Ocean County Workers' Compensation Law Blog

Despite widespread public awareness campaigns about the dangers of drunk driving, many people in New Jersey continue to make the negligent and risky choice to get behind the wheel of a vehicle after they have consumed alcohol. With the holiday season in full swing, a multitude of parties and other gatherings will be happening in the coming weeks that will likely see a significant number of people driving after drinking.

As reported by NJ.com, the the state of New Jersey saw a jump in the number of people killed in drunk driving accidents in 2016 over the prior year. Only Vermont, Iowa and Alaska experienced a bigger jump in DUI fatalities than New Jersey did that year. Overall, there was a 27-percent increase in the number of alcohol-related deaths in the state compared to a national average increase of 1.7 percent.

Given all of the effort and attention that you put into saving assets to pass on to your spouse, children and other heirs, the last thing you want to consider is having any of those funds eaten away by taxes. Yet there are many will tell you that since death and taxes are the only seemingly the only two certainties in your life, such a prospect may seem to be unavoidable. Indeed, many of those who come to see us here at Silvi, Fedele & Honschke for estate planning advice do so already assuming that their estates will be subject to tax. Like them, you may be pleased to hear that may not (and likely will not be) the case. 

The federal government has established an estate tax threshold that excludes many estates from being taxed. Per Forbes Magazine, that amount is expected to increase from $11.2 million in 2018 to $11.4 million in 2019. What this means is that unless the total taxable value of your estate exceeds that amount, it will not be taxed. Because of this, very few estates are subject to tax each year. You could conceivably gift your spouse up to the threshold amount and not have any of it eaten by taxes. 

Listen up, residents of New Jersey and the United States, because workplace hearing loss is a very real and very serious problem in this country. If you experience ringing or buzzing in your ears, or if you struggle to hear and understand your family members, friends and colleagues when they speak to you, you may be among those suffering from the nation’s most common workplace injury: hearing loss.

When you think about dangerous jobs, you may picture people working on rooftops, in trees or on water, for example, but numerous other professions place workers at risk of hearing loss. According to USA Today, about 22 million working Americans undergo exposure to hazardous levels of noise every year, and the groups most likely to suffer work-related hearing loss may surprise you.

Head injuries can result from a variety of incidents, including motor vehicle accidents. Anyone in New Jersey who has a loved one that experiences a head injury will want to understand how these injuries are evaluated and what type of impact they may have on their family member's life and health. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Progression indicate that a traumatic brain injury has the potential to affect multiple areas of a person's functioning. Moods, emotions and behaviors may change. The ability to communicate or understand communications directed at them is something a person with a brain injury may experience. Balance, vision and cognition also have the ability to be impacted.