Litigation
Cases of interest to you and your practice.
DOT.COMments
You're right ' it can't possibly be tax time again, and yet ' here we are, wondering if each Easter egg constitutes a taxable capital gain. Tax time brings special problems for taxpayers affected by divorce. Should your clients file separately or jointly? Which spouse gets to claim the exemptions for the children?
Pre-Nups and ERISA
Take a second look at your prenuptial agreements. Do they adequately protect retirement accounts from the reaches of ERISA? Chances are they do not. ERISA has specific requirements to effectuate a spousal waiver of rights to a participant's retirement benefits.
New Regulation Helps Plan Stock Redemptions
The U.S. Treasury Department has promulgated a final tax regulation intended to remove the uncertainty surrounding the tax treatment of stock redemptions that resulted from recent case law. Treasury Decision 9035, 68 Fed. Reg. 1534 (Jan. 10). The final regulation adopts and expands upon the proposed regulations that were issued by the Department in August 2001.
Working Well with Custody Experts
When attorneys ask mental health experts' opinions, the experience is often frustrating, and the experts are less helpful than the attorneys had hoped. In an earlier article, we outlined the qualification and background of mental health experts. In this follow-up, we explore some problems that arise between experts and attorneys ' and offer some solutions.
Litigation
Recent cases of interest to your practice.
'This Guy Walks into a Divorce Lawyer's Office ''
The traditional adversarial system continues to draw criticism when aggressively applied to family law cases. Apart from the inefficiencies, impracticalities and associated costs of strongly competitive approaches, the reasons for abandoning these poorly conceived methods of dispute resolution should be obvious.
When Child Support Obligees Can't Pay
A suit to force New Jersey to appoint lawyers for indigent parents before jailing them for skipped child support belongs in state court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled. The plaintiffs had contended that Family Part judges in New Jersey violated their civil rights by failing to inform them of their right to counsel and to have counsel appointed for them based on their indigency, and that, because they remain in arrears on their child support obligations, there is a likelihood that they will again be deprived of these rights because they will be obligated to appear in future contempt hearings.
Child Removal: A Matrimonial Litigator's Checklist
In matrimonial practice, the frequency of child removal litigation has increased exponentially. The growing number of corporate downsizings, business mergers and acquisitions, and the general growth in employment mobility are all likely to result in a continuation of this trend. This article, which provides a checklist of five areas of inquiry, is intended to help the family law litigator anticipate and prepare for the legal and factual issues presented when child removal is in issue.
Making A Colorful Impression
The power of color begins early. When youngsters get down on the floor with a big piece of paper and a box of crayons or markers, it doesn't take long before every color has been used. We all love color.
