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Kentucky

08.28.2015

Environmental attorneys address stormwater issues in presentation

Environmental attorneys address stormwater issues in presentation Read More

08.20.2015

Kenly Ames examines Kentucky standard for civil lawsuits in latest Bench & Bar

Kenly Ames examines Kentucky standard for civil lawsuits in latest Bench & Bar Read More

08.14.2015

Moving South doesn’t mean you outrun high estate taxes

By Nathan Vinson, Attorney English, Lucas, Priest and Owsley Ah, Florida. It calls to retirees like the mythical siren calls to sailors. Warm weather, year-round golf, palm trees on every corner, not a flake of snow and the promise of lower taxes bring the 60-plus set to our Southern-most state at record rates. In fact, Florida is now the nation’s third most populous state. The Journal of Accountancy notes that 19 states impose an inheritance tax on top of other federal taxes. Both Kentucky and Tennessee have an inheritance tax, although Tennessee will eliminate its inheritance tax in 2016. This means if you inherit property from an estate of someone who moved to Kentucky or Tennessee and passed away in either state, you might be giving a portion of those proceeds from the estate to the respective state government – if the proceeds are above certain thresholds and, at least in Kentucky, depending on your relationship to the deceased. What complicates matters is that governments in some states seem highly suspicious of those who move away. Some put families who have inherited an estate through rigorous paperwork to try to get out of paying estate taxes in that state. Read More

08.13.2015

ELPO attorneys speaking on immigration law at conference

ELPO attorneys speaking on immigration law at conference Read More

08.04.2015

A couple’s marital status determines who gets the estate

By Nathan Vinson, Attorney English, Lucas, Priest & Owsley, LLP Facebook has a neat little box that you can check to indicate your relationship status. There are some options that are clear cut – or at least seem to be: married, divorced, single. There’s another option that’s becoming more popular as of late called “it’s complicated.” It’s a handy box to check when life is messy. Unfortunately, though, there’s no “it’s complicated” box to check in legal documents. In the eyes of the law, you’re either single, legally separated or married. There’s no in-between for marital status. The lives of Luther and Shirley Mills definitely fell under the “it’s complicated” category, and the Kentucky Court of Appeals recently ruled on whether or not the couple was legally married at the time of Luther’s death. At stake was Luther’s estate. ' Read More

07.28.2015

Amusement park accidents and injuries

By Kyle Roby English, Lucas, Priest & Owsley, LLP Amusement park rides are designed to entertain and delight adults and children. But the very nature of what makes them fun – the thrill of a fast ride that careens you up and down hills and through loops – can be the very thing that makes amusement park rides dangerous. There are well-maintained parks and those that are not, and chances are, you may not know the difference by looking at them. In Kentucky, one of the most recent amusement park accidents that comes to mind is an incident at Six Flags in Louisville, Kentucky, which is now closed. In 2007, a 16-year-old girl was riding the Superman Tower of Power ride, which takes riders straight up 20 stories and drops them towards the ground at speeds up to 54 miles per hour. A cable on the ride became loose and wrapped around the girls’ feet, severing her feet. The ride was immediately closed, and the girls’ family successfully sued the park. Also in Louisville, the Louisville Zoo faced lawsuits from patrons who were riding on a small train meant to carry children and their parents when it went careening out of control. The Zoo train was closed for four years. Although the Zoo itself could not be sued, a judge ruled, the individual employees operating the train could, and were. Injuries from that accident were severe for some of the riders. One man had his leg pinned under the train and had a series of eight surgeries to repair the damage. He had missed 18 months of work at the time of the lawsuit. A small child had disfiguring face injuries, and many others were injured in other ways. As with those cases, different legal claims are available to people who have been injured on an amusement park ride. Although the specific claim depends on the nature of the incident or accident, two of the most common are negligence and product liability. Injuries do not have to be that severe to recover. Read More

07.16.2015

Truck driver fatigue often the cause of accidents in Kentucky

By Kyle Roby, Attorney English, Lucas, Priest and Owsley, LLP The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations apply to all tractor-trailers and truck drivers  in the U.S., including those in Kentucky and Tennessee. These regulations cover every aspect of operating, maintaining, and driving a truck. One of the most important, but also most ignored, part of these regulations concerns how long a driver can be behind the wheel in a given day, called hours of service rule. The hours of service rule provides that a truck driver may work no more than 14 hours in a day, with only 11 of those hours actual driving time. The rule is intended to limit truck driver fatigue. A truck driver can only operate a vehicle for 8 consecutive hours before taking a break, which must be 30 minutes or longer. The truck driver must record his hours of service in a drivers log book that he or she must keep updated at all times while driving. These rules are hard to enforce. Often, when we handle a truck accident case for a client, this is one of the first things we examine, and we often find that the trucking company and truck driver has violated this rule, falsified their log book, or exceed their hours of service. Having an experienced attorney examine the drivers log books and hours of services is critical when a truck driver has caused a wreck. Read More

07.14.2015

ELPO now has six Certified Kentucky Paralegals

ELPO now has six Certified Kentucky Paralegals Read More

06.16.2015

Kentucky Statute of Limitations for Car Accident Determined by Date of Issuance of Replacement Check, Not Date of Original Check That Was Lost – Beaumont v. Zeru

Most civil lawsuits involving personal injury are subject to a statute of limitations, or time limit, after which a party has no legal recourse unless a special exception applies. When this happens, it is often said that the statute of limitations has been "tolled." Both the length of the limitations period and the possibility of tolling can vary widely, depending upon the state in which the accident occurred. The recent case of Beaumont v. Zeru discussed the extent to which an insurance company's payment of certain benefits affects the time period during which an injured motorist may file suit against the responsible party. Read More

06.09.2015

ELPO takes three awards at Relay for Life

ELPO takes three awards at Relay for Life Read More