Injured in an auto accident caused by someone else’s negligence? You may be able to bring a lawsuit to recover damages. But before you call your insurance company, call your attorney. Attempting to deal with your insurance company alone, even with the most honest of intentions, can compromise your rights and affect your ability to recover compensation for medical bills, lost wages, vehicle damage, disability and more. In Florida, the auto accident attorneys to call are Lusk, Drasites, Tolisano & Smith, P.A. We understand Florida personal injury law and will work closely with you to fully pursue your legal rights.

If you are involved in an accident, stay calm and follow these tips:

• If anyone is injured call 911 immediately
  
• File a report with the police, even if the accident is minor
  
• Talk only to the police at the scene
  
• Write down the names, addresses, and phone numbers of drivers and witnesses. Include a description of the vehicles involved, license plate numbers and vehicle identification numbers 
  
• Exchange insurance information with other involved drivers 
  
• Contact Lusk, Drasites, Tolisano & Smith, P.A.
  
• Contact your insurance company 
  

The best way to decrease your risk of an auto accident is to remain aware while driving. Know who is behind you and in front of you. Keep your eye on side roads for vehicles that may dart out into traffic. Be alert for traffic signs and signals. Leave plenty of time to get where you are going, and leave plenty of room between your car and those around you. Avoid dangerous habits while driving, such as applying makeup or shaving, talking on your cell phone or text messaging, eating and reading.

Written by: Attorney, Matthew Toll at Lusk, Drasites, Tolisano & Smith P.A.

Frankly, with today's housing market, the only way to obtain 100% complete assurance of payment in full is to require the General Contractor or ultimate customer pay you before you begin your work. However, since this is rarely possible in today's buyer's market, there are still many things that can and should be done to protect yourself against the risk of non-payment.
Under Florida lien law, you are given substantial protection, so long as you follow the right steps. Although it may seem complicated, once you become used to protecting yourself, you'll wonder why you failed to do so in the past. As a subcontractor, the only time you should ever find yourself without payment is when you do work on a home that is ultimately foreclosed upon and where the property is worth less than mortgagees with a higher priority than you.
First and foremost, before you ever begin work, always file a "Notice to Owner". The purpose for filing a "Notice to Owner" whenever you perform services that improve real property is to put the owner of real property on notice that you or your company, as the subcontractor (or sub-subcontractor) has a lien on the owner's real property for the services, labor or materials you provide. As such, if you don't receive payment for such services (even if the property owner paid the contractor), you can foreclose, thus providing security to satisfy a future judgment if you need to bring suit to be paid.
In order to perfect your lien, you must first have the Notice to Owner recorded in the public records in the county that the real property is located. The Notice to Owner must include your name and address, a description sufficient for identification of the real property and the nature of the services you will provide.
After you have filled it out, you must record the "Notice to Owner" and, after filing same, you will receive the "recorded" Notice back. After you have received the recorded Notice to Owner, you must serve a copy of it the Contractor and Owner. If you are a "material man" to a sub-contractor, you must serve the Notice to Owner on the contractor, subcontractor and Owner. The Notice must be served before commencing the work, or no later than 45 days after commencing the work, but in any event before the date of the Owner's disbursement of the final payment after the contractor has furnished the Contractor's Final Affidavit.
Additionally, the owner may designate in his or her Notice of Commencement a person (in addition to himself or herself) to receive a copy of the Notice to Owner. Therefore, I advise you to check the Notice of Commencement, which can be located in the public records, to see if the Owner did designate a second party before serving a Notice to Owner. A failure to provide the Notice to Owner to this second party should not invalidate an otherwise valid lien, but the more parties that are aware of your potential lien, the more likely it is that you will be paid for your services. In order to "serve" a Notice to Owner, you can have said notice delivered to the party or you can send it certified mail, return receipt requested. Please review Florida Statute § 713.18 for information on alternate methods of service.
Okay, let's say you've done everything right. You required a deposit. You filed and served a "Notice to Owner" upon everyone you were supposed to serve. You've done the job competently and on a timely basis. However, at the end of the job, you don't receive payment. Your calls and letters requesting payment are ignored. Now what?
The next step is a "Claim of Lien" pursuant to Florida Statute § 713.08. A "Claim of Lien" needs to be recorded and served in the unfortunate event you have not been paid for your work. The "Claim of Lien" can be recorded at any time during the progress of the work or thereafter, but no later than 90 days after you have finished the work. The "Claim of Lien" must be recorded and served on the owner. It must be served on the owner before recording, contemporaneously with recording, or within 15 days after recording. The service and the method of recoding is the same as stated above.
The "Claim of Lien" is good for one year from the date of recording and if you are not properly paid within that time period, you must file a suit prior to the one year expiration date in order to seek payment from the owner.
Please be advised that the foregoing does not constitute legal advice and this office assumes no liability associated with any one's reliance on same. The construction lien laws are constantly in a state of flux, and, even in the absence of any change in the law, your case may fall within an exception to any of the rules outlined above. If you are a subcontractor and you feel you have a claim for unpaid work, please schedule a consultation with one of our associates today at Lusk, Drasites, Tolisano & Smith P.A.

Written by: Attorney, J. Rex Powell, at Lusk, Drasites, Tolisano & Smith P.A.

Losing your home to a foreclosure is every home owner's nightmare. Unfortunately, that nightmare has become an ever-present reality for many members of the Southwest Florida community. Lee County is one of the foreclosure capitals of the United States. Displaced homeowners and "for sale" signs are everywhere.
Foreclosure is a judicial proceeding in Florida. Banks like to pretend that this is not the case, and unfortunately, our judicial system sometimes pretends that this is not the case. Procedures are not followed, lawyers prosecuting foreclosures don't do their job, and unfortunately, certain Judicial Circuits institute constitutionally questionable devices such as "rocket dockets."
Notwithstanding the questionable practices currently being practiced by banks and their foreclosure attorneys, homeowners in this state have rights. Homeowners have the right to due process, they have the right to employ an attorney to defend them in court, and most importantly, they have the right to put the bank and its attorneys to its proof.
You see, the mortgage industry no longer resembles what we grew up with. The last decade has been witness to some of the most irresponsible lending practices that this country has ever seen. Banks no longer make long term commitments when they lend to a mortgagor. Instead, banks lend money to a home purchaser, then immediately sell the loan off. Your home loan then travels a very complicated and mystifying path to its ultimate home. At the end of the day, many mortgage loans end up "owned" by thousands of individual investors.
What does this mean to you, the homeowner facing foreclosure? It means that the entity threatening foreclosure, or perhaps suing you, may not even be the owner of your mortgage. It means that your mortgage payments may not have been properly paid to the actual owner(s) of your mortgage. Ultimately, it means that you should hire an attorney who can help you unravel the confusion, and traverse the difficult path of foreclosure.
The attorneys at Lusk, Drasites, Tolisano & Smith, P.A. are experts in real estate litigation. Call us today, and set up an appointment to speak with one of our attorneys.

Written by: Attorney, Mellany Marquez- Kelly, at Lusk, Drasites, Tolisano & Smith P.A.

Construing the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, just recently, I drafted a memorandum of law regarding the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, Florida Statute, Chapter 88. The information I came across has prompted some of my clients to ask, “Why can the court modify child support from another state, but not alimony?”. I hope this insert from my memorandum sheds some light on the subject.

The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA), Florida Statute, Chapter 88, makes a clear distinction between the terms, “support order,” “child support order,” and “spousal support order.” Spalding v. Spalding, 886 So. 2d 1075; 2004 Fla. App. LEXIS 17806.Specifically Florida Statute § 88.2051 (1), provides that a tribunal of the state issuing the support order, consistent with the law of the state, has “continuing exclusive jurisdiction”over a “child support”order as long as the state remains the residence of the obligor, the individual obligee, or the child for whose benefit the support order is issued. Id. 1077. Also, Florida Statute § 88.2051 (2-4), explains the procedures to be complied with while modifying a child support order. However, under section(6) of the afore mentioned statute, a court of this state may not modify a “spousal support order” issued by a tribunal of another state having“continuing exclusive jurisdiction” over that order throughout the existence of the support obligation. See § 88.2051 (6), Fla. Stat. (2003); see also Vinnik v. Vinnik, 831 So. 2d 1271(Fla. 4th DCA 2002), cited to in Spalding v. Spalding, 886 So. 2d 1077; 2004 Fla. App.LEXIS 17806. Similarly, under section 88.2061(3), a court of Florida that lacks continuing exclusive jurisdiction over a spousal support order may enforce out-of-state spousal support orders, but may not serve as a responding tribunal to modify a spousal support order of another.