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Cook County Illinois Board President John Stroger has proposed a new 4% lease tax. This tax is modeled on the Chicago Transaction Tax, which shifts the imposition from the lessee to a flat 4% tax on lessors (including nonpossessory lessors) receipts. The State Government Relations Committee Chair of the Equipment Leasing Association, Valerie Pfeiffer of CIT, reports that under this proposed tax, the only exempt lessors are governmental bodies, and lessors that are organized and operated exclusively for charitable, educational or religious purposes. The ordinance provides no exemption for government or other typically exempt charitable, educational or religious lessees.

The American Law Institute (ALI) and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL), the two organizations jointly responsible for drafting and updating the Uniform Commercial Code, recently approved proposed amendments to Article 2 — Sales, and Article 2A — Leases. The ALI approved the proposed amendments in May 2003 and NCCUSL in August 2002. These amendments are the culmination of a project that began more than 10 years ago.

A woman whose eggs were fertilized, implanted in the womb of her lesbian partner, and produced twin girls is being denied parentage of the children.

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We can all stand to improve the way we practice the non-adversarial, settlement-oriented part of our profession by paying attention to the way we employ the principles of advocacy and inquiry.

Political Risk Insurance protects an insured from financial losses as a result of unpredictable actions by host governments, especially in emerging countries or in unstable environments. It has become a vital part of risk management for global enterprises involved in international business, finance and investments.

Recent decisions of importance to you and your practice.

When a property is physically damaged by some insurable event &mdash; such as a flood or fire &mdash; laws or ordinances that were not in place when the original property was first constructed must be considered in the repairing or rebuilding of that property. After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, for example, Dade County Florida required that ruined houses be rebuilt in compliance with stricter severe-weather standards than the damaged houses had previously exhibited. These upgrade requirements must be reconciled with replacement-cost insurance for property owners, which puts the insured in the <i>same</i> position, with the same quality of property, as existed before the insured event &mdash; not in a <i>better</i> position, with a higher quality of property (<i>eg,</i> a stronger roof, better ventilation, wider egresses, and the like). Consequently, courts, insurers and insureds need to resolve the question of which party pays the costs of compliance with changed construction codes.

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When an insured's personal finances are essential to establishing a monetary motive for his or her conduct (particularly in insurance fraud cases), it is necessary to ask pointed, and, yes, sometimes embarrassing questions at examination under oath or deposition.