Strange Tax Credits

When we wanted to stoke the auto industry market, a tax credit became available for people purchasing a new car between February and December 2009.

When we wanted to stoke hiring employees, a tax credit became available to employers for hiring someone who was previously unemployed.

When we wanted to stoke home sales, a tax credit became available for people purchasing homes.

Tucked down inside the gigantic health care bill, there is now a tax credit of up to $13000 for foreign or domestic adoptions.  What exactly are we stoking with that?  Is adoption really an impulse item that we decide we have additional funds laying around and we can get a tax break for?

8 ways to avoid divorce disaster

Avoid divorce devastation:

1. Settle out of court. - Make a list of all of your assets, bills and potential expenses.  Go through the list yourself and highlight in one color all assets, bills and expenses that you are willing to take.  Go to an attorney only if there is a discrepancy of what your decisions are where the cost of the asset you are not willing to agree on exceeds the price that you each will spend for an attorney. (Estimate $1500 each for the attorneys and realize that one spouse will end up with the asset and pay 1500 while the other has no asset and pays 1500.  Make a good business decision.
2.  Take the emotions out of it.   There is NO reason to discuss blame or anger when you have both     decided to end the marriage.  The approach to your prior spouse should be the same as to your insurance agent.
3. Bone up on financial matters.  If you don't know what you have (i.e. you didn't keep the bills or budget) then you may have to do a bit of detective work to cover yourself.  Even if you miss some things, the papers can be drawn up which instructs what happens to those "forgotten assets and liabilities.
4. Deal with debt strategically.  Focus on allotting the liabilities to the person who is on the debt and/or the person who will be affected if a debt isn't paid. (i.e. the person that gets the house must pay the mortgage)
5. Check financial statements.  Find out if there are tax penalties for early withdrawals. Save addresses for contacting companies to change beneficiaries.
6. Alimony vs. child support - child support is state regulated and general has a formula.  Alimony is typically required by someone losing in a trial.  If you seek to settle then understand that alimony is generally a long shot even if you spent the money to try the case.  If you pay any alimony voluntary it should be considered as a gift.
7. Revise lifestyle budget. - While the psychic threshold might well be better off without a stressful divorce it can still stress your wallet.  The costs of moving, replacing items, new deposits for utilities, deciding to rent or own and household good accumulation isn't cheap.
8. Don't forget retirement.  If you have a retirement plan then the Court can consider it to be partly your spouses.  It needs to be considered and if a QDRO is recorded to separate the funds between divorcing persons then a professional should be employed

DIVORCE PARTY

 As an attorney, I am not often surprised anymore by much of what extent people will go to just to prove a point but today, this one did catch me off guard.  Apparently it is now en vogue to have a party when your divorce is final.  The coffin pictures is one of many products that can be purchased which will allow you to take your marriage license and your wedding band and give it a proper burial.  The psychological advantages are obvious but I am not sure about the ettiquette.  Apparently most women who throw the party will invite other divorced friends and make a movie night out of it to watch man-bashing type movies.  Not surprisingly, the divorced men throw parties involving both genders and celebrate a "coming out" of sorts announcing their eligibility.  Either way, it strikes me as a little odd if children are involved that you would make such a festive event out of saying "I Don't" but I hear a lot of weird stories as an attorney so who can judge....

Boyfriend gets the Guy's Wife and His Money

  The New York Times printed in their magazine last Sunday, an article on men who are deceived into believing that children are their biological children and later find out that they aren't.  The Times Magazine went through in excruciating detail what happens when a woman cheats and has a child of her imposter boyfriend while shes married then divorces her husband and marries the boyfriend.  The woman's ex-husband ended up paying child support for the cheating boyfriend (now husband and Daddy) ended up getting subsidized by the "innocent" ex-husband's child support to his (non-biological) daughter.  The Times paints the picture of the ex-husband as monumentally unfair.  The Courts have held that its better to have someone be the father than no one.  If the Court didn't hold someone responsible then the state welfare system would have to pick up the dime.  The case that was cited was extreme and the details made it sound horrendous.  I would agree that the result in that case seems outrageous (cheating boyfriend wins out overall) but it certainly isn't absurd on the whole.   It has been estimated that up to 30% of men pay child support for children who aren't biologically theirs.  If you sign the birth certificate or are married to the mother when the child is born, the Court ASSUMES you are the father.  Strange but true and might I add... EXPENSIVE whether you fight it or not. NY Times Article

The Loose Threads of Divorce

The divorce is complete, the papers have been signed and you are embarking on a new part of your life. You are leaving your ex-spouse behind you, or are you?

Often overlooked in the paperwork, emotional difficulties and other aspects of divorce is how your divorce impacts your estate planning.  However, with a few steps you can ensure that your wishes are respected.

First, you need to verify, and change if necessary, the beneficiary of your life insurance. The beneficiary is the person who receives the pay out of your life insurance policy. Often times the beneficiary is your ex-spouse and unless you affirmatively change the beneficiary with each life insurance policy, the insurance company will pay your ex-spouse.  Your divorce decree does NOT make this change. Don’t forget any life insurance policies paid for by your employer. This change is relatively simple to do; contact your life insurance agent as well as your HR Department for further assistance.

This would also be a good time to re-evaluate or even create your will. This is particularly important if your divorce involved a child custody decree.  Your will must reflect the child custody arrangements made in your divorce.  You may also wish to review your assignment of any family heirlooms or other items of value to insure they do not go to anyone you a longer wish to receive such items. Any family law attorney in our firm can assist you with these changes and review your existing estate planning to insure that your wishes are respected and provided for.

$600,000 in Child Support Collected from Casino Winnings at the Cage

Colorado gambling law garnished $600,000 from the casino winnings of deadbeat parents for back child support last week. If you have money to gamble, shouldn't you have money to support your children? With all of the casinos cropping up across the United States there may be an avenue for recovery for creditors in general through writs of garnishment on casinos. Any transaction over $1000 paid out requires that a winner must sign and file a tax form thus letting the casinos know the identity and reviewing a state issued ID of the winner. An interesting thought and one that as a lawyer in Las Vegas, I can't wait to try. Hide those Players Cards, deadbeat parents.... we're coming to get you.

Read the entire story at Article in the Denver Post

"THE LAND OF THE FREEEEEEEE AND THE HOME OF THE....."

I am writing this this morning mostly because I am emotionally moved by this particular case and not because it is especially "legally" significant because with any hope it won't be repeated and it isn't standard practice. I should start at the beginning.... I was reading an essay last week on the writer of the "Star Spangled Banner" who we all learned about in elementary school as a great man by the name of Frances Scott Key. The thing that they didn't teach us is that the same man who wrote the words, "The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave" was a slave owner in Frederick, Maryland.

That song was created in 1814 and as with all history, I try to view the hypocrisy of Mr.Key within the time period and environment that he lived in and so as much as it irritates me to hear the Star Spangled Banner with the knowledge of its writer, I respect it as our anthem.

What I don't respect is what was found in a small article on the bottom of page A9 of the New York Times today and what was barely mentioned on the cable news. A Justice of the Peace, Keith Bardwell, who forbid the marriage of Beth Humphrey, a white woman and Terence McKay, who is black, in the State of Louisiana this week in 2009. Further disturbing was that this "allegedly" learned man and justice of the peace stated his reasoning as "There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage. I think that those children suffer, and I won't help put them through it."

For those of you reading this who may need legal backup, it has been ILLEGAL to not allow interracial marriage since 1967. Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967), was a landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court, by a 9-0 vote, declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, the "Racial Integrity Act of 1924", unconstitutional, thereby overturning Pace v. Alabama (1883) and ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.

The Tangipahoa Parish where Bardwell is a Justice of the Peace is a parish of just over 100,000 that was 70% white and 29% black in 2009. Justice of the Peace Bardwell was born in 1956 and was 12 years old when the Loving decision changed the status of blacks and whites in marriage in Louisiana. He has been a Justice of the Peace since 1975 and began as an elected Democrat and then changed parties to the Republican party in 2004. By doing simple math, we arrive at the fact that Mr.Bardwell became a justice of the peace at age 21. He is a high school graduate and by trade, he is a cabinet maker aside from his political career.

Allow me to assure you that I am not an elitest and that I do not think or believe that all Justices of the Peace or Judges must have went to law school. In all honesty, I went to law school with some people who I am fearful for those that they represent. There are some far smarter people than just the ones who managed to get through a graduate program just as there are some wonderful midwives who are far superior to obstetricians. But this case in particular is sad....

I find it sad commentary on the United States when we have finally elected a black President, we have finally found marriage possibilities (still struggling but closer) for homosexual couples, and yet this type of inexcusable ignorance or, worse yet, lack of adherence by the government, encourages a divide between citizens of the United States.

How does this story make only a snippet on the bottom of page 9A in a major newspaper and why is the Governor Bobby Jindal not yelling louder to protect the image of what this does to race relations in his state.