If you suffer an injury resulting in significant damages you will need to hire a personal injury lawyer. But in any given city, there are probably over 20 pages of personal injury attorney listings in the phone book. How do you pick the right one? What do you look for? What questions should you ask? Here are 7 things you should know before hiring your injury lawyer…

1) The sooner you hire your lawyer the better. Begin looking for your personal injury lawyer within a week or two after your accident. If you’re not physically capable you should have a friend or loved-one start looking. The sooner you start building your case the better.

2) Hire a personal injury lawyer that specializes in your specific type of injuries. Do your homework before signing the retainer agreement. Visit the firm’s website and read up on it’s history and each lawyer’s biographical information. Ask the lawyer for some referrences and ask how much experience they have in handling cases with similar injuries. What settlement awards did they get in those cases?

3) Have a face-to-face meeting with your prospective lawyer. Your personal injury lawyer is going to be your closest advisor during this difficult time. You must feel comfortable and trust your lawyer. The only way you’ll get a feel for the lawyer is by having a sit-down to discuss your case. Any good personal injury lawyer will give you an initial consultation free of charge.

4) Hire a lawyer that will take your case on a contingency fee basis. This means that your lawyer won’t get paid unless you get paid. He will take his fee out of the money you receive for your injuries. You can expect your lawyer to take about 33% of your final settlement – that’s after expenses are taken off the top. Make sure you clearly understand the payment structure before you sign the retainer agreement.

5) Beware of ambulance chasers. The goal of these lawyers is to get lots of minor personal injury cases and settle them quickly – they make their profit from high turnover. So naturally they won’t put as much time and effort into each case as they should. (If you’re looking for a quick settlement be prepared to accept less than what your case is really worth.)

6) Hire a lawyer with a good Martindale-Hubbell rating. This service evaluates lawyers in the U.S. and Canada based on peer review. Their website, Martindale.com has a helpful lawyer locator service and will explain the rating system.

7) Always be completely open and honest when discussing your case with a lawyer. Tell the lawyer as much as you can about what happened. Try to remember every detail. Any documentation and pictures you have of your injuries and treatment will be a big help when evaluating your case.

Bonus Tip: Never give a recorded statement to a representative from any insurance company until you’ve consulted a lawyer. When the rep. asks for one simply say, “I’m not prepared to give a statement at this time.” A recorded  statement can be used as evidence and if you’re not prepared you might overlook important details. Anything you miss (or misrepresent) can be used against you in settlement negotiations and in the trial.

About the author:  Arthur Gueli works with his brother Charles (a licensed personal injury attorney) teaching injured plaintiffs how to obtain fair compensation for their damages.  Learn more about how to hire a great personal injury lawyer at http://www.Injury-Settlement-Guide.com

Winning child custody is one of the most difficult issues parents confront in divorce. In many cases, both parents want custody and are willing to spend whatever it takes to win. Custody is all about what is best for the children – and that involves proving that you are the best parent – i.e. that the other parent is not as good a parent as you and/or that the other parent is just simply a bad parent.

Some tips for winning child custody are:

1. If you are not involved in your children’s lives now, you are not getting custody from a judge. If you are a working parent who lets your spouse handle all of the details of parenting, you are not prepared to win at custody. You must either change your objectives or change your parenting. If you really want custody, get involved now – in all aspects of your children’s lives. Get involved in your children’s schooling. Attend their extra curricular events. Take them to the doctor and dentist. Get to know what professionals your children see and be involved with them?

2. Make sure that you are not exposing your children to unsafe or unhealthy environments when they are with you. Are you involved in another relationship? Has there been more than one? Be very careful about exposing your children to your companion(s). Many judges, professionals, and other parents object to the children being subjected to other relationships too early in that process. More important, if you really want to win at custody, it should be because you want to spend time with your children parenting them. Spending time with someone else when you have the children is a recipe for losing at custody in court.

3. Do you put down your children’s other parent when the children are with you – either consciously or subconsciously? If you do, stop. One sure way to lose at custody is to hurt the children’s relationship with the other parent. A judge will consider whether a parent promotes or prevents the other parent’s access to and relationship with the children when seeking custody.

4. Winning child custody requires that you keep a calendar for everything. You need to be able to look back and remember details when it comes time to litigage custody. If you do not know when you had the children, what events you attended, where they were or you were or allof the times your spouse was not timely for a pick up or drop off, you will only hurt your own case. You can keep track on your own calendar, with your own journal, or with a professionally managed calendaring system.

5. Be on time…Be on time….Be on time. Few issues cause as much conflict as a parent who is persistently late in picking up or dropping off children. It irks the judges, it creates arguments with your ex or soon to be ex, and it stresses out the children. So, Be on time.

6. Be flexible. If the other parent wants to switch weekends or weekdays, do it if you can manage your schedule. When the time comes to tell the judge why you should have custody, you can tell the judge that you are the parent who makes sure that the schedule works. In a close case, this issue makes a difference.

7. Do not involve your children in the issues that are pending in court or with attorneys. Courts generally are very opposed to the children knowing the details of what are essentially adult issues. Children should be told that both parents love them and want to see them – that’s it. The children may see a psychologist and/or an attorney or other professional if the court directs that. The children can talk to those people about your case – you should not be giving them the details, especially if giving the details involves denigrating the other parent.

8. Winning at custody requires considering one other very important factor: where do the children want to live. It is not a good idea to coach your children on this issue. They will have an opportunity to tell what they want to either the court, their attorney or a psychologist. However, it is a good idea to know what they want. If they want to live with their other parent, you should not spend all of your time and money pursuing custody, unless you believe that it is unsafe or inappopriate for the children to live with that parent.

9. You do have to be willing to show why your children’s other parent should not have custody. So, you need to keep track of whether that parent is on time, involved, and flexible with the schedule. If that parent has any issues that affect custody, such as a history of mental health issues which impact his or her ability to care for the children or alcohol or drug addictions, you need to let the court know. Other issues that can and do affect custody determinations include the number and frequency of romantic relationships and the epxosure of the children to those relationship, the proper supervision of the children, and ensuring that the children attend school and see professionals such as a doctor and dentist when necessary.

10. Above all else, hire a good attorney and be open and honest with your attorney. Listen to your attorney, not some friend or relative who is sure about what you should do because they had a friend or a relative who got a better deal. If you are paying your attorney, listen to what he or she has to say.

Winning child custody is a long and difficult process. Make sure to pay attention to every detail but above all, keep your child’s best interest at the top of the list.

A key logger is a program that runs in your computer’s background secretly recording all your keystrokes. Once your keystrokes are logged, they are hidden away for later retrieval by the attacker. The attacker then carefully reviews the information in hopes of finding passwords or other information that would prove useful to them.

For example, a key logger can easily obtain confidential emails and reveal them to any interested outside party willing to pay for the information. Key loggers can be either software or hardware based.

Software-based key loggers are easy to distribute and infect, but at the same time are more easily detectable.

Hardware-based key loggers are more complex and harder to detect. For all that you know, your keyboard could have a key logger chip attached and anything being typed is recorded into a flash memory sitting inside your keyboard. Key loggers have become one of the most powerful applications used for gathering information in a world where encrypted traffic is becoming more and more common.

As key loggers become more advanced, the ability to detect them becomes more difficult. They can violate a user’s privacy for months, or even years, without being noticed.  During that time frame, a key logger can collect a lot of information about the user it is monitoring. A key logger can potential obtain not only passwords and log-in names, but credit card numbers, bank account details, contacts, interests, web browsing habits, and much more. All this collected information can be used to steal user’s personal documents, money, or even their identity.

A key logger might be as simple as an .exe and a .dll that is placed in a computer and activated upon boot up via an entry in the registry. Or, the more sophisticated key loggers, such as the Perfect Key logger or ProBot Activity Monitor have developed a full line of nasty abilities including:

• Undetectable in the process list and invisible in operation

• A kernel key logger driver that captures keystrokes even when the user is logged off

• A remote deployment wizard

• The ability to create text snapshots of active applications

• The ability to capture http post data (including log-ins/passwords)

• The ability to timestamp record workstation usage

• HTML and text log file export

• Automatic e-mail log file delivery

All key loggers are NOT used for illegal purposes. A variety of other uses have surfaced. Key loggers have been used to monitor web sites visited as a means of parental control over children. They have been actively used to prevent child pornography and avoid children coming in contact with dangerous elements on the web.

Who hasn’t received an email directing them to visit a familiar website where they are being asked to update their personal information? The website needs you to verify or update your passwords, credit card numbers, social security number, or even your bank account number. You recognize the business name as one that you’ve conducted business with in the past.

So, you click on the convenient “take me there” link and proceed to provide all the information they have requested. Unfortunately, you find out much later that the website is bogus. It was created with the sole intent to steal your personal information.

You, my friend, have just been “phished”.

Phishing (pronounced as “fishing”) is defined as the act of sending an email to a recipient falsely claiming to have an established, legitimate business. The intent of the phisher is to scam the recipient into surrendering their private information, and ultimately steal your identity.

It is not at easy as you think to spot an email phishing for information. At first glance, the email may look like it is from a legitimate company. The “From” field of the e-mail may have the .com address of the company mentioned in the e-mail. The clickable link even appears to take you to the company’s website, when in fact, it is a fake website built to replicate the legitimate site.

Many of these people are professional criminals. They have spent a lot of time in creating emails that look authentic. Users need to review all emails requesting personal information carefully. When reviewing your email remember that the “From Field” can be easily changed by the sender. While it may look like it is coming from a .com you do business with, looks can be deceiving.

Also keep in mind that the phisher will go all out in trying to make their email look as legitimate as possible. They will even copy logos or images from the official site to use in their emails. Finally, they like to include a clickable link that the recipient can follow to conveniently update their information.

A great way to check the legitimacy of the link is to point at the link with your mouse. Then, look in the bottom left hand screen of your computer. The actual website address to which you are being directed will show up for you to view. It is a very quick and easy way to check if you are being directed to a legitimate site.

Follow the golden rule: never, ever, click the links within the text of the e-mail, and always delete the e-mail immediately. Once you have deleted the e-mail, empty the trash box in your e-mail accounts as well. If you are truly concerned that you are missing an important notice regarding one of your accounts, then type the full URL address of the website into your browser. At least then you can be confident that you are, in fact, being directed to the true and legitimate website.

You can find out where someone went by downloading the phone’s map history.  You can quickly and easily download deleted information from an iPhone. The iPhone Spy Data Recovery Stick is the ultimate iPhone recovery tool for anyone who wants to capture deleted data or spy on iPhones of any model up to the iPhone 4.

The iPhone Recovery Stick makes it easy to recover deleted text messages,  contacts, call history, web history and calendar appointments, giving you a unique look into exactly what the user has been searching for, who they’ve been talking to, and even where they’ve been. With features like saved map search, web searches, and text messages the  iPhone Recovery Stick is the only tool you need to catch a cheating spouse, monitor your kids or backup your own iPhone data.

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Downloading data is as simple as attaching the iPhone and iPhone Recovery Stick to a computer and pressing start. iPhone information is saved on any computer with Excel and can be moved to other drives. There is no software to install. The software runs directly from the flash drive when it is connected to the computer.

The iPhone Spy Stick recovery tool works with any GSM (AT&T) Apple iPhone up to the iPhone 4 running iOS 5.0 or earlier and Verizon iPhone 4 running version 4.4 or lower. The iPhone Spy stick will not work with Android and Blackberry phones. More cell phone spy products can be found at The Cell Phone Spy.

There apparently are a number of ways in which a user’s identity “can be associated with data that are supposed to be collected without linking to personally identifiable information. ” Privacy advocates are pointing to this study, led by graduate student and computer scientist Jonathan Mayer, as evidence that the industry needs Do Not Track legislation. The American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel Chris Calabrese, in a statement, is quoted: “The sharing of detailed Internet records with the government is
certain to have a chilling effect on Americans’ First Amendment rights to speak and pursue unpopular subjects online. These practices must be brought in line with the Constitution. “A Federal Trade Commission report contends that self-regulatory efforts “have been too slow, and up to now have failed to provide adequate and meaningful protection.”

Senior Analyst Daniel Castro of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation called Mayer’s study as alarmist. “Internet users have more tools to protect their online privacy today than they had a decade ago, and the private sector is working diligently to strengthen and improve online advertising self-regulation. “

The ACLU has an ongoing congressional lobbying effort underway stating “In the same way that other industries are bound by basic privacy principles to protect consumer information, it is time for Congress to require that similar principles be followed with regard to Internet privacy.” They want Internet users to be able to have clear notice about the data collection practices involving their information, and data collectors explaining why particular information is needed and be held accountable for how the information will be used. Users should be able to control what is shared and what is kept private. Their solution is a “Do Not Track” option, which would give consumers a universal way to opt-out of tracking, much like the popular “Do Not Call” registry that allows consumers to opt out of receiving telemarketing calls.

Websites are widely sharing one’s log in name and personal information (i.e., first and last name and birthday). The ACLU cited for example, when one views a local advertisement on the Home Depot website, the users first name and email address is sent to 13 additional companies. The site, okcupid.com packages gender, zip code and date of birth especially for advertisers. ” Advertisers then combine such information into profiles on individual consumers. Personally identifiable information is almost completely unregulated on the
Internet which raises some fundamental privacy questions. Advertisers sell this information to third parties, called data aggregators, who in turn sell it to other marketers, employers and, the government. Since 2001 data aggregation companies have had contracts with the federal government and states to collect and share personal information about millions of Americans, including unlisted cell phone numbers, insurance claims, driver’s license photographs, and credit reports.

As reported by ISPLA earlier this year, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has introduced legislation that would require websites to respect consumer choices about online tracking, although the committee’s senior counsel, Christian Fjeld, said it was doubtful that the measure would pass.  “I wouldn’t be counting on us passing privacy legislation in this difficult political environment, ” Fjeld said. “Having said that, my boss, Senator Rockefeller, is still committed to working in a bipartisan manner to see how far we can move forward. And if it’s not actually passing legislation, than it certainly [will] still entail conducting oversight and having public hearings on this subject.”
Bruce Hulme
ISPLA Director of Government Affairs

If your child is staying the night with a particular friend a lot, you might want to know exactly who the parents of that friend are.  Are they keeping kids safe?  Should you trust them with your child?  These are things that we cannot necessarily find out by simply meeting the parents.  What if your child has been talking to a strange person on the telephone?  Do you want to know that the person they are talking to is safe?  This is something that a lot of parents have to deal with as technology advances.  With the addition of social friend sites, chat rooms and other online things, a parent wants to make sure they are keeping kids safe at all times.

If you have someone’s name, e-mail address or their cell phone number, you can find out what kind of person they are.  All you have to do is visit one of the criminal records database sites and type this information in to your computer.  You will instantly be provided with information about this person, from civil court records to criminal records and even marriage certificates.  In some cases, you can find out information about their family members as well.  This certainly helps make sure that the person your child is around is safe for them to be associating with.

No matter how you slice it, our children are our most precious possession and keeping kids safe should be a daily goal.  If you have a bad feeling, or just want to make sure the people that surround your child are safe, simply visit one of these sites and get the information you need to make an educated decision about your child’s friends or their parents.  Knowing that your child is safe is a feeling that every parent should have.  The great thing is that your kid doesn’t even have to know that you’ve gone snooping.  Save the time with your child for fun and bonding, and avoid fights and arguments by simply checking out the people your child knows.  You don’t have to give them the third degree in order to be sure that they are safe.