The Husband & Wife Law Team August 2016 Newsletter

In This Issue

• Back To School Time
• Victory Of The Month
• Monthly Top 10
• $1000 Scholarship Winner, Zion Joseph

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Back To School Time

Wow…How can it be that the summer is over and kids are back to school? Time sure does fly by quickly. I know that is a constant theme of each newsletter article but it sure is true! Editor’s Note from Mark: Ladies and gentleman, for all of you this may seem like something Alexis discusses in our monthly newsletters. Let me assure you that the topic of how quickly time flies is closer to a daily topic of conversation with my wife!

I took the kids swimming the other day and was asking Karina about how she felt about going back to school. She said she wanted to go back to school because she didn’t want to get old and have to work every day! Personally? I think school is way harder than work! Editor’s Note from Mark: Karina must think work is very difficult. Every day this summer that I came home from work she would see me, scream with excitement, then run and hug me as if I had just returned from battle. Not sure what that girl thinks is happening at the office!

Cade was with Karina in the pool. He kept asking me how many days were left until the start of school. It didn’t really matter what I said because he has no idea of days, weeks or maybe even years. He thinks he does, though, so that’s what is most important. He spent much of the pool time doing cannon balls and talking to Karina about his new kindergarten teacher. I was proud of Karina because she told Cade it didn’t matter what teacher he got because they were all nice. Editor’s Note from Mark: Cade was upset a year ago because he wanted to join Pierce and Karina for school. Now he gets to feel like a big kid and spend a year in school with his older siblings. Cade is the only kid that has no memory of being in school with a sibling so this is really exciting for him.

Prior to school starting, Ariella went to Boston to visit my parents. She kept using her phone to FaceTime us because she was so excited about having her own lemonade stand. Ariella’s business idea was to sell cookies and lemonade and donate 1/3 to charity for all profits and donations. She was very excited that her lemonade stand was a great success! Editor’s Note from Mark: This is so Ariella. First, that she insisted on doing a lemonade stand. When that worked, she insisted on doing another. Second, after pushing to spend hours creating and running the lemonade stand, she puts all of her profits to charity. (The other 2/3 went to her younger cousins that she had with her during the lemonade stand.)

Kailey is off to USC. She was lucky to get all the classes she wanted. Zev tried to tell her no classes before 10:00am and no Friday classes but Kailey didn’t take his advice. Hopefully she loves her schedule and her college experience. When we went to her orientation in July, Kailey left knowing a lot of people. Kailey is one of those kids that it feels like she has friends from every high school in Arizona so I’m sure she will have tons of fun. That being said, we already made plans to visit her. Editor’s Note from Mark: During that orientation Kailey told me something that is very telling. She explained to me that she doesn’t like sleeping because - get this - she could be missing out on doing things while she is asleep. So while the rest of us look forward to spending some time sleeping, she is concerned that opportunities will be lost!

On the other hand, Zev told us he didn’t need help moving in and we are barred from visiting during parents’ weekend. Well, he said he wants us to visit, just not that weekend since he has a party he has to go to. How would he already know he has a party to go to on parents’ weekend? Poor Mark, he really wanted to go pretend he was a sophomore in college again. Well, also Mark was excited to go watch University of Miami play a football game. See…It’s not just about Michigan State but Mark has an allegiance to watch any college football game. Mark would watch pro football too, there just isn’t enough time. I have to admit though, football coaches have some amazing quotes. One of Mark’s favorite sayings to the kids is, “Control the controllables.” It’s a great quote and very true. Editor’s Note from Mark: First, Miami plays Florida State during parents’ weekend. Great game, would have been fun. I have been banned. Zev says there is a big tailgate with only the kids in his fraternity. I think he is afraid he couldn’t keep up with me! As for that quote - “control the controllables” - I did steal it from a football coach and I repeat it so often the kids are tired of hearing it. Still, it is true that we all waste too much time worrying about things that we cannot control and cannot change.

Tate is eligible for his license. Just turned 16. He may even have it by the time this newsletter goes to print. We can’t lie…we are excited for him to be able to help run some errands for his little siblings. We were very happy to hear he was a great big brother to Pierce at overnight camp. Tate did have one request which was to make him an unaccompanied minor so he could leave Pierce and get himself (and Pierce) food in the airport. Last year, he wanted coney hot dogs in the Detroit airport because he was starving and the airline attendant wouldn’t let him get the hot dogs. Tate complained to us the whole year that he had to sit for two hours during the layover and couldn’t eat his favorite hot dogs! Editor’s Note from Mark: Funny what is important to different kids. Tate must have told me - without exaggeration - about 12 times or more to please not sign him up as an unaccompanied minor. His layover on the way home from camp was about an hour long - yet he really wanted to be free during that one hour. Not sure how much an hour of freedom really does but, hey, we trusted he could handle that and who could deny a kid the opportunity to eat coney hot dogs!

Talia was super excited that she got a babysitting job. She said she held a fashion show with the two girls she was babysitting. She has been saving up for some gymnastics equipment so she was excited to get a babysitting job for the day. She also has been studying a lot and we have been proud of Ariella for helping Talia with her studying. Editor’s Note from Mark: And, like her brother Tate, Talia wants to be independent. Talia did not want me to bring her to the door when I dropped her off at babysitting. Instead, she directed me to wait in the car.

Pierce turned 11 over the summer. Before school started, he was excited to have a birthday party in Boston with his cousins. He likes to go to this one place where it’s a fake money machine that swirls around fake dollar bills in the air. You try to get as many dollar bills and then they tell you how many dollar bills you get and the bills get turned into tickets to get prizes. It is basically an imitation Dave & Busters.

Regarding Pierce’s birthday, while at camp, Pierce got to choose a few people to call up to sing him happy birthday. He made a good call to choose Tate and it was fun watching the video of Tate singing happy birthday to Pierce with the whole camp crowd watching. Editor’s Note from Mark: Pierce was excited all day. His birthday took place during father-son weekend so I was there and recorded it all for Alexis. But, in addition to the camp song (which includes an “extra” verse to the song) it was fun watching Pierce. Pierce asked me many times that day to let the camp director know it was his birthday. At 11 years old, having the entire camp sing to you, ”Happy Birthday” (and the whole camp gets birthday cake in your honor) is a big deal.

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Victory Of The Month

For 2 years, a major insurance company offered our client almost nothing. On the verge of trial, their offer was barely enough to cover medical expenses, fees, and costs that would have left our client with nothing. Refusing to allow this result, The Husband & Wife Law Team took the case to trial where a jury awarded $550,000! Even after a reduction for some of the fault attributed to our client, this wonderful woman received about 10 times more “in her pocket” compared to what she would have received if we didn’t go to trial and obtain the victory.

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Monthly Top 10

1. A full day AMSAF board meeting with Mark as a Vice President means, “Watch out for this motorcycle safety organization!” Lots of great things happening to try to keep motorcyclists safe!
2. We had a client where the insurance company was completely denying liability. We drafted up a detailed demand package and let the insurance adjuster know we would file a lawsuit. A couple weeks later we got a letter from the insurance adjuster saying that she was tendering her limits. It doesn’t always work this fast but in this particular case it was all about liability and we were successful.
3. We had a case that went up to the court of appeals. The trial judge dismissed our case and we appealed to the court of appeals. The good news is the appellate judges said we were right and sent notice to the trial judge that we were correct about our case analysis and now the case is reinstated.
4. Super exciting news for one of our clients. We were able to discover a two million dollar umbrella policy.
5. We survived a trip to Boston with our family. For those traveling with kids you know what we mean by “survived”.
6. Mark received his recertification as a certified specialist in injury and wrongful death law. Only about 1% of lawyers in Arizona hold this distinction in injury and wrongful death law.
7. We are preparing for three trials coming up this fall. One is a slip and fall case, one is a case against the city of Gilbert, and the other is a construction accident case. If you want to see Mark in action, let us know and we will give you more details. We did have some clients attend trial in the spring and it was great.
8. Our staff is the best. On their own they planned a day at the lake, a barbecue party and a celebration of one of our employees (Dalia) who has been with us for 11 years. It’s great that all of our team members support our positive culture and also embrace how important it is to give callers and clients the best experience.
9. We picked our finalists for our $1,000 college scholarship winner. We received nearly 500 entries. Thank you to everyone who completed an application. Every application was read and heartfelt. Look for more scholarship opportunities soon and congratulations to our winner!
10. If you know a teacher and want her/him to be considered for our monthly teacher appreciation go to breyerlaw.com/lawyersforteachers and nominate a deserving teacher. They win $250, a pizza party and more!

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$1000 Scholarship Winner, Zion Joseph

The Husband & Wife Law Team has represented residents of the Phoenix area and throughout the state of Arizona for two decades now. Our firm’s community ties run deep, which is why we are thrilled to offer a $1000 scholarship to, Zion Joseph. A deserving high school senior who’s demonstrated superb scholastic achievement inside the classroom while still giving back to his community.

“Great teamwork comes from the efficient use of our time and communication between work groups.”
- Zion J.

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