1. Winter Wills & Estate Planning seminars
2. Sign documents that comply with the HIPAA Law
3. Think about who Will Administer your Estate?
4. Make sure you have the correct Beneficiaries on IRA and accounts
5. NJ DWI Law revised including permitting Certified Municipal Court Attorneys & non certified to request plea bargain of DWI cases
1. Winter Wills & Estate Planning seminars
Jan 23, 2024 Milltown Public Library Will Seminar at 6pm
Free to the public
Jan 24, 2024 South Plainfield Public Library Wills, Estate Planning & Probate Seminar 6pm
Free to the public
Feb 5, 2024 at 1pm Members of North Brunswick AARP Senior Center Wills seminar
Feb 20, 2024 Neptune Public Library Wills & Estates Seminar
Tuesday 6:00pm
Free to the public
https://www.facebook.com/events/1374942360121275
2. Sign documents that comply with the HIPAA Law
People will often find that they are unable to even find out whether a loved one- including a spouse- has been admitted to the hospital due to HIPAA (which stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) rules. You may have signed a HIPAA form at your doctor’s office or clinic. However, upon reading the fine print, you will most likely discover that your HIPAA authorization is only valid for that particular network, that it names only one individual who is authorized to access your medical information, and that expires after one year. Therefore, a comprehensive estate plan should include a new Power of Attorney and new Living Will that includes a HIPAA authorization that is valid for institutions located anywhere in the country, including when you’re on vacation, that designates a list of individuals you wish to have access to your information, and that doesn’t expire during your lifetime.
3. Think about who Will Administer your Estate?
If you have minor children, your will is going to include guardians for those minors. You should have the attorney add a trust (known as a testamentary trust) for minor children in it. If you have minor children and you go online to set up trusts for your minor kids in your will, you may think you’ve got it all taken care of. However, if your kids are named as direct beneficiaries on your life insurance policy, the proceeds will never get to that trust and your children will wind up inheriting everything when they’re 18 years old.
4. Make sure you have the
correct Beneficiaries on IRA and accounts
If you have a direct beneficiary named on a retirement plan, life insurance policy, or a transfer on death, and that beneficiary is alive, that can avoid probate.
However, there are a number of mistakes
people make with a beneficiary designation:
· Not naming a beneficiary or a contingent beneficiary.
You get the policy in place and then you die, which means there’s no beneficiary . Or, you name your spouse as the beneficiary and there’s no contingent beneficiary. Your spouse dies first and there is no beneficiary at all, and we wind up in probate.
· Naming your minor children as beneficiaries through a trusted adult.
The person who receives the money will keep, spend, or lose the money, and the minor beneficiary will not receive it. Even people with the truest of intentions are not protected from third parties. If they get divorced, half of that money may wind up with their ex-spouse and not to the minor children to whom the gift was intended.
· Naming an individual with special needs as a direct beneficiary.
A person who relies on SSI or other benefit programs could be disqualified from receiving those benefits by naming them as a direct beneficiary. The solution to that is to hire an attorney to create a special needs trust (also known as a supplemental needs trust) to hold that beneficiary’s inheritance so that you keep them
qualified for all of the benefits they’re entitled to. You can make sure that money is available for everything the government doesn’t provide, which is a much better solution than disinheriting that beneficiary.
Sometimes, people don’t bother coming in to talk to us about a comprehensive plan and instead, they use ad hoc planning, naming beneficiaries on every single one of their assets. This can result in having no money left in their estate, except a parcel of real estate. Their financial advisors and insurance agents are telling them to avoid probate but they die owning their home. Now,, we have one asset subject to probate because all the other assets passed outright to the beneficiaries through beneficiary designations. The home still has to go through a probate proceeding, which is still expensive. Someone has to pay for the attorney’s fees, the court costs, and the maintenance and upkeep of that home until it’s sold. They have to pay for real estate taxes and any improvements that need to be made to the home.
5. NJ DWI Law revised including permitting Certified Municipal Court Attorneys & non certified to request plea bargain of DWI cases
On December 22nd the Governor signed changes to the DWI law (NJSA 39:4-50) which did three pretty important things.
1.Permits plea bargaining in DWIs. Certified Municipal Court Attorneys can now better help clients
2. Allows an arrested defendant to get an interlock device immediately and then get credit for it if sentenced later.
3 extended the life of the 2019 penalty revisions which were due to expire.
The bill signed was
ASSEMBLY, No. 4800
https://pub.njleg.state.nj.us/Bills/2022/A5000/4800_S2.PDF
As amended and reported by the committee, Assembly Bill No. 4800 concerns the use of ignition interlock devices (IID) for drunk driving offenses.
P.L.2019, c.248 revised certain provisions of this State’s drunk driving statutes. This legislation:
1) reduced the length of driver’s license forfeiture for convictions of drunk driving and refusing to submit to a breathalyzer and increased the period of required IID installation for these offenses;
2) required the license of a drunk driver who attests to not owning, leasing, or operating a motor vehicle to be forfeited during the required period of IID installation; 3) imposed certain IID compliance requirements to be met before an IID may be removed after the required period of installation; and 4) removed enhanced penalties for drunk driving and refusal convictions occurring in a school zone. The legislation is scheduled to expire on the first day of the fifth year after the effective date, which is January 1, 2024.
The bill extends the expiration date of P.L.2019, c.248 so that the legislation will expire on the first day of the tenth year next following the effective date of P.L.2019, c.248, which is January 1, 2029. The amended bill also clarifies that only the amendatory language and supplemental sections of P.L.2019, c.248 will expire on January 1, 2029, and the text of the statutes amended in P.L.2019, c.248 will return to the text that was in effect prior to the enactment of P.L.2019, c.248.
Under the amended bill, the amendatory language contained in this bill will also expire on January 1, 2029. The intent is for both the amendatory language and supplemental sections of P.L.2019, c.248, and the amendatory language in this bill, to expire on the same date.
In addition, the bill provides that a person who has been arrested for certain driving while intoxicated (DWI) offenses may, upon arrest and prior to any conviction, voluntarily install an IID in one motor vehicle the person owns, leases, or principally operates, whichever the person most often operates, and request from the Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) a driver’s license with a notation stating that the person is not to operate a motor vehicle unless it is equipped with an IID.
The bill provides that the request is required to include a copy of the interlock installer’s certification and a copy of a court order indicating the date of installation and the related charges, to be submitted no later than seven days after the date of the court order.
The amended bill provides that a person who has been arrested for a first DWI offense whose blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was at least 0.08% but less than 0.10%, who was otherwise under the influence of intoxicating liquor, or whose BAC was 0.10% or higher who voluntarily installs an IID and obtains a driver’s license with the appropriate notation pursuant to the amended bill’s provisions is not to be subject to a fine as set forth under current law.
Under the bill, a person who has been arrested for a first DWI offense whose BAC was 0.15% or higher who voluntarily installs an IID and obtains a driver’s license with the appropriate notation pursuant to the amended bill’s provisions is to receive a one day credit against the period that the person is required to forfeit the right to operate a motor vehicle under current law for every two days that the person has an IID installed and a driver’s license with the appropriate notation and is not to be subject to a fine. The bill provides that a person is not entitled to the credit against the period that the person is required to forfeit the right to operate a motor vehicle if the violation of R.S.39:4-50 resulted in serious bodily injury to another person.
The bill further provides that a person who has been arrested for a second, third or subsequent DWI violation who voluntarily installs an IID and obtains a driver’s license with the appropriate notation pursuant to the amended bill’s provisions is to receive a one day credit against the period that the person is required to forfeit the right to operate a motor vehicle under current law for every two days that the person has an IID installed and a driver’s license with the appropriate notation and is not to be subject to a fine as set forth under current law. A person is not entitled to a credit against the period that the person is required to forfeit the right to operate a motor vehicle if the violation of R.S.39:4-50 resulted in serious bodily injury to another person.
Under the bill, the fine waiver for first, second, third, or subsequent offenses only applies if the person possessed a valid New Jersey driver’s license in good standing at the time of the offense and maintained a license in good standing until the date of conviction
Under prior law, for a first DWI offense, a person whose BAC was 0.15% or higher is required to forfeit the right to operate a motor vehicle for a period of four to six months following installation of an IID and the IID is to remain installed for nine to 15 months after the period of license forfeiture. Under the amended bill, the person is required to forfeit the right to operate a motor vehicle for a period of three months following installation of an IID, and the IID is to remain installed for 12 to 15 months after the period of license forfeiture.
Further, the amended bill provides that notwithstanding any judicial directive to the contrary, upon recommendation by the prosecutor, a plea agreement for a DWI or refusal to submit to a breathalyzer offense is authorized under the appropriate factual basis consistent with any other violation of Title 39 of the Revised Statutes (the State’s motor vehicle code) or offense under Title 2C of the New Jersey Statutes (the State’s criminal code). The bill further provides that a person who enters into a plea agreement for operating or permitting another to operate a motor vehicle while under the influence of a narcotic, hallucinogenic, or habit-producing drug will be required to forfeit the right to operate a motor vehicle for a period of not less than six months.
Under the bill, in addition to any penalty imposed under current law, in sentencing a person convicted of a first violation of operating a commercial motor vehicle with a BAC of 0.04% or more whose BAC was at least 0.04% but less than 0.08%, the court is required to order the installation of an ignition interlock device in one non-commercial motor vehicle owned, leased, or principally operated by the offender, whichever the offender most often operates, which is to remain installed during the period that the person’s commercial motor vehicle driving privilege is suspended.
Finally, the bill provides that nothing in the bill is to be construed to preclude the installation of an IID for a violation of Title 39 of the Revised Statutes under the appropriate factual basis.
As amended and reported by the committee, Assembly Bill No. 4800 (1R) is identical to Senate Bill No. 3011 (3R), which was also amended and reported by the committee on this date.
COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS
The committee amendments:
1) provide that when a person requests a notated license from the MVC, the request is required to include a copy of the interlock installer’s certification and a copy of a court order indicating the date of installation and the related charges, to be submitted no later than seven days after the date of the court order;
2) clarify that the fine waiver for a person who voluntarily installs an IID and obtains a driver’s license with the appropriate notation only applies if the person possessed a valid New Jersey driver’s license in good standing at the time of the offense and maintained a license in good standing until the date of conviction;
3) provide that in sentencing a person convicted of a first violation of operating a commercial motor vehicle with a BAC of 0.04% or more whose BAC was at least 0.04% but less than 0.08%, the court is required to order the installation of an ignition interlock device in one non-commercial motor vehicle owned, leased, or principally operated by the offender, whichever the offender most often operates, which is to remain installed during the period that the person’s commercial motor vehicle driving privilege is suspended;
4) provide that a person who enters into a plea agreement for operating or permitting another to operate a motor vehicle while under the influence of a narcotic, hallucinogenic, or habit-producing drug will be required to forfeit the right to operate a motor vehicle for a period of not less than six months; ….. More info in future newsletters…
You should hire a Certified Municipal Court Law Attorney such as Kenneth Vercammen to Represent you if you or family member/friend are serious about contesting serious charges. Very few attorneys in New Jersey have been able to pass the rigid test to be recognized by the Supreme Court as a Certified Municipal Court Law Attorney.
Ask your attorney if they have actually had trials in the past year or just plead people guilty. Ask if they even qualified to take the Certified Attorney test. If you had a health issue and needed surgery, would you go to a Doctor that was not Certified or even qualified to take the Board tests?
When your job and future is in jeopardy or you are facing thousands of dollars in penalties you need excellent legal representation. The cheap attorney is never the answer. Schedule a free consultation if you need experienced legal representation in a Criminal/ traffic/Municipal Court matter.
