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On May 23, 2003, the U.S. Congress approved the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (JGTRRA) and, within a week, President Bush signed the act into law. JGTRRA reduces tax rates across the board, increases the Child Tax Credit from $600 to $1000, and eases the marriage tax penalty. It also reduces the tax on dividends and capital gains and increases write-offs on capital assets for businesses. Marriage-penalty relief directly affects married taxpayers, but what effect will the new law have on people going through divorce?
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Now that the New York State Legislature has overridden Governor Pataki's veto of the bill increasing compensation rates for court-appointed attorneys under Article 18-b of the County Law, a long-fought battle to drag state-funded attorney fees up to 21st-century levels may have come to a close. The increase will affect attorneys working on behalf of indigent criminal defendants, children in custody matters, and victims of domestic abuse.
American gay couples have a new place to get married. In a landmark ruling last month in Ontario, Canada, the Court of Appeal held that it was unconstitutional to prohibit homosexuals from entering into same-sex marriages, thus opening the way for the first full-fledged same-sex marriage right anywhere outside of Europe. (The Netherlands has permitted same-sex marriage since December 2000, but only to Dutch parties. Belgium has allowed such marriages since January of this year.) The ruling has sent some gay American couples over the border to get marriage licenses and legalize their unions.
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Highlights of the latest equipment leasing news from around the country.
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There are more than 500 nationally recognized Indian tribes in the United States, and as a general rule, state civil laws do not apply to transactions in which they are involved (whether on reservations or not).
Confused about when a real property landlord or equipment lessor can commence charging post-petition rental payments? Does a debtor's obligation under Section 365(d)(3) of the Bankruptcy Code, (hereinafter, the 'Code') to timely perform all obligations arising after the order for relief (or under Section 365(d)(10), 60 days after the order of relief), mean those obligations that 'arise' by virtue of actual post-petition use of the property as opposed to obligations that arise by virtue of the 'due date' of the rental payment by contract or invoice?
In counseling clients on whether to structure a transaction as a lease or a loan, there are several financial considerations. The first is the potential that the client's customer could file for bankruptcy, and its impact upon recovering rent payments as a priority administrative expense. In that case, attorneys' fees are a factor as well. The Bankruptcy Code provisions that govern the rights and remedies of an equipment lessor in comparison to the rights and remedies of a secured lender differ significantly — they may be considered more favorable to an equipment lessor than a secured lender for the reasons discussed later in this article, although certain provisions of the Code that address the remedies of a secured lender are applied to an equipment lessor as well.
Highlights of the latest product liability cases from around the country.
A recent state supreme court decision may have nationwide impact on tire litigation. On May 22 the Texas Supreme Court held that plaintiffs seeking trade secret information from a tire manufacturer must show specifically how the lack of the information could derail a case. The court's decision in <i>In Re Bridgestone/Firestone Inc.</i> gives no guidelines. Justice Nathan Hecht wrote for the majority that the test established in 1998 by the court in <i>In Re Continental General Tire Inc.</i> for discovery of trade secret information 'cannot be satisfied merely by general assertions of unfairness,' According to Judge Hecht's opinion, the plaintiffs in about 150 cases alleging Firestone tire-tread separations and Ford Explorer rollover accidents failed to show how access to the skim-stock formulas used by the tire company is necessary for a 'fair adjudication' of their claims.
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In a complex product liability case where medical causation is at issue, defendants may want to consider moving to bifurcate the trial so that medical causation issues are tried before any liability or damages issues. If the plaintiff fails to convince the jury that the product caused the alleged injury, the case will terminate. If the jury does find causation, the trial continues with the same jury and focuses on liability and damages issues.