys’ offices – has two principal purposes:

  1. To find out what a witness knows about a particular case; and
  2. To preserve witness testimony

By the time a case goes to trial, all parties are usually aware of the evidence that will be presented during the proceedings, the witnesses who will testify, and what they’ll say during their testimony.

Keep in mind that a deposition isn’t solely about obtaining favorable testimony. It’s about providing an opportunity for both parties to gain deeper insight into a case to identify the weak areas of their arguments and find ways to rebut them or avoid them entirely during the trial.

Requests for Admissions

A “request for admission” from one of the parties asks the opposing side to admit or deny a series of very specific, meticulously-worded questions to prove their liability. The allegations the opposing side is required to admit to or deny are typically stated in the original document (the petition or complaint) that was used to file the lawsuit.

While it may seem redundant, this method of discovery allows the opposing side to delve deeper into the issues that go beyond those required to state a cause of action. That way, depending on the answers provided, the court can draw reasonable inferences that may influence the outcome of a civil suit.

Requests for Production

This is undoubtedly one of the most popular modes of discovery and is particularly useful in the e discovery process. In a request for production, one party asks the opposing side to provide tangible evidence including documents or information that may be stored in electronic format.

Most of the physical evidence both parties use at trial is obtained using this process. It can become quite an expensive component of civil suits. Some responses to production requests are capable of filling entire warehouses.

A subpoena can be used to direct requests for production to non-parties.

Informal Discovery

Aside from the information gathering techniques detailed so far, other less formal methods might include collecting evidence from third parties to support the case, due diligence on the opposing side, taking photographs of the incident site, etc.

The discovery process is a rigorous undertaking. At some point, everything will surface in the course of the proceedings. It’s only a matter of time.

Discovery can be a complicated and expensive process and warrants the professional expertise of an attorney. While it may be a time-consuming phase in the litigation process, it is arguably the most important as far as the outcome of a civil suit is concerned.

Ensure you retain an experienced and competent attorney to guide you through the entire process.

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What are the Federal Rules of Evidence?

Legal AssistantAdministrative Law, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Resources

The outcome of a case ultimately boils down to the strength of the evidence presented. This statement sums up why evidence is so important in civil and criminal trials. It is the only way a judge in a bench trial or jury can establish a defendant’s liability or guilt.

The Federal Rules of Evidence were established to govern the way in which evidence is introduced at trials in a federal court. They were drafted for several years by the US Supreme Court before Congress finally enacted them in 1975. The idea behind them is to have a standard system all federal courts could use to determine the admission or exclusion of evidence in court proceedings.

What are the Federal Rules of Evidence, and why are they so important? Here’s everything you need to know.

Criminal law vs civil law

These are two broad branches of law, each of which has its own set of rules and punishments that govern it.  The burden of proof varies between these branches of law and must be considered when introducing evidence at trial.

Criminal law encompasses criminal conduct and the legal punishment for such offenses.  The burden of proof in criminal law always falls on the federal or state government to prove guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

On the other hand, civil law addresses disputes between organizations, individuals, or the two, in which monetary compensation in the form of damages is awarded to the plaintiff.  In civil law, the burden of proof is on the plaintiff based on “preponderance of evidence” to demonstrate that their assertion is more likely true than not. The evidence presented in civil cases needs to be beyond the balance of probabilities.

Why are the Federal Rules of Evidence important?

Federal Rules of Evidence Important

You might ask – why do we have rules of evidence in the first place? The whole premise of the rules revolves around a few basic principles – unfair surprise, reliability, efficiency, relevance, and the overall fairness of the court process. They regulate the evidence admitted into a trial and how the jury can use it to reach an unbiased verdict based on fact.

The idea behind them is to eliminate the historical mistrust of jurors by restricting the type of evidence they can receive or the way in which they can use it in their determination of guilt or innocence.

This begs the question – Who rules on the admissibility of evidence? The presiding trial judge determines whether the evidence presented in a trial can be admitted or excluded from the litigation process.

For evidence to be admitted in court, it has to meet two criteria. It should:

  1. Be relevant – The evidence should be material to the case and have probative value.
  2. Not be outweighed by countervailing elements – The evidence should not be privileged, a waste of time, confusing, unfairly prejudicial, or based on hearsay.

What are the Federal Rules of Evidence

It’s important to note that Federal Rules of Evidence only apply to federal court cases. Nonetheless, several states across the country base their own evidence rules on the federal system. Having this knowledge gives you a broader perspective of the rules you can expect to find in your state courts.

Here is a plain-speak overview of each of the 11 articles in the Federal Rules of Evidence:

1. GENERAL PROVISIONS

This section provides information on the rules of admissibility or exclusion and how to object to each.

2. JUDICIAL NOTICE

This refers to the documentation the court may request either party to present or, of its own volition, admit into evidence without having to authenticate or lay a foundation.

3. PRESUMPTIONS IN CIVIL ACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS

Presumptions are tools used by courts to determine which of the parties in a trial has to prove a particular fact.

4. RELEVANCY AND ITS LIMITS

Evidence is only admissible in court if it determines the validity of one or more facts important to the case.

5. PRIVILEGES

A privilege refers to the right not to disclose confidential information unless the privilege is waived. Examples include attorney-client, husband-and-wife, and doctor-patient privileges.

6. WITNESSES

To testify in a federal case, a witness must be competent enough to offer testimony on information they have personal knowledge of.

7. OPINIONS AND EXPERT TESTIMONY

In addition to personal knowledge, a witness can be allowed to provide a lay opinion if it is useful in understanding a fact based on their observations. If the opinion in question isn’t based on the witness’ personal observation, an expert witness with the skill, training, or experience will be called upon to form such an opinion.

8. HEARSAY

Hearsay evidence is essentially gossip presented as fact in a case. The rules exclude hearsay testimony unless it falls into any of the 24 exceptions.

24 Exceptions to the Hearsay Rule

9. AUTHENTICATION AND IDENTIFICATION

Only items that can be identified by witnesses or whose authenticity can be vouched for by an expert are admissible in court.

10. CONTENTS OF WRITINGS, RECORDINGS, AND PHOTOGRAPHS

Photographs, recordings, writings, or any other documentary evidence must be authenticated by an expert or a witness before admission. These also have to be original unless the rules allow for the use of a copy if the original was destroyed.

11. MISCELLANEOUS RULES

The provisions of this section state that the rules of evidence apply in all federal civil and criminal cases. Additionally, it states that the privilege rule is not applicable in grand jury and other miscellaneous legal proceedings. It allows federal judges to exercise their discretion in the admission or exclusion of evidence outside the rules if they deem it necessary.

Do Rules of Evidence apply in arbitration?

The short answer is – no, unless the parties to the arbitration process expressly require it, which is rare.

The provisions of Rule 34(b) of the Commercial Rules of the American Arbitration Association and Rule 30 of the Employment Arbitration Rules state that the materiality and relevance of the evidence presented in arbitration proceedings are at the sole discretion of the arbitrator. They further state that conforming to the legal rules of evidence is not necessary to the process.

GET THE BEST ATTORNEY ON YOUR CASE

A court case is won or lost based on the evidence admitted or excluded in the trial process. If you’re currently facing criminal charges, having proof that helps your case means nothing if you don’t follow the Federal Rules of Evidence to a T.  Ensure you get an experienced criminal defense attorney to represent you for the best possible trial outcome.

How Did the Colonial Pipeline Get Hacked and Who’s Next?

Legal AssistantAdministrative Law, Criminal Law, International Law, Regulatory Law

On April 29, 2021, hackers gained access to the Colonial Pipeline Co. IT network. The security breach, which took down the country’s largest fuel pipeline, caused widespread gas shortages across the East Coast.

The cause: a single compromised password.

How did the Colonial pipeline get hacked, and could it happen again? Here’s everything you need to know.

Who Owns Colonial Pipeline

Before we delve into the facts surrounding the largest publicly disclosed cyber attack on a major US infrastructure, one thing is for certain. If Colonial Pipeline Co. was a publicly-traded company, its stock would have undoubtedly plummeted moments after its shut down.

The Colonial is a privately held firm founded in 1961. It was first established as a joint venture between nine oil companies. Today, the $8 billion firm’s ownership is shared among five companies in five countries that sit on four different continents.

Aside from Shell, the other four companies that own the Colonial are pension funds and privately held companies. The other major oil firms that initially had a stake in the firm pulled out for various reasons and, in some cases, at the demand of regulators.

ExxonMobile (XOM), for instance, sold its stake in 1999 following the merger of Exxon and Mobil. The company opted to retain its shares in Colonial’s competitor – Plantation Pipeline. Colonial repurchased XOM’s shares, distributing them proportionately among the firm’s remaining owners.

Fast-forward to 2002 when Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) and BP each sold their stakes in Colonial to a subsidiary of Koch Industries. The conglomerate, which has significant oil interests, is the largest shareholder of Colonial Pipeline Co., with a 28.1 percent stake.

What Happened to the Colonial Pipeline

When the news of hackers gaining access to the pipeline broke, the question on most people’s minds beyond – who hacked the colonial pipeline – was, how can a pipeline be hacked in the first place?

If you’re like most people, the image that comes to mind when you think of the oil industry is likely greasy black fluids, pipes, and pumps. While this may be true to some extent, the reality is – the modern-day operation of gas pipelines is extremely high-tech and digital.

An intricate network of thermostats, pressure sensors, pumps, and valves all work in harmony to control the flow of gas, jet fuel, and diesel across several hundred miles of piping. The Colonial even has a sophisticated smart “pig” – short for pipeline inspection gauge – a high-tech robot that barrels through its pipes, analyzing them for any anomalies.

At the heart of this state-of-the-art operational technology is a centralized system that controls everything, and anywhere you have a network of connectivity controlled by computers means there’s always the risk of a cyber attack.

Why Did the Colonial Pipeline Shut Down

The cyberattack against Colonial Pipeline targeted the company’s IT systems. The operational infrastructure the company uses to transport oil was not directly compromised during the breach.

A hacker group that identified themselves as DarkSide gained access to the company’s network and stole approximately 100 gigabytes of data within a two-hour duration. The hackers then proceeded to infect the company’s IT network with ransomware that affected several of the firm’s systems, including accounting and billing.

To curb the spread of the malware, Colonial shut down the pipeline for several days. Investigations following the incident reveal that the cybercriminals gained access to the company’s system through a Virtual Private Network (VPN) account that allowed employees to remotely access the firm’s network.

According to cybersecurity experts, although the account in question was no longer in use at the time of the attack, the login credentials could still be used to access Colonial’s system. The VPN password was later discovered on the dark web among a batch of previously leaked access credentials.

It is entirely likely that the Colonial employee in question may have used the same password on another account that had previously been hacked. Hackers then used it to gain entry into the pipeline’s IT network.

Further investigations into the incident revealed that the VPN account did not use multifactor authentication. The hackers exploited this loophole to breach the firm’s network. All they had to do was input the employee’s username and password to access Colonial’s systems.

Ransom Demand

On May 7, 2021, a little over a week after the initial breach, an employee in the control room saw a ransom note appear on the computer screen at around 5 a.m. The DarkSide hackers demanded 75 Bitcoin, which was equivalent to about $4.4 million at the time.

Did Colonial Pipeline pay the ransom? Yes, it did.

In a Congressional hearing, Joseph Blount, the Colonial Pipeline CEO, explained the reason behind the company’s decision to yield to the attackers’ demands. According to him, the exact scope of the intrusion was not clear, and it was impossible to determine how long it would take to bring the systems back up again.

Blount made the call to pay the ransom in the hopes that it would speed up recovery time and give them back control of their systems.

As for the 100 gigabytes of stolen data, the Colonial CEO further stated that while the company did have backups, they were not sure whether the data had been compromised or if it was safe to use. The decision to pay for the decryption key was driven in part by this uncertainty.

Threat actors in a ransomware attack usually demand payment in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The reason for this is their (mistaken) belief that government authorities cannot trace it to the recipients, therefore, allowing them to get away with the crime.

The Ransomware and Digital Extortion Task Force of the US Department of Justice were able to uncover the digital address of the crypto wallet the hackers used. Agents of the task force then obtained a court order to seize the crypto assets and were able to recover 64 Bitcoin out of the 75 paid as ransom. Owing to the volatile nature of cryptocurrency, the market value of the 64 Bitcoin recovered was roughly $2.4 million.

What Happens in a Cyber Attack

Stages of a Cyber Attack
Image Source: Unsplash

Cyber attacks take many forms and are often perpetrated in various stages. There are generally two types of cyberattacks.

1. Untargeted Attacks

In an untargeted cyberattack, a hacker indiscriminately targets as many devices, users, or services as possible. They don’t focus on any particular victim. Instead, their mission is to gain access to vulnerable systems using a wide range of different techniques. Some of these include:

  • Phishing – The attacker sends out emails to a large group of people directing them to visit a fake website and prompting them to offer up sensitive information.
  • Ransomware – The hacker disseminates disk encrypting malware that locks users out of the system until they pay a ransom amount for a decryption key.
  • Scanning – Attackers scan devices to gather port, network, or vulnerability information on these systems before launching a sophisticated attack that undermines their security.
  • Water holing – The attacker sets up a fake website or compromises an existing one to exploit site visitors.

2. Targeted Attacks

In targeted cyberattacks, hackers single out a particular organization due to a specific interest they may have in it or if they have been paid to target the business in question. They typically take several months to lay out the groundwork before finally launching an attack. Some of the techniques used to mount a targeted cyberattack on an organization include:

  • Spear phishing – The attacker sends out an email targeting an individual in an organization. The email may contain an attachment with malware or a link that downloads malware to their device, which then infects the company’s network.
  • Botnet deployment – This delivers a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack.
  • Supply chain subversion – This type of attack targets software or equipment that is being delivered to an organization.

Stages of a Cyber Attack

Regardless of the type of cyberattack a hacker employs, they all consist of the same number of recurring phases. Here’s a brief overview of each.

  • Surveillance – The hacker first investigates and analyzes all the available information about their target to identify exploitable vulnerabilities in the system.
  • Delivery – They then deploy the most suitable technique to exploit the vulnerabilities they uncovered in the surveillance stage.
  • Breach – Once they obtain the usernames and passwords of the system, they test them against VPN connections or web-based email systems. If they had sent malware-laced links or attachments, the attacker tries to access the system remotely.
  • Execute – Once they have total command and control of the target system, they can then carry out their overall objective.

Who’s Next on the List of Targeted Cyber Attacks

A cyber attack on pipeline companies is not new to the energy sector, given the recent attack on Colonial Pipeline to the 2017 NotPetya attack that led to the shutdown of a major part of the Ukrainian power grid.

Cyber attacks don’t just target the energy sector, though. Nearly every area of the global economy has been the subject of a targeted attack. Case in point – the 2020 SolarWinds Cyber Attack.

Russian hackers infiltrated the systems of SolarWinds, a top US Texas-based IT firm. The attack, which went undetected for months, allowed the hackers to spy on the US Treasury Department, Department of Homeland Security, elite cybersecurity firms like FireEye, and several other private companies.

Healthcare cyber attacks are also on the rise. According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, the US Department reported that nearly 1 million people every month were affected by data breaches at health care facilities in 2020. Hospitals hacked for ransom 2018 to 2020 cost the healthcare sector hundreds of millions of dollars, with a whopping $203 million reported in 2020 alone.

The prevalence of these security breaches is much higher than the reported cyber attacks on oil and gas companies.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act of 2018

System Security Specialist Working at System Control Center
Image Source: Shutterstock

In November 2018, President Trump signed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Act into law. According to the provisions of the new legislation, the agency was established to protect the country’s critical infrastructure against cyber threats and physical risks alike. CISA also expands the scope of responsibility of the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) – a critical component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The cybersecurity law created two main centers within the agency to support its mission:

  • The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCIC)
  • The National Risk Management Center (NRMC)

The NCIC is charged with providing cyber-situational awareness, cyber-defense support, incident response, and analysis to territorial, tribal, local, state, and federal governments.

The NRMC’s role is to plan, analyze, and collaborate with government agencies and private entities in the identification and eradication of the critical risks – cyber and otherwise – to the country’s critical infrastructure.

Cybersecurity Executive Order

In May 2021, President Biden signed an executive order to support and improve upon the existing cybersecurity legislation.

First, it proposes the enhancement of federal government systems to make them safer and harder to break into. One of the many measures it pushes for is the modernization of cybersecurity infrastructure by employing zero trust architecture.

Additionally, the new executive order also sets specific, measurable goals for more agile and effective responses to cyber threats targeting the federal government. IT providers are now required to report all cyber incidents that occur regardless of the degree of severity, without any of the contractual barriers that previously barred them from sharing this information with government entities.

The Future of Cybersecurity

All things considered and assessing how cyber attacks affect individuals, companies, and government agencies with regards to losses, the future of cybersecurity is difficult to predict. The industry is constantly evolving in response to the ever-changing behavior of cybercriminals, and new software is always being developed to counter these threats.

One thing is for certain, though. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning will play an integral role in all cybersecurity systems. Unfortunately, it also means that these systems will give hackers new ways to target organizations.

Cybercrime isn’t a problem that’s likely to go away any time soon.

Do you have any legal questions for us? Chat online with a Laws101 attorney right now.

Hands of wife and husband signing divorce

What Is a Legal Separation?

Legal AssistantDivorce Law, Family Law

The decision on whether to get a divorce or legally separate from your partner can be confusing. Before you decide on which path to take, you need to understand the difference between the two and the legal ramifications of each.

What is a legal separation, and how is it different from getting divorced? This article explores the answer to this question in depth.

A legal separation is a court order that defines the rights and obligations of a married couple living apart and leading separate lives. It is usually the go-to alternative to a divorce where both parties are unsure about the future of their relationship but still want to establish certain boundaries as they work through their personal and financial issues. Some of these may include the division of assets, child support and custody issues, and spousal support.

What Does Legally Separated Mean

The reasons why a couple would seek a legal separation vary widely. In some cases, it may be due to religious beliefs, as some religions don’t believe in divorce. There are also those couples that go this route when they’re uncertain about the future of their relationship and perhaps hope to reconcile somewhere down the line.

In other instances, couples might view a legal separation as an ideal alternative to divorce when minor children are involved. While the parents operate as separate units, the family may remain intact to maintain order and stability in the home, for the most part at least. Another common reason for couples opting for a legal separation is to hold on to their health and retirement benefits, which might be lost in a divorce.

Recent trends reveal that a rising number of couples are choosing to separate without a court order to avoid the costs associated with formal legal proceedings. Each party’s ability to freely spend money from joint bank accounts or credit cards freezes the moment the date of separation is determined. The same applies to each party’s control over shared assets like vehicles and property.

Additionally, each spouse may become legally responsible for their individual debt. However, this all depends on the provisions of the separation agreement.

Keep in mind that a legal separation is just as serious as a divorce. They are both court orders that outline the duties and legal obligations of each party. Each spouse is bound by these provisions. If the couple does decide to proceed with a divorce, the presiding judge may consider the details of the legal separation agreement in their ruling.

What is the difference between legal separation and divorce? The most apparent distinction between the two is that one dissolves the marriage and the other does not. Below is a list of the key differences between the two.

Debts

Depending on the obligations detailed in the legal separation documents, each spouse may still be responsible for the debts of the other. In a divorce, the issue of debt is addressed during the dissolution process.

Decision-Making Ability

While a couple may be legally separated, they are married in the eyes of the law. This means that spouses are still considered next of kin. This ceases to be the case once the couple divorces.

Health Care and Social Security Benefits

A legally separated couple still retains their health care benefits, retirement benefits, and all other benefits they may be entitled to. On the other hand, a divorce terminates these benefits.

Marital Status

professional lawyer consulting spouses about legal documents

Each spouse retains their marital status even while legally separated. They, therefore, cannot marry someone else until their existing marriage is dissolved. A divorced individual is free to remarry.

Property Rights

If one spouse dies while they were legally separated, the surviving partner retains their legal rights to property benefits. A divorce terminates those rights.

Reconciliation/Remarriage

Divorce is permanent, meaning it cannot be reversed. The only way to reconcile with your partner will be to remarry them if a legal reunification is what you’re after. A legal separation makes it much easier for spouses to reconcile.

First off, it’s important to note that other types of separation exist. There’s a trial separation where both spouses live apart to determine whether a legal separation or divorce is what they want. This is usually the go-to option when couples start having marital problems.

There’s also a permanent separation where both spouses live apart with no intention of ever reconciling. Such parties are considered permanently separated even though they are not divorced.

Keep in mind that some state laws do not permit legal separation. Learn what your state laws have to say about it to determine whether it is a viable option for you. If your state permits it, you can file for legal separation by submitting a separation agreement to the courts. Alternatively, you could also file for one just as you would when filing for a divorce.

The precise amount you’re likely to spend all boils down to the state you reside in and whether one of the spouses contests the separation. An uncontested separation can settle for anywhere between $50 and $1,000.

For instance, the court filing fee for a separation petition in New York costs $210. The average cost of a contested legal separation involving complex matters like spousal support and legal decision-making is in the $50,000-$100,000 range.

The length of the separation process varies depending on the state in question and the complexity of the legal separation documents. The typical duration is 6-12 months.

Get Help From a Competent Attorney

Given the fact that each state has its own laws pertaining to debt and property division, it is always a good idea to consult with an experienced divorce attorney if you’re thinking of getting a legal separation from your spouse. That way, you can make a decision based on your current and future circumstances once you understand the legal ramifications involved.

Do you have any legal questions for us? Chat online with a Laws101 attorney right now.