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Community
Engagements
Rob will be be
speaking to the Mid-Atlantic Consultants Network on June 9th at 7:30
a.m. His speech will focus on the "20
Lethal Legal Land Mines Consultants Should Avoid.
For the third consecutive year,
Rob was named a Philadelphia Super Lawyer
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What is a Confession of
Judgment Clause?
Ask the Attorney Columnist for The Bulletin
I recently signed a contract
which included a Confession of Judgment Clause. I was told this clause could be highly detrimental
to me. What exactly is a Confession of Judgment Clause, and how
can I protect myself at this point?
A
Confession of Judgment is highly beneficial to the plaintiff, and
highly detrimental to the defendant. If filed correctly, a
Confession of Judgment allows the plaintiff to sue and obtain a
judgment against the defendant without going through a long and
expensive trial. This saves time and money for the plaintiff.
Although the defendant may challenge the judgment by filing, that can
only be done in certain circumstances.
In a traditional lawsuit, the plaintiff files a complaint with the
court and serves that complaint on the defendant. The defendant
then answers this complaint. After discovery (a period of
fact-finding), there is a trial. At the end of the trial, a
judgment is entered. A Confession of
Judgment Clause enables a plaintiff to avoid this entire
process. In that case, a judgment is entered first, which is as final as a judgment by jury verdict.
This sort of clause is a powerful tool for the plaintiff because it
effectively prevents the defendant from having his or her day in
court. As a result, the documents and procedure for a Confession
of Judgment are subject to higher standards of fairness and exacting
precision than the traditional process.
The defendant can file a petition to strike (completely get rid of)
the judgment. In doing this, the court may only review the
complaint and documents containing the confession of judgment
clauses. If the defendant's petition relies on other facts and
states a clear basis for relief, the court will direct the plaintiff
to file an answer by the date they set. At the hearing the
Court will consider whether the judgment should be opened.
If a defendant has filed a petition to open the judgment, the
petition must demonstrate a valid defense to all or part of the
plaintiff's claim. Here, the plaintiff will need to prove the
case in the traditional manner, with the defendant asserting any
defenses available under the law.
A stricken judgment eliminates any execution based on the judgment and completely destroys the judgment while leaving
the rights of the parties as though a judgment had never been
entered. A petition to strike the judgment will
only be granted where the defects are apparent on the face of
the record. In either case, the petition must
be filed within 30 days, and state a meritorious defense (one
which in a jury trial would require the issues to be submitted to a
jury).
An existing lien will not be affected by the
filing of a petition unless the defendant has posted a bond with
approved security in the same amount as the judgment, plus interest
and costs. At this point, the plaintiff may or may not be
prevented from executing the judgment, depending on the court's
discretion.
As you can see, the judgment by confession is legal. However,
it must be exercised with great care.
If someone is asking you to sign a document that has it, you should
seek legal advice.
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Tara
Communications Provides Advice for Using Online Marketing Tactics
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Rick Alcantara is the award-winning founder and
principal of Tara Communications LLC. He is an
expert in employee communications, strategic planning, research and
online communications. He is also versed in
change communications, crisis planning, and merger and acquisition
communications. Rick is a graduate of Susquehanna University
with a BA in communication and master's degree in public relations from
Rowan University.
Why did you become a public
relations professional?
I was always interested in how people communicate, what they think and
how you measure both.
After an initial career in radio broadcasting, I wanted to do something
more challenging. So, I went back to back to
college to obtain my master's degree in Public Relations.
Afterwards, I worked for a not-for-profit organization and the Federal
Reserve Bank before turning my part-time consulting practice into a
full-time Public Relations firm.
My driving desire was and is to help business leaders, government
officials and other senior managers plan, implement and measure their
communications.
My core belief is that communications needs to be holistic, strategic
and completely aligned with an organization's long-term goals. My job is to help clients achieve those objectives.
What is the process you use to
determine someone's marketing strategy and
tactics?
Defining a company's marketing strategy requires research and planning. The last reasons someone should implement a
communication program is because I say so or because of their own gut
feeling.
My firm uses surveys, focus groups, content analysis, interviews,
benchmarking, tracking reports, customer input, and other qualitative
and quantitative methods to identify the current state of an
organization's communications. We want to
identify who they are trying to reach, what they are trying to say,
what people currently know about the product/service/issue, the
effectiveness of current communications channels, what the organization
wants to accomplish, what stakeholders seek from the organization, what
the competition is doing and more.
After we define the status quo, we develop a written communication plan
that details both big-picture objectives and targeted strategies to
achieve them.
What sets my company apart from our competitors is that we apply this
approach to employee communications, change communications and Internet
development.
What new technologies should
companies use on their web sites?
Before adding Web 2.0 functionality to their sites, most companies
should focus on delivering Communication 1.0 - timely, relevant,
concise, honest, and easy-to-understand content.
Once accomplished, they can incorporate features that engage audiences. For example, RSS feeds allow visitors to subscribe
to your news. Podcasts
and videocasts allow them to see and hear
presentations, demos, news and more. Links to sites such as Digg, Reddit, Furl and del.icio.us allow them to bookmark your pages and
share them with friends. Blog
sites enable them to track and often respond to your leaders' discourse.
Sites designed using Adobe's Flex software are showing some real
promise.
Should a company have a profile
on Face Book and MySpace or should that be
for social networking?
Facebook and MySpace
seem better suited to promoting individuals, whereas Linkedin has greater potential for fostering true
business-to-business networking.
How do you increase your
chances of getting your site to the top of a search for what you do?
You can increase your search engine rankings in several ways:
- Use page specific meta-tags (keywords, page description,
page title, etc.) in the source code
- Use alt tags for images
- Employ text-based navigation in the page footer
- Use key words in your document headline and early
in your page content
- Submit your site to search engines
- Create links to your sites from other sites
- Register multiple domains and point them to your
main domain address
- Pay attention to how you name the files in the
website's file directory
What online services should every
company use to build visibility?
Linkedin, Facebook,
MySpace and hi5 can promote people within
your organization. PRNewsWire
and Businesswire's interactive news releases
allow people to click a link to your website. Companies
such as Constant Contact and imakenews
provide the tools for you to create inexpensive electronic newsletters
that can contain hyperlinks to your website.
Is there one mistake that most
companies make when promoting themselves?
Avoid talking "above" your target audiences.
Don't use $50 words when $5 words will work. Avoid
lengthy sentence and paragraphs. Keep the
message audience-focused rather than company-centered.
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I enjoy being able to share with everyone the
Firm's continuous growth and development. Whenever you get
the chance, pick up the phone or send me an email and let me know how
you are as well.
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