| Tim Murphy Law LLC

My Income Dropped. Can I Get the Amount I Agreed to Pay in Child Support Reduced?

tim.murphy@timmurphylaw.com (Tim Murphy) — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 14:30:12 GMT

Courts have a constitutional duty to safeguard the rights and welfare of minors. Child support should be sufficient to meet the child's needs according to each parent's financial capability to provide for the child. Child support may be established either by a written mutual agreement approved by the court, or as a result of a contested hearing. Either parent can institute a legal action seeking to modify child support based on a change of circumstance.

If a parent's income has dropped, paying child support alongside other responsibilities can take a toll on you. The court can reduce the amount paid for child support in any of the following two ways:

1. Mutual Agreement

Both parties can discuss and decide on an equally agreed modification to the child support payment. The parents sign a stipulated agreement and submit it to the court to notify them of the newly agreed amount. The court then approves the modification if it is found to be fair and in the best interest of the child and the family.

2. Filing a Motion

If you have challenges paying child support due to a lowered income, file a motion in court to reduce the amount. The party seeking a reduction should prove the substantial change in circumstances.

A substantial change in income should be involuntary and in good faith. It can also be voluntary but in good faith, such as quitting a toxic work environment. Unintended change in income could be a layoff, imprisonment, disability, or deployment to active military service.

3. Court Review

After filing a motion in court, the party should present proof of their new income, expenses, and unemployment benefits in case of a layoff. If applicable, they should also show jail, prison, or disability status, current childcare expenses, and medical insurance. The current allocation agreement should be attached as well.

The court reviews all the information provided to determine whether or not a reduction is viable. While reviewing the modification, the court ensures that the child's health coverage is not affected. If the order meets the requirements for a review, the court will determine the new child support amount based upon the evidence presented and the law of Illinois.

Do I Need a Protection Order?

tim.murphy@timmurphylaw.com (Tim Murphy) — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 14:27:06 GMT

If you've discovered that you have a stalker or you need to make sure you and your children are safe, it may be best to file a protective or restraining order. This is a legal order demanding that someone stay away from you. While the document itself won't stop someone from coming to your home or place of work, the order does give the police the right to arrest someone who is violation of the restraining order.

Steps for Filing a Protective Order

You should visit the circuit court closest to your home to file a restraining order. You can also file the order near the abuser's home or near the location when the abuse took place. If you're requesting that your spouse or domestic partner stay out of the home you two share, you must visit the court in the county where the home is located. You can visit the Illinois state website to find a courthouse location near you.

Fill Out a Petition

Be as detailed as possible when filling out your petition. In the document, you will referred to as the "petitioner" and the abuser is known as the "respondent." Explain the most recent incident you had with the respondent and describe any violent or threatening acts that were committed against you.

Review the Petition and Begin the Service Process

Once you've filled out your petition, you should submit it to the court clerk so a judge can review it. Be sure to sign the petition in the presence of the clerk so they can notarize the document. The judge may contact you to ask you some questions while reviewing your petition and will decide whether an emergency order is appropriate. You'll also receive a court date and time so you can attend a hearing concerning the implementation of your restraining order.

The respondent will be served a notice of the court hearing and details about emergency orders if applicable. Service of the protective order must occur before the respondent can be arrested or charged for violating the protective order.

If you feel that a restraining order should be the next step for you to protect yourself and those you love, consult with the professional and knowledgeable staff at Tim Murphy Law LLC. The legal team has a thorough understanding of Illinois law and can walk you through the protection order step by step. Call today to schedule your consultation.

Explanation of the difference in meaning between (R) and TM, and how to determine which to use.

tim.murphy@timmurphylaw.com (Tim Murphy) — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 16:46:20 GMT

Trademarks protect an owner's rights to their name or logo. The two most common forms of trademark protection are using TM and (R). TM stands for "trademark" while (R) stands for "registered." When you use TM, it means that your trademark is not registered yet, but you plan on registering it at a later date. Meanwhile, if you use (R) in front of your trademark, then it means that the trademark has already been registered with the appropriate authorities and should be used as a sign of legitimacy. Which one do you protect your company's trademarks with?

What Is a Trademark?

A trademark can be defined as a sign which is used to distinguish goods or services from those of the other undertakings. Trademarks are symbols or designs that are used to identify a product, service, or company. A trademark may be comprised of letters (including personal names), designs, numerals, shapes of goods, or their packaging. It is possible to register a trademark in respect of all types and nature of products and not only for specific categories such as textiles, cars, and foods.

What Are the Benefits of Having My Own Unique Logo?

If you have your own unique business logo, it will provide instant recognition and identity to your business products. This design is something that can be used on all your marketing material, including stationery, advertisements, signage, etc., so that customers immediately recognize that this product belongs to you. Having a personalized brand image will also differentiate you from your competitors, especially if they do not have one. When you have a logo, you will need to trademark it, and that is where TM and (R) comes into play.

What’s the Difference Between TM and (R)?

Using TM means that your trademark is not registered yet, but you plan on registering it at a later date. - R stands for "registered." When you protect with (R), the trademark has already been registered and should be used as a sign of legitimacy.

Another difference is that TM can be used for an unlimited number of products or services while (R) is only good for one category. If I Protect My Trademarks Using TM, Does It Automatically Protect Me Under International Law?

No, protection via national laws such as USPTO only protects within each country, but there are other organizations that provide worldwide protections like WIPO. However, registering through these agencies can be quite expensive and time-consuming.

What Does Protect Mean?

It means protecting rights against infringers, or people who violate laws, rules, etc. protect can also refer to protect something from being harmed, damaged, exposed to danger, etc. protect is an action word, while protectors are nouns for objects which help prevent harm.

Why Does Protection With TM or (R) Matter?

It is important to stay protected since infringes or people who violate laws, rules, etc., can cause damage to your business's reputation. When registered, you can defend your business if someone tries to steal your trademarked name or logo.

Trademarks are important since consumers can buy poor-quality products from another manufacturer. Trademarks protect the commercial interests of a company through advertising services and goods.

Trademarks identify the origin of a specific product or service, which helps consumers make informed decisions. If the product tends to harm a consumer and it has a trademark, then the owner of the trademark is liable.

How to Register a Trademark?

The full process of registering a trademark is:

Filing for registration;
Examination and refusal to accept the application;
Appeal by applicant; and, if necessary,
Petition to the Commissioner of Patents by the applicant for review of action on appeal, followed by judicial review by civil courts.

What does it mean to file your trademark under "intent-to-use"? How soon do I need to file my trademark? You would file your trademark application under "intent-to-use" (ITU) when you don't have a product or service in hand yet but expect that you will be using the mark within six months filing date.

What Happens When You Do Not Use TM or (R)?

If you do not protect your trademark with TM or (R), then the future owner of that name can use it in a way that could cause confusion for consumers and damage your business's reputation.
In most countries, trademarks have to be registered. This means that if someone tries to steal your trademarked name or logo, you will not be able to protect yourself since there is no proof that the logo belongs only to you. You also cannot sue anyone who has violated laws regarding intellectual property rights without having registration papers on hand proving ownership of the trademark.

Common Mistakes

The common mistake done when using protect trademark like TM or (R) is to protect your trademark with TM when you should protect your trademark with (R) and vice versa. This can be confusing since both protect and (R) look similar.

About Us

Tim Murphy Law, LLC has been providing legal services to the Chicago metro area since 2003. We understand how tough it is to keep up with changing business climate in Illinois but also possess diverse skills and backgrounds necessary for handling both national and international complexities like corporate expansions or major civil litigation cases that could arise at any time. Our experience running a successful practice combined with our location near Mount Prospect make us well-positioned as one of your options when you need an attorney who can handle anything from small-business concerns all way up through high profile disputes involving large companies. Serving clients throughout Chicagoland's west side At TimMurphyLawL P., we've cultivated strong reputations over the years. Our address is 1749 West Golf Rd, Mount Prospect, IL 60056; your welcome.

Conclusion

Summing up, you should protect your trademark with (R) if you don't want others using it in a way that could cause confusion for consumers and damage your business's reputation. If you want to protect yourself when competitors try stealing customers by selling poor quality products under the same name as yours or logo, protect it with TM.

What is GDPR and what does it mean for my company

tim.murphy@timmurphylaw.com (Tim Murphy) — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 15:55:48 GMT

Contents of GDPR

The GDPR 2016 consists of eleven chapters. It concerns the liability of penalties for rights breaching, supervisory authority, and principles, among others—this helps to manage or put the business or organization on toes to receive better results.

Benefits of GDPR

It is difficult to make the most out of today's online opportunities while still keeping information private. That is why we at Tim Murphy Law LLC have made it easier and brought you clarity through GDPR data privacy , having the following benefits:

Business process automation is more straightforward.
Provide a better understanding of data.
The drafting of policies in the startup phase.
Based on evolving privacy regulations, there are amended contracts.
Expanding your business to an international level while advising on remaining complaints.
In matters involving outsourcing documents, there is the management for credit concerns.

At Tim Murphy Law LLC, we make sure there is increased trust and credibility. Trust helps build rapport with customers. The European Union states that GDPR was to harmonize data policy laws and provide excellent protection to individual rights. While EU citizens decide to give more control over their data, they also bring laws and obligations, especially those revolving around personal data.

GDPR qualifies to be considered the world's most potent data protection tool, enhancing people's ways of accessing information. With the data bridge notifications, one can safely handle information across borders with ease.

Compliance of GDPR

GDPR's purpose is to impose a complete data security law on all the EU members to avoid each member state writing his own data protection rules. Compliance causes concerns and new expectations of security terms. Having been adopted on April 14, 2016, and becoming enforceable on May 25 of 2018, GDPR has become binding, applicable, and flexible to change.

Tim Murphy Law LLC boosts confidence levels in the member states while at the same time staying on top of their game. Data is non-transferable to other countries that are not in the EU. Cookiebot CMP is the world's leading GDPR compliance solution. Adequate decisions are fit to be adopted by the EU under its GDPR if it deems that a country outside the EU Union has the same level of data protection.

Customer-Service Requirements of the GDPR

Sites are introduced to notify the ticket buyers timely if your information has been tampered with. The site's data security must be assessed and decide whether to hire a data protection officer to carry out the process.

Information should be accessible to the visitors, and there should be information on how to get the data protection officer to help exercise data rights. There should also be staffing of other employees to assist the different types of people. The GDPR allows for personally identifiable information for easy training and tracking.

GDPR has seven principles that govern it: lawfulness, purpose limitation, integrity and confidentiality, purpose limitation, storage limitation, accuracy, and data minimization. The only new principle to data protection rules by GDPR is accountability and reliance.

GDPR Rights

GDPR is designed to protect individual rights. The GDPR has laid down eight rights to be followed and kept by the people, ranging from more uncomplicated access to information and for the information to be done away with in some scenarios.

The GDPR rights are such as;

Have the right to access information.
Have the right to have your data portable.
Have the right to rectification of information.
The right to erasure.
Decision-making rights
Restrict processing rights.
Right to object information.
Right to be around automated decision making and profiling

What GDPR means to Tim Murphy Law LLC

Some companies doing their businesses with the EU have one law across the contract and many rules and regulations that govern them. GDPR brings benefits to businesses through slim-mining data legislation. Getting GDPR for your business safeguards means the information about your business is to be kept discreetly. GDPR puts the life of the business in the drivers' seats.

All the businesses and organizations all fall under GDPR calculations. Businesses that become subject to the GDPR have their lives figured out. A data protection officer is needed to take care of any personal information involved in the business and make sure the information stays in a hidden state as much as possible.

At Tim Murphy Law LLC, there is clarity during situations or concerns. Taking pride in knowing that your business has a well-defined data protector is crucial. This is where all the decisions are made regarding the welfare of the business. Strict penalties should be put in store for companies that fail to comply with GDPR rights and regulations.

Final Thoughts

Sales prospects and marketing activities are some areas that are improved when you have a well and able working GDPR in your business. As a valuable currency in recent days, data and information should be kept in a way that appraises its values.

Being relevant is vital to ensure that information whose value has ceased to exist is done away with.

Take some time and learning to understand what needs to be kept and discarded. All companies that store or keep information about the EU have to comply with GDPR policies. The steps to ensure compliance with GDPR include looking out for other organizations, paying close attention to your website, and physical reading of the GDPR, among others.

GDPR regards data policy and protection in European Union and controls how other companies handle their personal data. GDPR is significant on data protection and analysis.

What Is a Copyright, and Why Is It Important

tim.murphy@timmurphylaw.com (Tim Murphy) — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 12:59:01 GMT

A copyright is a legal protection for original work. It gives the creator of the work exclusive rights to it, usually for at least 50 years after completion. These rights include the ability to reproduce and distribute copies of the work, create adaptations (such as translations) or make commercial use of it. Copyright doesn't cover ideas but rather protects how these are expressed in literary or artistic form.

General Copyright Guidelines

Copyright law varies from country to country, so you should check your local laws for details on what's required before publishing any content online. However, if you're unsure whether something infringes copyright law, there are some general guidelines that can help:

Is your content original? If not, then it may be infringing copyright because someone else has exclusive rights to it. For example, if you copy someone else's writing and post it on your blog without their permission.

You can also infringe copyright by adding or altering work in such a way that the essence of the original is reproduced. This includes even minor changes like changing words to make them rhyme (known as "copy fitting").

If what you've done isn't considered creative enough for copyright protection, then there may be no infringement, but this will depend on individual circumstances, so best not to take any chances. It's always better to get permission from the owner before using other people's content anyway.

There are specific exceptions to copyright that allow you to reproduce certain types of work without permission. These include short passages for purposes such as criticism, review, or news reporting (provided they're properly attributed), but it's best not to assume that these apply in every instance, so always be on the side of caution and ask before using someone else's content.

You can also infringe copyright by distributing copies of other people's works online if those works have been made available with an attached digital rights management technology known as "Digital Rights Management" (DRM).

This applies even when legal ownership isn't restricted by DRM because what you've done is essentially breaking the technical protection system set up around the original work. This is considered infringement regardless of whether or not you're legally allowed to do so.

If the content is in a country that doesn't have copyright laws, then your use of it may be legal, but this varies from case to case - again, always better to get permission before using other people's work rather than risk breaking; the law.

Copyright also covers works made by employees while they are employed by their employers (so if you want to make copies of company documents or images etc., check with IT first.). The employer owns any copyright unless there is an agreement between them and the employee stating otherwise.

This applies even when someone has been given access to copyrighted material as part of their job, i.e., giving contractors passwords can still result in infringement because although they might not be responsible for the creation of such content, they are still responsible for its distribution and management.

Another important thing to remember is the difference between "Fair Dealing" and "Fair Use." Fair dealing refers to specific circumstances where you can use another person's work without infringing copyright, whereas fair use means that although your material may be similar in some way, it doesn't qualify as an infringement (for example: quoting a small passage from someone else's article when reviewing their book). It's best not to assume that something falls under either category, so always do your research first.

Why Is Copyright Important?

Copyright is important because infringement of copyright could lead to legal consequences such as civil cases and financial penalties.
Only the copyright holder has a right to use a copyrighted work. This ownership may be transferred in whole or in part by selling it, giving it away, including it as part of an agreement, or assigning some rights to an authority.

There are different types of copyright protection. Public domain content is when a work has expired and the work has been published. It may still require permission from the author. Copyright protection under modern law lasts for 50 years.

The law coverage of copyright means that it is covered in most parts of the world. Even if you are an author of the work, then this still isn't enough protection. You need to register your copyright; otherwise, it may be stolen or used without your permission.

Example of Items That Can Be Copyrighted

There are many items that can be copyrighted, such as artists,

Songs.
Books.
Written work.

What Cannot Be Copyrighted?

There is a finite list of what cannot be copyrighted. This includes the following:
Ideas.

Titles, names, and short phrases.
Factual information and data and factual compilations of information and data.
Systems and methods for managing or operating a business or other enterprise.
Sales scripts, ideas for promotions, marketing techniques, and advertising campaigns.

How To Copyright Your Work

To copyright your work, you can visit the Copyright.gov site and start the process of notifying the US Copyright Office. The process for this varies depending on what type of content it is; however, you'll need to provide proof that the work is original by showing what it is and how it differs from other works that are copyrighted in that category. If you want to document a document/paper, then a common way to do so is through a claim in a letter or email.

Once you have submitted your form to the United States Copyright Office, you will have a registration number. This number will be required when applying for certain benefits, such as an exemption from having to pay taxes when selling your copyrighted works or when submitting ones' own work for copyright protection.

It is important to go through all of these steps because it requires proof that the idea, written content, or image belongs to you and not someone else. This will also help ensure that your copyright lasts as long as possible, so if someone were to steal your content, they would have a much harder time doing so without having to face legal consequences.

In conclusion, copyright is important because it shows that you are the original author of your work. You can also get legal protection from infringement if someone were to steal or copy your content for their own use.

Some Changes in the Practice – On Being a Digital Lawyer

Mon, 09 Jul 2018 00:04:00 GMT

Even with the low rates my office charges, there are many times that a potential client needs help, but just can’t afford to bring an attorney on for an entire case. Often, the potential client is well-aware of what needs to be accomplished, and simply needs the help and advice of a lawyer in a limited way, such as drafting documents, explaining court orders, or obtaining discovery. Recent changes in Illinois law have made this possible, and the Law Office of Timothy M. Murphy has begun offering unbundled services to clients in certain situations.

Illinois Rule of Professional Conduct 1.2(c) permits attorneys to limit the scope of the
representation if the limitation is reasonable under the circumstances and the client gives informed consent.

Illinois Rule of Professional Conduct 4.2 clarifies when attorneys may communicate with a person represented by counsel on a limited basis.

Illinois Rule of Professional Conduct 5.5 clarifies that attorneys may counsel self-represented
litigants without filing an appearance in the case.

Illinois Supreme Court Rule 11 requires that the opposing party or counsel serve all documents on both the attorney and the party while a limited scope appearance is in effect.

Illinois Supreme Court Rule 13 allows an attorney to make a limited scope appearance on behalf of a party in a civil court proceeding pursuant to Illinois Rule of Professional Conduct 1.2(c) when they have entered into a written agreement with the party to provide limited scope representation.

These changes have made it possible to offer unbundled services in a useful, complete and ethical way.

To help provide necessary services to an even wider group, my office is also utilizing a variety of technologies to create a “digital law office.” Through the use of an online client portal and other commonly used software clients can now access the full range of my services from their computer or smart phone. For instance:

Consultations are available not only via telephone, but through all commonly used video chat (Skype, Duo, Facebook call, etc.).

Clients have access to information about their court dates, documents, invoices, and a messaging and document upload system through my client portal.

Documents can be worked on collaboratively through Google Docs, Dropbox or OneDrive, electronically signed through HelloSign, and even electronically notarized.

My office is an e-filer in all Illinois and federal courts.

Invoices can be paid online via PayPal, a credit or debit card, or your bank account, and a payment plan can be requested via the client portal.

It is my hope that this change in offerings will allow more clients to have better access to the legal services they need, at a lower cost. As an incentive, I will soon be collecting email addresses through opt-in on my website, and all who do opt-in will receive a free quick-consult, via telephone or video chat.

Thank you all for following, and I look forward to continuing to serve the community as your digital lawyer.