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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 2, 2014)
8 in other words october2 2014 Ask a Lawyer By Steven Leskin Q~My application for Social Security Benefits was denied. What should I do? A~The application process to receive Social Security benefits can be long and arduous. There are several layers of ap- peals. If your claim is initially denied, you file for “Reconsideration.” Follow- ing Reconsideration, a claimant goes before a federal administrative judge. If you are unsuccessful before the judge, your claim goes to the Appeals Coun- cil in Falls Church, Virginia. After that, your denied application goes to the fed- eral circuit courts. You need to be sure that all of your medical and vocational evidence is submitted before you get to the hearing level. You need to confirm that your record is current and complete. Social Security will only make a decision based on the evidence in your file. If it’s not there- no matter how important- it will not be considered. The other important thing to do is to keep appealing. Do not abandon your application and start the process over later. It is almost always better to keep appealing a denied application, than to file and start over. There can be negative legal consequences to filing multiple new applications. Finally, be sure to send Social Security everything it requests. Be sure to follow their deadlines. Failure to do either of these very well may result in your claim being denied. At the very minimum, you should consider consulting with an attorney. You may have valuable rights of which you are not aware. Also, if you are giving up too much to a spouse just to be done with the marriage, you should consider speaking to someone about what the long term financially impact will be on you. Q~I was at a stop light and was rear ended. The insurance company is offer- Q~My husband and I do not have any ing me money to settle. Should I accept property. We do not have kids. Can we their offer? do our divorce ourselves? A~Insurance companies and personal A~Yes. The courts have become accus- injury attorneys value injuries based on tom to litigants representing themselves what a jury might award as a verdict in divorce cases. You can download the based on the same circumstances. It is forms from the state, complete and file a certainty that the insurance company them with the court yourself. is not offering you more than that esti- Having said that, the state forms mated value. The question is how much are terrible, you will not know what mis- less than that number are they offering takes you have made until it’s too late, and can you live with that. and often the cost of fixing the mistake is Correctly valuing a case is an more expensive, if it’s actually possible art. It takes years of experience to get to fix, than having spent the money up a feel for what a jury might do. What front for an attorney. county you are in makes a difference. Creature Comforts: My Dog Acts Like a Cow! By Michal Smith Hospital Association: “Dogs and Grass Eating” Wild dogs ate their food on the run. They If your dog is only eating grass, you should hunted all kinds of animals, and ate the whole of the consider yourself lucky. While it isn’t surprising that a animal, except for things like the skin. They ate the dog can eat all kinds of vile, disgusting things, it may major organs, the muscles and even the bones, all to be surprising to learn why they do. To understand these get the nutrients they needed to be healthy and strong. behaviors, we need to go back thousands of years, long They didn’t have the easy life of most dogs today. Most before dogs were domesticated, when they roamed the of the prey they subsisted on were herbivores. While a countryside in packs, hunting their food, as referenced dog’s digestive system is strong, it does need vegetable from an article published out of American Animal matter to help digest meat proteins, especially those in the raw meat it was eating. They ate the vital organs first; the stomach and intestines of the animals they were eating were full of partially digested vegetable matter. Even though their digestive processes remain the same, you need to carefully review what your dog is eating to ensure they are getting a well-balanced diet. Without a proper balance of nutrients, a dog will develop all kinds of health problems, just like our - are loo their human masters. new committee mem the area. Your dog can be fed vegetables, but they need to be cooked so they can be the CC properly digested. Feeding a i t a t C C Ce C TOO BUSY? Call your LOCAL bookkeeper R Y OLL A P PLUS LLC Edi Sheldon 503-429-1819 edisheldon@gmail.com Licensed tax consultant • Full service payroll Personal & small business bookkeeping • QuickBooks assistance CORPS, S-CORPS, LLC, Partnerships • Personal one-on-one service LTC #29629 - Oregon licensed tax consultant RTRP #P00448199 - designated as a registered tax return preparer by the Internal Revenue Service The IRS does not endorse any particular individual tax return preparer. For more information on tax return preparers, go to www.IRS.gov. The damage to the cars make a differ- ence. The quality of medical care you re- ceive makes a difference. There are a lot of factors which go into estimating what a jury might do with your case. Another set of factors for you to consider is the time and expense of not excepting the insurance company offer. If you do not, you will have no option but to file a lawsuit against the adverse driver. Even with attorneys who accept cases on a contingent basis- meaning they do not collect a fee unless you win- you may still be responsible to pay costs. And costs, usually start about $2,000 for a typical lawsuit. That means you must be pretty confident that a jury will award you at least $2000. And, finally, it usu- ally takes about one year for a case to work its way through the courts and get to trial. Steven Leskin is an attorney in North Portland. He has been in practice since 1992. You can submit questions to him through www.StevenLeskin.com or through the Vernonia’s Voice web- site. them dark greens, like broccoli, can help curb their liking for eating grass. Just because your dog gets vegetables in their kibble, it may not stop them from eating grass. Here are some important tips that you need to know when it comes to dogs and grass. First off, even biologists and veterinarians aren’t completely sure why dogs eat grass. There are a lot of theories, but the jury is still out. Take a look at some of the latest theories online, as well as dozens of suggestions for breaking the animal of the habit. Whatever the reason, if your dog won’t stop eating grass, you should make sure they are not eating manicured lawns containing harmful fertilizers and pesticides. You can control this in a few different ways. One, you can consider dog ‘friendly’ grass: grow some grass at home that doesn’t have any added chemicals and be sure your dog has regular access to his special grass patch. Don’t walk your dog on grass that is newly manicured or recently treated with chemicals. Usually these substances break down within a few days; after that they are safe. Sometimes dogs will eat grass to make themselves throw up. If your pet does this on a regular basis, it may be a sign that they have a more serious problem. Have your vet check the pup, just to be sure there’s nothing seriously wrong. Most vets say that eating a certain amount of grass isn’t harmful for your dog, and can actually help their digestive processes. Creatures carries several digestion aids for dogs to help curb their need for actual grass eating from chews to powders to pastes. Open Mon-Fri 10-6; Sat 10-5; Sun 12-4; 503-429-PETS (7387). • Results voice in • • • • • • Advocating for Small Business Strengthening Rural Oregon Making State Government Accountable Helping Real People Solve Day-to-Day Problems Putting Oregonians Back to Work Prioritizing Critical Services Re-Elect www. the Committee to Re-elect
