One of the most important things any person can do for their children is to have a will in place when they pass away.  It’s not a pleasant subject, but it’s a fact of life and taking care of it will give you peace of mind.  The first thing you need to do when you decide it’s time for a will is to find a lawyer.  This can be as simple as looking through the phone listings or asking a family member or friend to refer to you to someone they know and trust.

You can also go the high tech route and find a lawyer online.  There are numerous national databases that list lawyers by specialty and location.  This can be a great resource because it provides the most thorough and up to date information available.  Many of the lawyers that are listed on these sites will have links to their own websites.  It’s comforting to be able to gather more information about a prospective attorney.  Many people consider this the very best method to find a lawyer.

When you do find a lawyer that you’re comfortable with you need to sit down with them and answer a few questions.  They’ll ask you for some very basic information including your martial status and how many heirs you have.  There are also more complicated areas that you’ll need to cover including all of your assets and how you wish for them to be distributed once you’re gone.

If you are married it might be wise to see the lawyer together.  In this case you’ll want to find a lawyer that both you and your spouse feel comfortable with.  Many married couples own joint assets and a lawyer will be able to explain the ramifications if one partner passes away.

Another area of wills that lawyers are often called upon to deal with is when someone is contesting a will.  If someone you were close to died and you believe that you have a right to a portion of their estate you’ll need to find a lawyer to help you proceed with a claim.  This can be a very tricky area of law and therefore it’s really important to find a lawyer who is experienced in your particular county or city.  They have insight into what the laws are and also the steps you need to take.

When you do find a lawyer to help with a matter concerning a will remember that quite often he will also be able to help you with any future legal issues that you might have.

Driving While Intoxicated or DWI, refers to a criminal charge assigned to anyone caught by a law enforcement agent in the act of using a vehicle while intoxicated by any drug that impairs mental ability or reduces motor skills.  The drug most commonly responsible for these offenses is alcohol, but some other common drugs include marijuana, sedatives, opiates, amphetamines and cocaine.  The charge DWI is also commonly referred to by a number of other acronyms, such as DUI for ‘Driving Under the Influence’.  Though DWI and DUI are often used interchangeably, some states in the US have a lesser charge called ‘Driving While Impaired’ that also takes on a DWI acronym, and in these states the more serious offense is only referred to as a DUI to avoid confusion.

It is often hard and somewhat subjective determining the exact level of impairment in a driver intoxicated by psychoactive chemicals.  For alcohol, the ‘blood alcohol concentration’, or BAC, is usually used to form DWI laws.  For example, the United States has a federal law prohibiting driving with a BAC of 0.08 percent or higher, while this limit is a 0.05 BAC in many European countries.  Some nations don’t allow any amount of alcohol in the blood of anyone driving, some other nations don’t have any legal limits to BACs at all, and several Middle Eastern countries outlaw alcohol consumption altogether.

Because impairment associated with illicit drugs is harder to determine, most countries have a different set of laws regulating these chemicals in drivers.  In the United States, driving under the influence of any detectable amount of a controlled substance that isn’t prescribed to the driver is an offense called a DUID and carries criminal charges similar to a DWI.  There is some controversy over this zero tolerance approach to drug use and driving, as many illicit substances are detectable in the body days and even weeks after they produced their impairing effect.  The result is that drivers who aren’t actually impaired can be charged with a serious crime.  Lawmakers in the US rationalize that since the substances are illegal anyway, these unimpaired drivers had violated the law by using them in the first place.

The penalties of a DWI, DUI or DUID vary from state to state across the US, but usually involve a steep fine, a suspension of your driver’s license, and or jail time.  Repeated offenses usually carry steeper penalties and deaths caused by someone driving while intoxicated usually carry the additional charge of vehicular manslaughter.

I run a small construction company in the suburban Detroit metropolitan area. We have been operating for five years and have yet to have an accident more serious than someone mashing his thumb driving in a nail. Not once have we been in the position of driving someone to the hospital or having to pay disability. My employees love me because I treat them and pay them quite well. So, when I finally got around to checking OSHA safety regulations to ensure that I was in compliance, I was in for quite a shock.

This particular construction business has only been operating for five years, but I have been working for construction for much longer. I got my start by working for my father, who also owned his own construction company. He didn’t care about OSHA safety regulations. He used to tell me, “son, it’s all common sense. Make sure no one is drinking, make sure no one is over tired, or having some tiff at home that’s stopping them from using their good judgment, pay them well, treat them well, and no one’s going to get hurt.” He didn’t worry about OSHA safety regulations because he knew his men and because his business was small enough to slip under the government radar.

Well, times are changing, I’ve always been a little more cautious than my father. I just had a friend sued completely out of business for something that wasn’t his fault. One of his men had been drinking on the job and got his leg crushed by a beam. I’ll leave out the gory details, but basically, because the man wasn’t wearing the correct protective gear mandated by OSHA safety regulations, my friend had to pay all of his medical bills and damages besides. I figure that you never know. Might as well get into compliance with OSHA safety regulations before it is too late.

I had no idea how out of compliance I was. Just reading OSHA safety regulations is a nightmare. They do nothing to make it easy for you and nothing in OSHA safety regulations is as simple as “wear a helmet”, or “don’t work your men all day without a few breaks.” Everything has technical specifications and procedures. I guess I understand. If they were working under a ruthless boss who didn’t care about their well being, OSHA safety regulations would be the only safeguard that my crew would have. But I can’t help wishing for a simpler, more common sense approach to safety.

Bad personal credit can be a heavy burden for anyone to carry.  If you’ve ever missed payments or had checks returned because your account was short on funds, than you might have bad personal credit.  The first step in determining whether or not you have bad personal credit is to receive a credit report.  There are many companies that for a fee, will run a credit report on you.  This credit report is a very important document and will give you a better sense of your own personal credit standing.  It can be useful when it comes time to apply for a loan or a mortgage.  Each credit report will give a rating on the customer.  If you have bad personal credit your rating will be low.

There are steps you can take to improve bad personal credit but it’s important to know that there is no overnight solution.  It’s a process that takes time and a commitment to following a few rules.  You might want to consult with a credit counseling service.  These services are generally free or very low priced and they will assign you an individual who will help you develop a plan to pay off your current debt and work to stay out of any future debt.

Bad personal credit can mean that you might have difficulty in obtaining a credit card.  Credit cards are essential to many things including traveling.  If you want a credit card but you have bad personal credit you’ll have to consider applying for a secured credit card.  Secured credit cards require a deposit that is equal to the spending limit.

Although it may seem counter productive to use money as a deposit on a credit card, you should instead consider it an investment.  It’s an investment in your financial future.  A secured credit card is still considered a credit card.  Making the payments on time and not exceeding the credit limit, you’ll be rebuilding your credit.

It can be frustrating to realize that you have bad personal credit, but it is not the end of the world.  By investing time and energy into rebuilding your credit you can one day wipe the slate clean.  Forget to pay a bill now and then happens, but over time those neglected bills can add up and not just in a monetary sense.  The best possible solution to bad personal credit is to never allow yourself to miss a payment or exceed a credit limit again.

We know there are many needs calling for a “certified copy of birth certificate”.  What we think would be typically only in one place or maybe two places, we can get exactly that, a CERTIFIED copy of birth certificate information. The operative word here is “certified.”  For many of us getting a driver’s license for the first time, we need to show certified copy of birth certificate data.  As the driver’s license will be the first identification we get after that birth certificate, except maybe if we have already gotten a social security number card.

For traveling abroad, a person needs to get a passport and that means getting a certified copy of birth certificate first.  A photocopy will not be sufficient.  It has to be the real thing.  If you marry an immigrant who does not have a visa already, here in the United States, we must provide a certified copy of birth certificate.  A photocopy will not do.  Immigration procedures require birth data, the certified copy of birth certificate or other official birth records.  And even adult adoptees in many states and on many occasions would like to have copies of their birth records.

The principle behind the certified copy of birth certificate is it’s an official document.  The official or certified copy of the document is stamped by the registrar, making a raised or embossed impression on the certificate that is not captured by an ordinary photocopy machine.  The certification also means there is a registrar’s signature, the date of issue was filed with the registry office and your birth information.  This info differs by location or period of time, but usually includes parents’ names, your given birth name and your vital statistics at birth.

For starters, if you do not have or lost your original, you can apply for a copy, a certified copy, that is depending on where you live and were born.  For example, according to adviceguide.org.uk, if you are in England and was born there, you can get a certified copy of birth certificate from the Family Records Centre, the General Register Office, or by post or going in person to the local register office where the birth was originally recorded.  In the United States, you can contact a Bureau of Vital Statistics in the state in which you were born.  You must write a letter stating your purposes and requesting an application, then you will send the completed application, along with a small check and identifying information that only you have the right to.

There are also services that claim to help you get a copy of your certificate, but make sure they are legitimate and have a good professional reputation and standing.  Check with the Better Business Bureau before paying anything to someone else who claims they can get information usually only you and government officials have access to.