The Cape Coral Bar Association has recently elected the following members to its Board of Directors: President, Steven E. Martin of the Martin Law Firm, P.L.; Vice President, Steven K. Teuber of Sasso & Teuber, P.A.; Treasurer, Thomas Shipp of Thomas E. Shipp, Jr. & Associates, PA; and, Secretary, Lisa A. Musial of Musial & Musial Co., LPA.

The mission of the Cape Coral Bar Association is to promote the highest professional and ethical standards in the legal community and to provide educational resources in support of that goal. According to Board President, Steven E. Martin, the main focus of the association is to keep its members informed of current affairs affecting the law and the public in the State of Florida, thereby serving the best interests of their clients. “We are committed to promoting professionalism within the Cape Coral Bar,” he said.

Steven E. Martin brings to the Cape Coral Bar Association a strong background in leadership and business. He has extensive business experience with both start-up companies as well as established firms in the technology and entertainment industries. Martin has worked for Sony Music and also founded MegaDVD.com an online DVD retailer. Martin sold MegaDVD to the eUniverse Network now known as Intermix Media, the company that created the popular internet website MySpace, a subsidiary of News Corporation. As Director of Business Development for eUniverse, he helped pioneer many successful direct marketing techniques for the company generating millions of dollars in revenues and thousands of satisfied customers. Prior to attending law school, he was a Talent Manager Trainee at Michael S. Ovitz’s Artist Management Group in Beverly Hills, California where he worked in the motion picture literature department. He received his undergraduate degree in business administration from the University of Florida Warrington College of Business and also received his law degree from the University of Florida Levin College Of Law. The Martin Law Firm offers services in estate planning, probate administration, family law and divorce, and business services.

Steven K. Teuber is engaged in private practice. He serves on many community and civic boards and associations, including the Lee County School Board, District 4, and the Lee County Commissioners Task Force. He received his Juris Doctor degree from the Detroit College of Law.

Thomas E. Shipp is the President of the law firm of Thomas E. Shipp, Jr. & Associates, P.A. and managing partner of Omni One Title Services, LLC. He is Chairman of the Cape Coral Chamber of Commerce, Director of the Cape Coral Chamber of Commerce Foundation and President-Elect of the Rotary Club of Cape Coral. He graduated with a Juris Doctor degree from St. Louis University.

Lisa A. Musial concentrates on real estate and business transactions, estate planning, family law and civil litigation. She received her Juris Doctor degree from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan.

Cape Coral, FL: The Martin Law Firm, PL welcomes Martina Nethery as the newest associate of the firm. Ms. Nethery’s practice focuses on estate planning, probate, estate and gift taxation, asset protection, and civil litigation. She received her BA cum laude from the University of Central Florida, and her JD, LL.M. in Taxation, and Estates and Trusts certificate from the University of Florida, Levin College of Law.

She is a member of the Tax, Real Property, Probate and Trust Law sections of the Florida Bar Association.

Ms. Nethery served as a judicial extern for the Probate Division of the Eighth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. Exploring her interest in alternative dispute resolution, she also interned for the County Court Mediation Clinic, a special program offered by the University of Florida’s Virgil D. Hawkins Civil Clinic.

With offices in Naples, Cape Coral, Fort Myers, and North Fort Myers, Martin Law Firm provides services in tax law, bankruptcy, personal injury, real estate, family law, estate planning, business services, probate administration and civil litigation.

Cape Coral, FL: The Martin Law Firm, PL welcomes Jon Bierfeld as the newest associate of the firm. Mr. Bierfeld will practice in the firm’s Naples and Cape Coral offices in their Bankruptcy and Civil Litigation divisions. Mr. Bierfeld earned his undergraduate degree in economics and public policy at Duke University. It was his passion for politics and public service that led him to Capitol Hill where he worked for several years both in the office of Senator Elizabeth Dole and the office of congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. He earned his JD at the University of Miami School of Law in Coral Gables. He was soon drawn to the Public Defender’s Office in Miami where he represented indigent clients in defending felony charges. He later worked in private practice on civil and criminal defense and personal injury cases.

He is a member of the Business Law, Criminal Law and General Practice Sections of the Florida Bar Association. Mr. Bierfeld is admitted to practice in the state of Florida and in the Federal Court for the Middle District of Florida.

The Martin Law Firm, with offices in Fort Myers, Naples, Cape Coral and North Fort Myers, offers legal services in Bankruptcy, Personal Injury, Family Law, Corporate and Business Services, Estate Planning, Real Estate and Probate Administration.

Cape Coral, FL: When Kathleen Price, Associate Dean at the University of Florida, Levin College of Law talks about the major renovation at the University of Florida Legal Information Center, she references a new gallery area that has “miles and miles of white walls.” The new area is designed to hold art exhibits which will serve to culturally educate and inspire the students.

In an effort to help fill the void, a financial contribution has been made by alumni Steven E. Martin and Eviana J. Martin, the founding partners of Southwest Florida’s Martin Law Firm, PL. “We wanted to help them replicate an exhibit we had on loan there for a number of years,” Steven E. Martin said.

Of the eight-pieces previously on loan from the Martins’ private collection, seven were by Master Photographer Jerry Uelsmann, whose works are also in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Bibliotheque National in Paris, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. The eighth piece was a work by American artist Man Ray. “Students in Gainesville have few opportunities to see real world class art,” says Price. “Steven and his wife, Eviana, recognized the necessity of reminding others that there is more of an obligation to the community than just studying, but also an obligation to the community’s culture.”

“Our hope is that this gift stimulates additional giving which will allow the law school to build its own art collection of significance,” Eviana Martin said.

Through the gift, the University has purchased one of Uelsmann’s works, “The Committee,” which is now on permanent display in the library.

Cape Coral, FL: The Martin Law Firm, PL welcomes Michael Bradenham as the newest associate of the firm. Mr. Bradenham will join the practice’s Cape Coral office in their divisions of Family Law and Civil Litigation.

Mr. Bradenham graduated magna cum laude from Randolph-Macon College with dual Bachelors of Arts degrees in history and philosophy with minors in ethics and classical studies. His commitment to scholarship led him to Harvard University, where he earned a Masters of Theological Study from Harvard’s Divinity School.

Mr. Bradenham attended law school at the University of Florida. In addition to his Juris Doctorate degree, he graduated with certificates in both Family Law and Estates & Trusts. At the University of Florida, Mr. Bradenham represented clients in family court and at mediation as a certified legal intern with the Virgil Hawkins Civil Clinic. He was an active member of the University of Florida’s Trial Team, serving as both a competitor and member of the team’s executive committee. During law school, Mr. Bradenham participated in Penn State University’s Capitals of Europe Program, where he studied U.S. Supreme Court history under Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. He is a member of the Family Law and General Practice sections of the Florida Bar and is admitted to practice in the state of Florida.

With offices in Cape Coral, Fort Myers, North Fort Myers and Naples, Martin Law Firm provides services in family law, bankruptcy, estate planning, business services, probate administration and civil litigation.

NBC-2 News

FORT MYERS: A woman moved hundreds of miles away, but her belongings are still in Florida. Officials we spoke to said she should have read between the lines before signing over her possessions.

Kara Livingston and her son Max successfully made the move from Fort Myers to Columbia, Missouri. Unfortunately, their belongings did not.

Their belongings are being held by the moving company until she pays her bill – an amount that is three times what she agreed to.

“What they’re doing is illegal and morally wrong. We have no rights as consumers,” said Kara Livingston.

Livingston signed a contract for 730 cubic feet at $2,600. She originally told Vanlines of America how much stuff she had to move over the phone, but underestimated.

“As you take up more space the price goes up. We went there to pick up 730 cubic feet and she ended up having 2,400 cubic feet,” said Vanlines of America manager Bryan Wright.

And with three times the stuff, Wright says Livingston was charged three times what she was originally quoted.

Livingston found Vanlines of America on the website Relocation.com. Former customers had given them good reviews.

But if she had checked with the Florida attorney General’s Office, she would have found 11 complaints filed against them.

“If you’re going to give somebody your entire life’s possessions, you should probably check with more than one website to see who you’re doing business with,” said Livingston’s lawyer Steven Martin.

The Better Business Bureau says before signing a contract, you need to:

• Get three estimates
• Show the moving company every item you’ll need moved in person
• Know the difference between a binding and non-binding contract. Non-binding is based on the actual weight. Binding means the estimate can be changed if the weight is different than agreed to.
• And look for marked moving vans.

Vanlines of America says Livingston could have avoided this fiasco if she had told them the correct amount of inventory and read the contract more carefully.

Livingston admits she should have been more careful, but says either way she feels mistreated by the company.

“Shame on you. Do you have a mother? Do you have a sister or a daughter? You’ve turned my entire life upside down,” she said.

She is refusing to pay what the company says she owes and has filed suit in the hopes of getting her things back so she can fill up her new home.

Cape Coral, FL — Martin Law Firm, P.L. announces that attorney Steven E. Martin has become an agent of Old Republic National Title Insurance Company, through Attorney’s Title Fund Services, LLC.

“Given the complexity of purchasing short sale or foreclosed homes in our area, and particularly the question of legal title, the need for an attorney’s involvement in a real estate transaction becomes even greater,” said Steven E. Martin, Managing Member of the Martin Law Firm, P.L. The purpose of title insurance is to secure your claim to the property you are purchasing and to protect you by insuring against title “defects,” that is, legal rights to a property claimed by someone else after closing. As a title insurance agent, the firm can issue title insurance for a wide variety of real estate in the state of Florida.

The Martin Law Firm, P.L. can conduct closings of real estate transactions at any of its four offices located in Cape Coral, Fort Myers, North Fort Myers and Naples. In addition to closings and issuing title insurance, the attorneys at the Martin Law Firm can give legal advice relating to real estate transactions. Martin offers services in the areas of commercial real estate transactions, escrow operations, legal services, and member and agent services.

WINK News

LEE COUNTY, Fla. – Some shocking numbers are out Thursday. The Cape-Coral – Fort Myers area leads the entire country in foreclosures. So we wanted to know, how did we get into this mess?

“You drive down the street and you see on one block of the street there are so many houses for sale, so many houses in foreclosure. It’s amazing,” said attorney, Eviana Martin.

In fact, one out of every 64 homes in the Cape Coral – Fort Myers area has a foreclosure filing. That’s according to the group, RealtyTrac.

Martin, who handles foreclosures and bankruptcies, believes investors played a big role.

“I just think that a lot of people invested into real estate in hopes to make money and they just couldn’t dispose of this property, sell this property on time to make money,” she said.

Real estate agent, Brett Ellis, also says that when the market was good, investors flooded the area probably more than anywhere else in the country.

“All these investment groups that were touting this is the place to be cause we had the affordable land, until it wasn’t affordable anymore,” said Ellis.

According to Martin, pricing did make a difference compared to other popular hot spots, such as Miami.

“There are more people from South America who came to Miami and bought those properties. People who could afford the mortgage still,” said the attorney.

And it was also about availability.

“We had more single family homes that were more attractive. More supposedly, more rentable, so therefore more investors were prone to the area,” added Ellis.

Of course now, homes that are being foreclosed on are not just investment properties. Because of the tough economy in general, a number of those are from families who just couldn’t keep up with the payments.