While home brewing and home wine making are on the rise and finding more receptive lawmakers across the country, home distilling is still illegal. It is illegal under federal law, mirror-restricted in the states, and unlikely to be altered or amended anytime soon. What is Distilling? Distilling spirits is the process Read more…
On November 7, 2016, Julianne Allen, Senior Paralegal at Simas & Associates, Ltd., guest lectured at American River College. The students were part of the Paralegal Program and the course was “Administrative Law and Procedure” taught by Julia Brynelson, Adjunct Professor. “I was invited to speak and jumped at the chance,” Read more…
Mitigation evidence, in the civil lawsuit realm, is evidence used to thwart a potential affirmative defense of the failure to limit ones damages. This evidence is done to demonstrate to the opposing party and/or adjudicator of your dispute that once you became aware of the injury, damage, or problem, you Read more…
How often do people get injured due to the negligence of the government or some other public entity? All too often, right? In an attempt to limit the number of lawsuits filed against public agencies and/or entities, the legislature enacted what is now known as the Government Tort Claims Act Read more…
Every so often, the team at Simas & Associates, Ltd. encounters a new story about a licensee who undertook to represent himself or herself in an administrative proceeding. The seeming informal nature of administrative proceedings somehow lures intelligent, successful, licensees and business owners into thinking they can represent themselves. Unfortunately, Read more…
Professional licensees and healthcare-related licensees in the state of California can have discipline imposed on their licenses for misconduct. The “misconduct” for which license discipline is under the vague and amorphous “substantially-related to the profession” standard that is not the subject of this blog entry. When these licensees face discipline, Read more…
On October 8 and 9, 2016, Steven L. Simas, founder and owner of Simas & Associates, Ltd. spoke at the 2016 Annual Conference for the California Physical Therapy Association (CPTA). The conference was held at the Santa Clara Convention Center and had over several hundred physical therapists in attendance. This year’s conference featured Read more…
The Sacramento County Bar Association’s, Public Law, Environmental Law, and Administrative Law sections, co-hosted an event entitled, “From the Ground Up: Implementing the Medical Cannabis Regulation & Safety Act – Cultivating solutions to administrative, regulatory, environmental, and consumer protection challenges,” at the September 21, 2016 luncheon. The luncheon was held Read more…
One of the hottest topics in California is the pending voter initiative seeking to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. While obviously exciting and trail-blazing – pun intended – it is still unknown whether it will pass and what the ultimate result will be. But there is also a burgeoning Read more…
In the state of California, some vehicles will require a special license or certificate in order to operate them. Examples include: Commerical Drivers License (CDL) (i.e. Tractor trailers; Construction vehicles; City buses; Shuttles, etc.) CDL with Specified Endorsement (e.g. School buses- (S) endorsement; Passenger buses – (P) endorsement; Tankers – (N) endorsement; Vehicles transporting hazardous materials – Read more…