Ohio Labor Law, Personal Injury & Criminal Defense Lawyers

Sivinski & Smith, LLC

8905 Lake Avenue
4th Floor
Cleveland, Ohio 44102
USA

(800) 641-1970 or(877) 651-2060

(216) 651-0800

sivinskismith.com

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Law Firm Overview FREE CONSULTATION

Sivinski & Smith, based in Ohio, provides legal counsel and trial lawyer experience in a variety of areas, while focusing their practice on representing labor unions, multiemployer pension and welfare plans (ERISA plans), and people who may have experienced personal injuries, work related injury, asbestos-related diseases including mesothelioma, wrongful death, criminal charges, a DUI/OVI, family law issues, and appeals to unemployment compensation claims.

Sivinski & Smith provides aggressive, experienced, and effective legal representation to every person served, so they feel confident that their rights are protected, their interests are served, and their results are maximized.

Whether you are a labor union seeking support and advice during contract negotiations, arbitrations, or unfair labor practice charges, have been injured by your employer or in an auto accident, require assistance with a divorce or custody dispute, or have been forced to defend yourself against criminal charges, the attorneys of Sivinski & Smith look forward to receiving your telephone call to schedule a free consultation, as well as the opportunity to bring their experience of taking on large multi-national corporations to find you the best possible resolution to your legal concerns.

Year this Office was Established: 2009

Areas of Law

Additional Areas of Law: Union Labor Law; OVI; Unemployment Appeal; Civil Protective Orders; Equitable Distribution; Defective Equipment; Defective Machinery.

Areas of Law Description

- Union Labor Law

Sivinski & Smith's lawyers have represented and assisted unions for more than twenty years. The firm represents unions serving employees in industries such as public and private transportation, manufacturing, mining, health care, security services, ready mix, construction, baking, and public services. If you represent a company, please go elsewhere for legal representation. Sivinski & Smith are Union Labor Lawyers - for they stand solely on the side of unions in their labor practice.

- OVI/DUI

Ohio drunk driving (OVI/DUI) charges can cause you to face license suspensions, fines, incarceration, forfeiture of your vehicle, loss of your job, increased insurance rates, and embarrassment. You may be charged for refusing an evidentiary blood alcohol test, for taking the test and scoring over the legal limits, or even after a test shows you are below the limit if the police officer believes you consumed some alcohol that adversely affected and appreciably impaired your ability to operate your vehicle.

- Criminal Defense

The criminal defense attorneys of Sivinski & Smith use their knowledge of the criminal process and the potential implications on other aspects of life, as well as their experience as trial lawyers, to protect your rights and ensure the best possible resolution for you is obtained. The attorneys at Sivinski & Smith do not represent "clients," they represent people by providing them with the legal knowledge required to navigate the criminal process, the legal experience to fully understand their options to make their own decisions without pressure, and the trial lawyer experience to aggressively take the matter through trial.

• Expungement

It is often possible to expunge a criminal charge from your record one year after the date of discharge of your conviction. This will includes time on probation or during a suspended sentence. More precisely, expungement allows you to seal the records of convictions, dismissals, not guilty findings, and forfeitures. There are limitations on who may have their record expunged.

- Unemployment Appeal

Good and hard workers lose their jobs on a daily basis and often start the unemployment process on their own with full expectations of being compensated. To their surprise, their former employer throws up road blocks and obstacles in their path for the sole purpose of minimizing the premiums they pay to Unemployment. Even though you may be rightly due compensation, your former employer’s poor payroll records or desperate attempt to minimize their expenses may leave you without the benefits you have earned to care for your family and yourself during these difficult economic times.

- Family Law

Each couple, each family, each child is unique, therefore the attorneys at Sivinski & Smith, LLC tailor their approach to the particular needs of each person they represent. We do so by listening to you, your wants and needs, and the concerns you hold. By knowing and listening to what you want, what is best for you and your loved ones, we can tailor our approach to either negotiating agreements such as dissolutions that meet everyone's needs, or standing strong with you and fighting for you to obtain the best possible legal resolution for you. We can help you with:

• Civil Protective Orders

Unfortunately, families can come to an end after an explosive altercation or perhaps dissolve after years of abuse. If there has been domestic violence or threats of domestic violence, a civil protective order may provide you with a tool to find some peace of mind. At the same time, you may find yourself working toward a divorce only to find your former spouse has filed for a civil protective order against you solely to obtain an advantage in the divorce proceedings. In either situation, the ability of CPO’s to provide peace of mind or to have implications during a divorce and perhaps cost you your job, mean that they are should be taken seriously.

• Separation Agreements

When spouses separate, they often plan a trial separation to wait and see whether they should try to reconcile or whether they should move forward with a divorce or dissolution. There are critically important decisions that need to be made immediately, however. Further, as the separation continues, each spouse is at risk of the other abusing their ability to increase marital debt or get rid of marital assets and income. The legal process provides a tool to minimize the risks of separation while still providing the spouses the time they want to come to a decision regarding divorce.

• Dissolution / Divorce

A marriage may be ended through either a divorce or dissolution. Dissolution is an agreement the spouses come to before they go to court regarding their assets, debts, and children. An attorney can assist the spouses to draft a dissolution agreement, file it with court, and between 30 and 90 days after, the court will hold a brief hearing to adopt the dissolution if there are no irregularities. Another approach is for one spouse to file for a divorce immediately rather than wait for a dissolution agreement. This choice is often made when it seems that a dissolution agreement cannot be obtained or will take time. The divorce filing will immediately provide protections with regard to assets, debts, and children. As the divorce proceeds, the spouses may still come to an agreement with respect to as many issues as possible.

• Financial Implications

In Ohio, an equitable distribution of marital debt and assets is sought. What is considered a marital debt may often be surprising. For example, you may be responsible for your spouse's credit cards even if your name is not on them and you never used them. If either spouse owned a business, an analysis of the business' net worth may be needed. Even if the court orders one spouse to be responsible for a debt, if both names are on the debt (e.g., a car loan or mortgage), the lender may still pursue both spouses even after the divorce decree. Spousal support has tax implications different from child support, as can the manner in which pensions are divided.

• Child Custody

If child custody is in dispute, the court will make its decisions based on what it believes is in the best interest of the children. As you advocate for what you believe is in the best interest of your children, there are a variety of issues and tools that must be addressed and used. You may hear terms such as custody, shared parenting, visitation, parental rights and responsibilities, and residential parent. Determining what happens to your children after your divorce may be the biggest responsibility of your life. This is a complex issue that should not be faced without an aggressive, experienced, effective child custody lawyer to protect your rights and the best interests of your children.

• Child Support

Ohio provides a child support worksheet with formulas to determine an appropriate level of child support. The process is rather straight forward, but only if you understand the worksheet, what can and cannot be included on the worksheet, and what deviations are permitted and why. It is also important to fully understand when you may ask for a review of your child support order and, if an order is appealed from the Child Support Enforcement Agency (CSEA) to court, you must also understand what the court will and will not consider in determining child support. .

- Personal Injury

Sivinski & Smith represents individuals and families of those injured or killed in personal injury and wrongful death actions arising from automobile accidents, motorcycle accidents, airplane tragedies, medical mistakes, defective equipment, unsafe machinery, nursing home abuse and exposure to toxic substances.

- Medical Malpractice

One of the most difficult choices a person can make is whether to pursue a medical malpractice claim against his or her doctor or hospital, yet, at times, mistakes are made by people working in the health care industry and when the mistake falls below the applicable standard of care and results in an injury to a patient, you may have a legal remedy for your pain and suffering, lost wages and medical bills.

- Product Liability

When a person is injured by a defective or unreasonably dangerous product, he or she may have the right to receive compensation under certain circumstances. Products liability law is a very complex area where your legal rights are different based upon the type of substance or product at issue. Sivinski & Smith, LLC’s attorneys have extensive experience in Ohio Products Liability law and can help you through this difficult area.

- Asbestos / Mesothelioma

Many people come to Sivinski & Smith looking for an asbestos lawyer or for legal advice about asbestos litigation. Often, they are victims of asbestos-related diseases, ranging from asbestosis, pleural thickening and pleural plaques to lung cancer, colon cancer, stomach cancer, esophageal cancer, and laryngeal cancer, as well as a usually fatal condition known as mesothelioma—a cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen.

- Workers' Compensation

Sivinski & Smith's Workers Compensation lawyers have represented thousands of clients who have been injured at work or suffered occupational diseases as a result of long term exposures to toxic substances at work. Because obtaining workers’ compensation benefits can require numerous hearings and the application of intricate administrative procedures and rules, a lawyer’s guidance and experience can be extremely important to an injured worker’s success in obtaining benefits.