The Massachusettts Open Meeting Law was initially adopted into the local government in 1975. This meant public officials lost all rights to make decisions regarding public agenda privately. However, this law spent years being unenforced or misconstrued. Sometimes, government officials would discuss public information in cafes or over the phone, without a public presence.
Ever since the responsibility of the Open Meeting Law has changed hands to the Attorney General’s Office in 2010, the enforcement of this law has progressed. Martha Coakley, the Attorney General, enforced this law by providing better guidelines and issuing informational documents. Many local officials have been improving their meeting minutes, posting detailed agendas, and making other minutes more exact. However, there are still some local government officials who have trouble with the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, as there have been a fair amount of violations.
To help local governments with the specific details of this law, it is best for public officials to outsource their meeting minutes and agendas to Office Solutions Plus LLC. The Office Solutions Plus LLC business specializes in meeting minutes according to the rules and regulations of the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law.
Residents of a small town inTexashave filed a petition to gain the depositions of a liquor store. This particular store may have sold alcohol illegally to minors; minors that later died in a drunk driving accident. On September 18, 2011, three minors were killed in this car accident. The driver of the car had surpassed the legal blood alcohol limit.
The residents Kimberly Jones, Harold Brantley, Jack Smith, Kelly and James Bates, and Dawn Fluts filed a petition requesting a deposition on February 24th in front of the Jefferson County District Court. These community members are seeking the deposition of Triangle Marketing corporate representative Hussain Ali Habib to further investigate into any wrongdoing on the part of the store.
The petition asserts, “The alcohol consumed by said minor driver had been illegally provided by The County Store in violation of the law prohibiting the sale of alcohol to minors.” These community members are asking for the reports, video, and any testimony in regards to the selling of the alcohol. Receiving a deposition and supporting documents will go a long way into providing a conclusion to this unfortunate affair.
Office Solutions Plus LLC handles depositions in many different types of court cases and even provides rush depositions. OS Plus has over 15 years of experience and uses the latest technology to get your projects done quickly and efficiently. When looking for court reporting/depositions, look no further than Office Solutions Plus LLC!
Rehoboth Financial Committee Resolves Meeting Minutes After Christopher Morra Reports Complaint
FinCom member Christopher Morra filed a complaint against the Rehoboth Financial Committee for not including his testimony and motion in the meeting minutes. This complaint was filed on December 14th citing that the minutes taken on October 13th violate the Open Meeting Law. An entire discussion on Article 19, street acceptance on Franlee Drive, was completely absent.
This issue began because Morra’s motion was ruled out of order by the chairwoman and was not recognized as a conducted motion. Christopher Morra claimed that, because he motioned to recommend Article 19, it should be visible in the meeting minutes.
“My point is, this is the law. It needs to be included,” Morra stated. “…These minutes are supposed to be so anybody from the public can go to the clerk’s office and see what was discussed at the meeting.”
To conclude, the Finance Committee did vote on this issue and a 5-1 vote called for amending the meeting minutes.
Attorneys must decide which documents are relevant to a case. This process is called document review.
Often law firms hire experienced document reviewers to study the legal papers. Sometimes contract attorneys are also hired for this process. Often much of this work is done electronically, through scanned copies, emails, and other files.
A great document-review tool that law firms are utilizing is called Westlaw CaseLogistix. It allows the reviewer to see all the documents in one place. This device allows a legal team to organize, review, analyze, and create any legal document. Westlaw CaseLogistix has features such as grouping similar documents in specific folders while categorizing them by dates and issues, viewing documents in different formats such as PDFs and TIFs, and configuring the interface to include only what one needs.
This tool also allows one to browse through the documents and the security measures allow viewing restrictions.
Another valuable tool to get the job done is to use Office Solutions Plus LLC for transcription and deposition projects. Office Solutions Plus LLC offers speed, accuracy, and quick delivery! OS Plus is certified by the Massachusetts Trial Courts.
To learn more about Office Solutions Plus LLC and the services we provide, make sure to visit our website!
To hear more information on technology in the legal field, take a look at the video below.
Recent depositions show that a Manhattan hospital may have made some colossal medical mistakes. Dr. Suarna Mehulic is indicting New York Downtown Hospital of performing a C-section on a patient who was not pregnant.
This information was revealed in videotaped depositions during a lawsuit Dr. Mehulic filed for wrongful termination. Mehulic had described dangerous practices in this hospital’s Obstetrics and Gynecological Department to the New York State Department of Health. Two days later, she was fired.
The hospital, however, claims that Mehulic was fired because she was confrontational and paranoid. The hospital’s Chief Operating Officer, Anothony Alfonso, cites that she was fired due to insubordination.
Another video deposition given by Dr. Lana Boter shows that she was also a witness to a C-section performed on a woman who was not pregnant. Dr. Boter is on the hospital’s Quality Assurance Committee, which studies any disputed hospital care. Boter claims that “A little extra time would have shown that there was no pregnancy at all.” According to Mehulic, the patient was sixteen years old. The young woman had told the doctors that she was pregnant but could not feel the baby kicking. Allegedly, the doctors believed what was stated and started surgery before confirming her pregnancy.
Another doctor who was present at this incident, Dr. Anca Rosca, also answered a lawyer’s question on this surgery. After affirming the C-section, Dr. Rosca states, “Turns out she wasn’t pregnant.”
Despite all of this evidence seen through the depositions, hospital officials deny this ever occurred. They even issued a statement claiming: “no C-section has ever been performed in our hospital on a woman who was not pregnant, and if you were to suggest otherwise it would be an egregious and inflammatory error.”
Dr. Mehulic found out about this case when the young woman returned to the hospital due to aching pain in her pelvic region. After speaking with the patient, Mehulic realized the young woman had never been told what had happened.
Not long ago,New York DowntownHospital settled claims of Medicaid fraud with the state and federal governments. This hospital paid out $13.4 million in settlements, and it seems that this new scandal will also take its toll.
Without these video depositions, the truth about a hospital’s practices would not have been brought to light. Office Solutions Plus LLC takes pride in completing depositions and transcription as certified by the Massachusetts Trial Courts.
Do you have dozens and dozens of folders around your office? Does having your assistant file all your documents in large, metal cabinets really help? Is it difficult to find what you’re looking for when the time comes to find that particular invoice or text? If your office has large amounts of documents pile up, it may be time to use the scanning services that Office Solutions Plus LLC provides.
Office Solutions Plus LLC is the right company to use for your scanning needs. OS+ has detail-oriented staff that makes sure no information is lost and everything is scanned properly. We remain flexible to whichever filing type you need. We can scan boxes of any document type including real estate documents, research libraries, legal case reports, financial records, and engineering projects of any kind.
Office Solutions Plus happens to have a perfect, meticulous process for scanning your vital documents. We offer an eight-step process. The first step is the assessment portion. This means we determine your requirements, expectations, due dates, and the quantity and volume of the project. This helps us make sure you will be pleased with the results.
The next step is receiving. OS+ will pick up your project in either its entirety or in batches; whichever is easier for you. At this point, we will log, label, and organize your documents in order for scanning. We can even deliver some files while others are in process of being scanned.
The third step is preparation. This includes removing all folders, staples, or binders. The staff at OS+ repairs damaged papers as well as double-sided and different-sized pages. The fourth step is set-up. This means that OS+ modifies document scanning technology to the specifics of your documents. This also includes using an indexing tool, which will generate word-searching through your documents. This will make your office work much simpler and easier. No longer will you search for hours for that one paragraph.
The fifth step is the scanning and editing of your documents. OS Plus makes sure your documents look spotless! You will not find a single black mark, dark border, or distorted image. OS+ guarantees that your documents will be pleasing to view.
The next part of this process is storage. Your documents will, of course, be stored on a digital media. However, the digital media is entirely up to you. You can choose the form of a DVD, FTP, a backup storage website, or on an external drive.
The subsequent step is delivery. For rush delivery, OS+ can deliver the entire project over a website in a matter of minutes. Office Solutions Plus can also deliver your project by DVD or whichever storage form you choose while backing up your project remotely for disaster recovery purposes.
The final step OS Plus takes when scanning your documents is file dismissal. OS Plus can return your files intact, shred them, recycle them, or store them for you. We can dispose of your files in whichever way you’d like, whenever you’d like.
And there you have it: the 8-step process of OS Plus. When searching for a trustworthy company that will take good care of your documents, choose Office Solutions Plus LLC!
The Mobile Transcript is a novel app that is very useful for all legal professionals. A lawyer, paralegal, court reporters or legal assistant can employ this app to review court transcripts or depositions. This device even allows a person to annotate their files!
Lawyers often work with court reporters who upload the transcripts to the Mobile Transcript account. A court reporter pays for the Mobile Transcript app and provides this service to law firms and lawyers. The court reporter pays $29 per month for this application. While the court reporters upload the documents, a lawyer can view them on the go.
The Mobile Transcript is available for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry, and Android smartphones. When using this device, a legal professional may highlight significant parts of a testimony and email the information to their associates, expert witnesses or legal assistants. This device allows a person to email a whole PDF file with highlights or just the highlighted parts. Also, the app allows one to send it via Excel file.
Along with this feature, the app also allows a professional to write deposition summaries. A lawyer can also change the font size and color of the files they are reviewing through this app. To help a lawyer remember when they started reading, the Mobile Transcript has a time capture feature that logs the amount of time spending reading a transcript or deposition. This makes it much easier to have the billable time available to a client. This time log can be exported from the online version to a PDF or Excel file. This app allows one to be more productive, especially during travel. The Mobile Transcript is a worthwhile device a legal professional should consider employing.
There are many different areas within our local government. Each area has regular meetings that must go on record. This means that all sorts of different councils, boards and committees need someone to accomplish their meeting recording. Did you know that Massachusetts by itself has over 350 cities and towns? And each of these towns has councils in support of the elderly, career/unemployment services, public defender offices, public health offices, registries of motor vehicles, department of veteran’s services and many others.
Along with the government sector, most businesses take part in regular meetings. Companies vary from sole proprietorships and partnerships to large corporations. Companies usually sell products or services.
This means that different businesses specialize in:
clothes production
insurance
computers and technology
telephone services
food services
furniture and household appliance production
And much more
There is an endless number of areas for businesses to crop up in. And every business must communicate on various plans and goals. Often the important information discussed in business meetings must be recorded. That’s where Office Solutions Plus comes in.
If you need meeting recording, you can’t do better than Office Solutions Plus LLC. We make sure to satisfy all Open Meeting Law requirements so that you can leave your worries behind. The areas in which OS+ handles meeting recording and transcribing include cities, towns, committees, corporate meetings and other business meetings. We offer both word-for-word and summarized transcription. We scan all meeting documents electronically for your record keeping. In essence, Office Solutions Plus will create a virtual copy of your meeting. If you are looking for meeting recording, make sure to use Office Solutions Plus LLC for your office work.
To learn more about OS Plus, take a look at this video:
Court transcripts are vital documents for lawyers and legal professionals. Without transcripts of previous court cases, a lawyer would have a hard time understanding how a jury may vote or what evidence is vital to a case. With transcripts at hand, a lawyer can research similar court cases and learn which witnesses and evidence made an impact on the judge or jury.
A law office is in need of someone to transcribe the events from each trial. Sometimes an employee would be hired to accomplish this. However, outsourcing transcription is very useful for law offices. Doing this can actually reduce costs! An organization won’t need to spend the same amount of time and resources on transcribing legal recordings. When a law office outsources these projects to OS Plus, the transcripts are finished quickly and efficiently, thereby saving the offices money.
When outsourcing your transcription needs to Office Solutions Plus LLC, you will save money by reducing your number of employees. This includes money spent of salaries, employee benefits, ongoing training, human resources’ efforts at recruitment, brand-new technology, and office space. By outsourcing various projects, you will no longer need to worry about the depositions, briefs, letters, client and court recordings, court transcripts, or summons. For a legal professional, this would definitely save precious time that can be spent on winning the case.
Office Solutions Plus LLC has professional, experienced transcriptionists, legal experts, and proofreaders that will get the job done by deadline. Our quick turn-around time will convince you to use OS+ for all of your transcription needs! Along with this, we use the latest technology to supply quality legal transcripts. We provide error-free documents with files that are easy to retrieve at any time. When in need of a transcriptionist, consider using Office Solutions Plus LLC. You won’t regret it!
A deposition can be a critical part of a court case. It could mean the difference between sending a person to jail or letting him or her go free. In one recent case, twenty-one Haitian boys have accused a man, Douglas Perlitz, of sexually abusing them.
Perlitz had created a program to feed, clothe, educate, and house these boys. However, the boys maintain that he manipulated them by withholding food if they did not give in to his demands. The age of these boys varied from nine to twenty-one. The young boys claim that nothing was done to stop the abuse by the organization. The lawsuit for these boys is seeking $20 million in damages for each client.
Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston-based lawyer, is seeking to represent the defendants and has drafted the complaints. Garabedian has successfully represented children that were sexually abused by Catholic priests. Clearly, the paperwork for such a case is vital. The depositions will clearly explain what has happened in each case of abuse.
A deposition is the voiced sworn testimony of a witness or victim under oath. Depositions are handled out of court. The testimony is recorded and transcribed verbatim to a written document. These depositions are used to study the case and are often brought up in the court case as evidence. Lawyers need these depositions to use as evidence and a legal tool that can help win the court case.
Office Solutions Plus LLC specializes in recording and transcribing depositions according to the rules and regulations of the courts. OS+ is certified by the Massachusetts Administrative Office of the Trial Courts and is SOMWBA certified, DBE certified, and WBE certified. We also make sure to use the latest technology in our services, which enable OS+ to provide rush services to our clients. Office Solutions Plus has rush depositions available. This means that OS+ will meet your deadlines and deliver a quality product!
Martha Coakley, the Attorney General, enforced this law by providing better guidelines and issuing informational documents. Many local officials have been improving their meeting minutes, posting detailed agendas, and making other minutes more exact. However, there are still some local government officials who have trouble with the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, as there have been a fair amount of violations.
