Cra47

Triggered by a comprehensive investigation by the Mercury News about how parents in a juvenile dependency case faced losing their children following allegations of child abuse or neglect were represented by attorneys with inadequate access to investigators, experts and other resources, the Santa Clara Juvenile Defenders is ending its representation in June 2008.
The Juvenile Defenders, which has represented impoverished Santa Clara County parents in dependency court cases since 1996, informed the court this week that he would no longer be providing the service after June. The Santa Clara Juvenile Defenders represents approximately 2,500 children annually. The Mercury News reported that ,”former employees, appellate lawyers and clients described Juvenile Defenders as unwilling or unable to provide aggressive advocacy for parents fighting abuse allegations. The firm also suffers from high turnover and an ongoing reluctance to challenge trial court rulings in the higher courts.”

The two-week deadline makes it virtually impossible to get a big pool of candidates to choose from. One potential bidder said the short time frame had prohibited him from entering a bid.

Attorney Kevin Thurber, a high powered Juvenile Delinquency Lawyer well versed in Juvenile Dependency cases in Santa Clara was not notified about the bidding availability until it was too late. Thurber teaches the annual California Public Defenders Association on Juvenile Delinquency matters to hundreds of public defenders each year and is a graduate of the prestigious UC Hastings College of the Law.

In discussing the short two week deadline, Thurber said, “I was shocked about that.”

However, to the County’s credit, it has received a bid from the local Legal Aid Society. That proposal called for hiring “specialized litigating attorneys” to take the more difficult cases to trial; a social worker to help addicted parents through recovery in order to reunify with their children; and an ombudsman who would respond to clients’ complaints. The Legal Aid proposal recommends paying the lawyers upward of $80,000. The current lawyers working for Juvenile Defenders begin around $50,000. The current low pay has been attributed to high staff turn over.

Many criminal cases in state courts have immigration consequences for the non-citizen. Its very important that the Los Angeles Criminal Attorney you hire is versed in basic immigration consequences. For immigration purposes, aggravated felonies include both felonies and misdemeanors of certain categories of offenses. Among the aggravated felonies, they include murder, rape or sexual abuse of a minor. In California, sexual abuse of a minor includes offenses under penal code section 288, penal code 288.5 and other related charges.  In addition to those charges, aggravated felonies include illicit trafficking of a controlled substance; illicit trafficking in firearms or destructive devices; certain money laundering involving funds in excess of $10,000.00, felonies involving explosive materials and certain firearms offenses, a crime of violence where the term of imprisonment is at least on year, a theft, burglary , or possession of stolen property where the term of imprisonment is at least one year, kidnapping offenses, child pornography, racketeering and gambling where a term of imprisonment of at least one year may be imposed, Federal offenses related to spying and acts of sabotage and treason under the National Security Act, Fraud that exceed $10,000, alien smuggling, re-entry after deportation for an aggravated felony counterfeiting U.S. Passport, Failure to appear at court sentencing where underlying offenses is punishable by imprisonment up to five years, commercial bribery, trafficking of cars whose VIN numbers have been altered, offenses relation to obstruction of justice, perjury, subornation of perjury or bribery where the term of imprisonment imposed is at least one year. Its very important that you hire a immigration lawyer to review any plea agreement your criminal lawyer or juvenile lawyer negotiates.

When a person is charged with a felony in the state of California, that person has a right to a preliminary hearing within 10 court days after the date he or she is arraigned or enters a plea, whichever occurs later pursuant to penal code section 859b. Saturdays, Sundays, and statewide holidays are not considered court holidays but local holidays count as court days. The Judge must dismiss the criminal complaint when the preliminary hearing is set or continued more than 60 days after the arraignment or plea absent a personal time waiver from the defendant pursuant to penal code section 859b. A violation of the 60-day rules requires a mandatory dismissal when challenged under a Penal Code 995 motion. The preliminary hearing is a crucial stage of the proceedings of the case. Often times, this may be the only opportunity for the Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney to cross examine potential witnesses prior to a jury trial. Often times, the prosecutor or investigating detective will advise their witnesses to not speak with any defense investigators. Ever since Crawford vs. Washington was decided, many prosecutors now try to put on their key prosecution witnesses at the preliminary hearing. Witnesses who testify at preliminary hearings are sworn in under oath and a court reporter is present to record all questions and answers as well as comments by the prosecutor, judge and defense lawyer.

In California, Deferred Entry of Judgment is available for juveniles 14 and older who are charged with a felony if he or she can meet all six of the following requirements under Welfare and Institutions Code section 790: (1) The minor must not previously have been made a ward of the juvenile court because of the commission of a felony ;(2) The charged offense must not be a Welfare & Institutions Code section 707(b) offense; (3) The minor must never have been committed to the CYA or DJJ; (4) The minor must never have had probation revoked, without its later being completed; (5) The minor must be at least age 14 at the time of the hearing; and (6) The minor must be eligible for probation under Penal Code section 1203.06. According to Los Angeles Juvenile Attorney George Kita, the benefits of participating in Deferred Entry of Judgment is that the minor who successfully completes the program, is deemed to have been never convicted of the charge. In addition, successful completion results in the dismissal of the petition and the record being sealed. Mr. Kita noted, “It means so much to be able to have your record sealed.”

As you probably have read, we like to keep you up-to-date with things in the Spanish Property market. 2007 was not a good year for a lot of agents and many have fallen by the wayside in the flat property sales market.

As we start 2008 there are signs for optimism as AMLA, The MLS dealing with Spanish property for sale has announced record visitors for the first two weeks of the year.

Costa Blanca Property and especially Moraira property and Javea property have shown double-digit increases in visitors.

The proff of the pudding though is whether these visitors or ‘browsers will turn into buyers. It was confidence in the global mortgage market that made purchasers wary in the second half of 2007. Many came to look but left without purchasing. With interest rates in both the USA and possibly UK on the decline there may now be confidence returning to investors looking to cash in on purchases at the perveived ‘bottom’ of the market cycle. 

It had to happen at sometime. Maybe it was the downturn in the Real Estate Market that has shown that the power of the internet is starting to usurp the value of the Real Estate Agent service. Whichever is true, the Flat Fee MLS has emerged and is here to stay.

The Flat Fee MLS is a merger of ideas, taking the ability to list on a property on the MLS with the FSBO method of an individual property owner selling their house without a Real Estate Agent. MLS listings have  in recent years always been the bastion of the agents. The increase in internet use has meant that to get good exposure for a property then an MLS listing was almost essential.

Now we are seeing the emergence of brokers ’selling their birthright’ for a flat fee, allowing the individual the access to the MLS through their brokerage but not offering any other service.

In hard times  it is something that may spread!

The holiday industry in Spain provides the majority of income to the coastal areas of the Costa Blanca, Costa del Sol etc. A good chunk of this goes to private villa owners who rent their properties to holiday makers through the summer months

Spain Rentals are big business. So its no surprise that the Estate Agent Association AMLA is getting in on the act. The Spanish Property MLS is set to launch a sub domain for villa rentals Spain. The site differs from most because it has the ability for property Agents and Owners to market their holiday vill using video as well as the normal photo layout.

AMLA, who recently also launched their community & property forum and video sub-domains intends to market heavily to attract Costa Blanca villas owners and Costa del Sol Properties where video production facilities are available at low rates,    

Leading on from the last post regarding how to repair your credit yourself, I though I would give another bit of info that I found regarding self credit repair 

Once you get into doing a bit of research regarding self credit repair you will find that there are some good and some bad sites. Some will promise the world saying that you can get a clean credit repair….but it will cost $x. What you end up with is $x worth of more debt and nothing gets done about your credit rating.

It may take a bit longer to achieve with doing it yourself, but look at it like a learning curve. Self credit repair will at least give you peace of mind for the future that you know how do deal with these institutions.

So dint get taken in by promises of things you know cant happen….not without the help of an illegal hacker and opt for the self credit repair route

AMLASpain, The Spanish Property MLS, has said that its goal for 2008 is to achieve authority status on google for Spanish Property. Having added in the last two months a Spanish Property Forum & Community forum, Video facilities for property marketing, a sub-domain for holiday & villa rentals in Spain AMLA believes it has put all the ‘cards in a row’ to achieve its aims.

‘In association with the Spanish language site AMLACasas  we hope to attract an ever-increasing share of the domestic market towards Multiple Listing. Future goals then include launching a property MLS in the UK for the UK domestic property market. We can undercut the advertisers like Rightmove by 75% and offer back-office software to boot. I think we will find customers.. 

Credit or credit score can become an ugly word if you are not careful. It is not so easy keeping your credit perfect and in a world that relies on the ins and outs of the credit agencies it is easy to find yourself with a negative credit ratings without even knowing it.

The fact is that whether its a mistake or a case of stolen identity a negative on your credit report can mean doom for anyone trying to get a home loan or car loan.

Enter the Self Credit repair Kit.

The self credit reapair kit gives you all the instructions and forms to do ….’exactly what it says on the tin’

Most people dont realise that it is a legal right for you to be able to challenge anything that you find on your credit report. not only do they realise that they can…actually knowing how to go about it is another matter entirely.

This is where the self credit repair kit comes into its own giving you all the necessary guidance as to what forms to fill in and where to send them along with helpful downloads.

So if your credit has taken a bash and you want to put it right, this is a great place to start.

Ouch…even that play on words was pushing the limits for me!

They are all around us… we look at them all the time…but rarely do we see them.. What am I talking about?

The advertising board…..no not the poster that we see, the actual board that its pasted onto. Alcom Aluminium is the new board on the block. Its a new composite replacement for both the dibond and multipanel boards that you see…or dont see all around us.

There is a revolution in the materials used to make these boards, outstripping the guarantees and european standards that are currently in effect. The VKD Group are the leader in this field strtch the boundaries of composite plastics.

Sitting in your armchair…cup of tea on the table next to you…warm fire, glowing in the hearth…dont you just love christmas shopping! Allneedsandwants takes away the stress of shopping…the barging , the nightmare of parking…and god forbid the crush of the sales.

The online shopping mall is I hope, here to stay and I have to cinfess I am not quite sure where all those people, who crush into the town centres in their SUVs wasting time, gas and their own patience, have been for the past…five years. 

You can search for pretty much anything, get an amazon discounter, delivery to your doorstep.

Like I said at the beginning…dont you just love the shopping season

Ok, here is a good cause posting for all those animal lovers out there…and I am one. When it comes to pets I cant keep a dry eye when you see some of the cruelty bestowed on pets by some people. So when a pet adoptions website sets up that is trying to re-home some of the misfortunate pets that have been abandoned or mis-treated …you just gotta give them a plug.

Pet Adoptions gives you a good look at the pets on offer. They have a full bio and the pictures will get you on their own.

have you seen Aspcc ad with Sarah Mccloghlin….wow…They got the sentiment right though….So support pet adoptions….well, only if your a normal sane person that loves animals and if you have space for another then give pet adoptions a look..

Go Guys….Keep up the good work

There are some great sayings in real estate. One that stays with me in times of depressed markets is that ‘a home is worth what some-one is willing to pay for it’!
So much for the valuation models that are used by the industry if this is true. The Real estate market is governed by simple supply and demand economics. In a market as large as the US this means that whilst home loans may be depressed in California, it is not necessarily the case that the market is not buoyant elsewhere.

The major factor affecting the market on a national level is the rate of information transfer and the understanding of it. Put simply…confidence has been lost in the market due to a lack of confidence, (demand) in the market due to a mis-understanding of the news reports of an isolated section of the market…the sub-prime crisis.
Equity loans are on the up as people turn to home equity loans instead of moving.

What will it take to bring back confidence? Well you can bank on the media to start the hype just as they have preached the doom and gloom. Their inability to explain a complicated issue in more than two syllables causing widespead uncertainty works for creating hope out of a 1/4 point cut in interest rates in the same way. In any event….don’t panic….it wont take long.