The Hart of the Issue: What’s at Stake?

Posted on April 6, 2022 by The Dunmorean

By John M. Hart, III, Esq.

Those of you who know me well, know that I work hard to keep my unique physique! It’s not easy to fluctuate numbers on a scale like a roller-coaster within any given week. But why do I do it to myself? Because of my love for cooking.

There’s no doubt that I’ve been known to whip up a meal or two for friends and family alike. My pallet of culinary cuisine knows no bounds either. I love learning about different types of ingredients, different methods of cooking, and most importantly, the “why” of the cooking process.

My wife reaps the benefit of my passion for preparing meals, as it’s one task she never has to worry about. I almost make it impossible for her to even try to make a meal without me butting in. I was once banned from mentioning “AB” as I frequently provide unsolicited advice as to how “AB” suggests performing a certain kitchen task. “AB”, of course, stands for Alton Brown.

By far, Mr. Brown is my favorite chef because he doesn’t just tell you what ingredients to add to make a dish, but he tells you why you need to add them.

In Alton’s one book titled I’m Just Here for the Food, he uses a great analogy of how to cook. He compares it to getting directions to someone’s house. Of course, you could get there if following a precise route, but what if you’re on a rural country road, and a tree had fallen or a road had closed and you weren’t familiar with the area?

Going by a handwritten turn-by-turn set of directions will not help you get to your destination with this unplanned detour, and even if you got there, you wouldn’t know where “there” was.

Brown explains that cooking is the same way, and that is why we need to know the why when dealing with ingredients. And once we know this, we can develop our own creations with substitutions or additions to any dish.

Sure, my wife sometimes gets annoyed with my obsession over AB, but I can tell that the annoyance is more geared toward me rather than Alton. I know this because she listens to his techniques and explanations. For instance, she doesn’t buy brown sugar, now that she knows it’s just granulated sugar mixed with molasses (two ingredients we already keep in the cupboard), or she doesn’t give up when she sees a recipe call for buttermilk, because she knows she only needs regular milk and lemon, or simply some vinegar.

But what is my specialty? What episodes of Alton Brown’s Good Eats do I watch and re-watch to make sure I absorb every ounce of advice AB can give me? The answer is simply… steaks.

There’s nothing I love more than trying a new steakhouse every time I visit a different city, though that’s not always a viable option–at least not at the frequency I prefer. So, cooking a steak at home is a task worth learning. There are so many different techniques, styles, and types of meat to consider when attempting to cook the perfect steak.

There’s a reason why one protein has its own category of restaurants named after it. Steakhouses–the good ones at least–should provide you with several varieties of cuts of steak from which to choose. Whether you’re in the mood for a filet, a strip, a ribeye, a sirloin, a T-Bone, a porterhouse, or any one of the special cuts that butchers tend to keep for themselves, you’ll find that each type is different, both in appearance, preparation, and taste.

But even when you have determined which cut of beef you’d like to indulge in, there are several subcategories of your choice.

Perhaps “choice” isn’t the best word to define your selection, as it isn’t the best cut of meat. The USDA has been providing a voluntary beef grading program since as early as 1917. And when going to a restaurant to pick out a steak, you should know that the big three labels are prime, choice and select, and are ranked in that order. These gradings mainly consider the marbling in the beef and the maturity of the animal.

Even after you know what cut of beef you’d like, and the grade that you intend to order, some steakhouses offer additional options such as “dry-aged” and “bone-in.” While I won’t go ahead and tell you the benefits of the flavor-enhancing technique of both options, I can point you, yet again, to Alton Brown. He’s the expert and can explain the benefits of these steak enhancements.

But what I can tell you may help alleviate some curiosity you may have with eating a steak that’s attached to a fibrous protein called collagen and carbonated hydroxyapatite, an inorganic compound mostly made of calcium and phosphate, or more commonly referred to as a bone.

It’s common knowledge that a bone can be dangerous if ingested. At the very least, it’s unpleasant to bite into a piece of meat only to experience an unexpected shard of bone get in the way of an otherwise enjoyable morsel of steak.

As such, my office often gets calls with questions about an injury endured while eating out at a restaurant. Without exception, my first question is always whether or not the unexpected object found in their food was foreign or natural to the food. This is a huge distinction when dealing with the implied warranty of merchantability for food, among other theories of law.

If the item found in your meal is foreign, you have recourse against someone. What this means is that if you order a burger and chomp down on a screw or piece of glass, it’s indisputable that those items should not have been in your meal.

The analysis gets more involved when the object that just ruined your meal is a “natural” object. And ordering steak on the bone certainly increases the risk of inadvertently biting into a natural, yet unanticipated object, i.e., the bone. Even though the likelihood of a robust and sturdy beef bone splintering is relatively rare, it can happen. And when it does, an injury can occur.

But can you recover damages for this type of injury? The age-old attorney answer is… it depends. The truth is, there are a lot of variables that are taken into consideration when performing an analysis of “natural objects” found in food.

Some factors taken into consideration are whether or not the object is foreseeable, as in, can the consumer reasonably expect to find that type of object in the dish they are eating. While a beef bone is natural, you wouldn’t expect to find it in a peach. And likewise, you wouldn’t expect to find a peach pit in your pit beef.

Either way, if you find yourself in this disagreeable dining dilemma, and you are hurt as a result, it’s best to contact Hart Law to see what can be done as we’ve helped numerous people navigate through this legal issue, successfully advised them of what was at “steak,” and got them adequate compensation for their injuries.

The Hart of the Issue: “Our Four-legged Friends… and coworkers?”

Posted on March 2, 2022 by The Dunmorean

By John M. Hart, III, Esq.

On Feb. 23, 2022, I celebrated my dog’s 11th birthday. Celebrations included extra attention and a bowl full of pulled pork, a drastic deviation from the daily double dose of kibble.

Killian, my English Springer Spaniel, is the first dog I ever owned. Against the advice of several friends and attorneys alike, I brought Killian home from a horse farm after completing my first year of law school.

The naysayers were suggesting that I wouldn’t have the time to care for a dog while studying law. Truthfully, you have more time for a dog than you’d think. During law school there is a lot of work, but when you’re not in a classroom, you’re typically home reading.

And nothing helps get through the monotony of studying than to peer over a page of case law to see your furry companion just staring at you in adoration, wondering when you will say the magic word “OUTSIDE.”

Killian helped my three years at law school fly by, but the time he was most beneficial was during the grueling 10-week preparation for the bar exam.

Right after graduating,you immediately start studying for the bar exam. And the level of attention and the demanding schedule is nothing like studying for a typical law school course.

During the 10-week bar preparation program, the only time I had to myself was when making dinner and taking Killian outside to play fetch. He loved retrieving a tennis ball no matter how many times I would throw it. And while he enjoyed it immensely, it helped me even more. It was the only shred of normalcy I experienced during those 10 weeks.

Over a decade later, I can consider myself a seasoned dog owner and I understand what that title means. Particularly now, after experiencing an overall change in society and how we conduct business due to the pandemic, owning a dog has also transformed.

While it’s no secret that the landscape of work has drastically changed due to the pandemic, wherein people are leaving traditional jobs, leaving brick and mortar establishments, and working remotely, the reasons against returning to the old ways of work now include a new sense of dog attachment for many.

As mentioned above, I was fortunate in that I was able to spend a lot of time with Killian during law school. But before the pandemic, many people were unable to experience that level of companionship because at some point in the day they had to leave home for work. That changed. During the pandemic, dog owners were able to spend more time with their pups, and the resultant effects are starting to show.

Separation anxiety is a common occurrence for dogs when their owners leave the house, and we all know how that can end up–chewed furniture, torn drapes, and any other type of mischief and destruction you can imagine. But a recent trend shows a form of separation anxiety from the dog-owner’s standpoint. People don’t want to leave their dogs alone.

75% of U.S.-based remote workers surveyed in July by Digital.com (an independent reviews website that aids small businesses online presence) said they wanted to stay remote so they could take care of their pets.

And to entice people to leave their homes and come back to a traditional workplace, there’s been a shift in the U.S. with many companies, even public sector work, allowing employees to bring their dogs to work with them.

According to aboutamazon.com, the retail magnet’s headquarters welcomed as many as 7,000 dogs on any given day, before the pandemic. Due to the apparent influx in pet ownership for younger generations, more and more employers are creating pet friendly policies at the workplace.

So where does this leave us? With our pets having a larger role in our lives, both at home and at work, there’s the inevitable inclination to provide more for them besides a bowl of pulled pork. With many progressive employers creating pet policies, they’re offering benefits as well. Some businesses are providing discounted pet insurance, pet care stipends, paid time off for bereavement, etc.

These are all nice incentives and may help someone in choosing their next line of work. But it begs the question of when might we be doing too much for our furry friends?

Leona Helmsley, a New York Hotel heiress, left the bulk of her estate to her white Maltese dog named Trouble. Specifically, Leona left $12 million to the Trustees of the Leona Helmsley July 2005 Trust, which was created for the sole benefit of Trouble. Her will further instructed that upon Trouble’s passing, her remains were to be buried next to Leona’s remains in her mausoleum.

The question of whether Leona went too far for her dog is up to you. But some consideration as to who should inherit your dog should your pet outlive you is worth it. I know my will accounts for my pets. Does yours? And if you don’t yet have a will, Hart Law handles estate planning, and we take into consideration ALL your assets, including your dog.

The Hart of the Issue: “What Do You Know About the Metaverse?”

Posted on February 2, 2022 by The Dunmorean

Last week a client of mine stopped by the office to finalize some court filings. After crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s and having him sign everything, he sat back and looked at me from across the desk.

He then asked “what do you know about the metaverse” I’ve never given this topic too much consideration for several reasons, the fear of the unknown, the hesitancy to change, or the skeptical approach of thinking “it’s beyond me and I won’t need to know it.”

The extent of my knowledge of the metaverse was a tincture of understanding of crypto currency, and I don’t hold myself out as one who knows anything about crypto currency other than its very volatile and some friends of mine have invested in it but can’t fully explain to me what it is or how it works.

What I didn’t know at the time, was that the metaverse encompasses much more than a form of digital currency. Our world has been growing, advancing, and changing, for better or worse. It seems like the concept of a digital world is coming to fruition after a perfect storm. While the pandemic came unexpectedly and caused much destruction in its path, it also paved the way for a digital lifestyle.

Many aspects of our day to day lives have already changed because of the pandemic. We are more amenable to technology for things we used to do in person like meetings, grocery orders, and general retail shopping. All of this was out of necessity because of the pandemic.

The concept of the metaverse is that we no longer would need to leave our homes to interact with the world. Instead, there would be a digital world with real world attributes including persons and even structures that we already know. Much of this concept wasn’t new to me. I had seen it before in a fictional movie, Ready Player One. I just never anticipated that it could happen, at least not in my lifetime.

But being a skeptic, I told my client that I could definitely see this as a thing, but not for the majority of people. There is still the issue of earnings, and at the end of the day, people would need to interact to some extent with the real world due to their job.

But then my client made a comment that honestly made me ponder for the next few days after our meeting. He said, “John, you would be working in the metaverse. You would conduct meetings with your clients, and even appear in court on their behalf, within the metaverse.”

My initial reaction to this statement was dismissive. There was no way that a profession that still uses fax machines and paper filings could fully mesh well within the metaverse… could it?

And then I sat back and thought about where we are now compared to just over 21 months ago. When I sign on a new client, intake forms can be digital, all agreements and court filings can be E-signed upon request. The local courts have adapted electronic mail more so than ever before. Hearings are typically conducted via zoom or other video conference platforms. How is any of this different than a metaverse? During lockdown and even to this day, I have signed on clients whom I’ve never met in person. Arguably, the metaverse would provide a more hands-on experience.

I then set out to learn more about the metaverse, beyond the confusing scope of crypto currency. Upon a cursory Google search, I learned that celebrities are paying developers to create their entire metaverse “avatars” in preparation of this new digital world. And when I say world, I mean a complete digital version of earth. I thought to myself this would take forever, but then realized, we already have a digital version, thanks to Google Earth and other satellite imagery. Because of this, Hart Law could have a digital office located at the same address in this new digital world as in realty. (201 Franklin Avenue, Scranton, PA 18503 – for those of you readers who are wondering).

Ideally a client would avoid the associated costs of transportation, the traffic, the exposure to other drivers on the road, parking fees, and all other unknown issues a traveler faces, by merely scheduling a meeting at my office within the digital world. Instead of zoom, or the telephone, a client would interact with a John M. Hart, III, Esq. avatar that would have the physical likeness of me, although if I had any input, my avatar might have a few less inches in the waist!

As mentioned earlier, I’m a skeptic to this potential future world, but at least I now have given it a bit more thought and am able to make an informed decision should I decide to avoid it!