Everyone by now seems to understand that the once in a lifetime gift giving opportunity will expire on January 1, 2013. Even though the $5 million gift giving exemption has been available since January 1, 2011, many clients are reluctant to give away assets because they do not want to lose control and/or access to the gifted asset. This program will provide a comprehensive analysis of gift giving techniques with retained interests, which should satisfy your clients' goals. Come to this FREE 3 CPE credit seminar and you will learn: - Grantor Retained Annuity Trust ...

Pennsylvania Legislators Consider Stiffer Felon Gun Possession Penalties Any person previously convicted in Pennsylvania of a felony such as assaultor drug crimes faces future limits on possessing a weapon long after they have served time or been released on probation. Some state lawmakers are pushing for even greater penalties for the offense of being a felon who possesses a gun. House Bill 2331, introduced by a former Montgomery County prosecutor and other legislators, passed the House by a wide margin in May and is currently being considered by the Pennsylvania ...

Five-Year Prison Term for Armed Felons Proposed in Pennsylvania After being convicted of a serious violent crime in Pennsylvania, offenders are prohibited from ever again owning a firearm. Even after release from prison and satisfactory completion of all other aspects of their punishment, these individuals can be criminally prosecuted simply for possession of a gun. But, some Pennsylvania lawmakers are saying that current sanctions for felons caught with a firearm are too light. A new bill working its way through the Pennsylvania legislature aims to sharply increase ...

The Drew Peterson Case: An Illustration of Hearsay Evidence in Illinois It was a compelling case that captured the attention of a nation: did Chicago police veteran Drew Peterson kill his ex-wife Kathleen Savio? Peterson's fate rested in the hands of 12 jurors, and their understanding of the law. For the final jury holdout, Ron Supalo, it all came down to damning hearsay statements that seemed to link Peterson to the murder. But wait -- isn't hearsay inadmissible in a court of law? If you're confused about hearsay, you're not alone. Anyone who's ever watched a ...

Texas Sex Offenders Face Complex Web of Restrictions Texas law requires nearly all people convicted of sexually-based offenses to register with the state sex offender registry. Depending on the severity of the offense, the registration requirement may be as short as 10 years or as long as the rest of the offender's life. Failure to register is a serious criminal offense that can quickly land a released offender back in prison. The Texas sex offender registry is operated by the Texas Department of Public Safety. The public database lists the names of convicted sex ...

Aggressive Driving: How to Avoid Being a Victim of Road Rage Although many people feel that an exact definition of "road rage" is difficult, most agree that we all know it when we see it. Broadly, road rage refers to the use of a motor vehicle aggressively, or even a later, separate act of violence that grows out of an earlier incident of aggressive driving. According to a 1996 study commissioned by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, aggressive driving in the U.S. causes on average a minimum of 1,500 injuries and deaths annually. Aggressive driving behavior ...

Criminal Grounds for Deportation If you are in the United States legally, you may still face deportation or removal if you are convicted of certain crimes. Criminal grounds of deportation include aggravated felonies, drug crimes, crimes involving moral turpitude (CMTs), firearm offenses, domestic violence and crimes against children. Aggravated Felonies A noncitizen can face deportation for conviction of an aggravated felony under U.S. immigration laws. This is different from being convicted of a general felony. In fact, some aggravated felonies are actually misdemeanors ...

Collecting Past Due Child Support in Texas For most families, September represents the beginning of a new school year. This means new clothes for kids, along with notebooks, backpacks, pencils and other materials needed for school. Obviously, all of this costs money. According to the National Retail Federation, families of school age children will spend 14 percent more on school materials, for an average of $688 per family. <p align="left]While this figure may seem expensive for two-parent households, it is even more daunting for single parents who rely on monthly ...

Texas Man Faces Capital Murder Charge 32 Years After Crime Recently, a 53-year-old man was arrested and placed in custody on a capital murder charge, which dates back to the 1980 death of a 73-year-old Williamson County, Texas, woman. The charges allege that the man raped and strangled the deceased woman. Before he was charged, the case had taken another path. Originally, a different suspect was pinpointed for the crime. A convicted serial killer had confessed to the murder; however, his admission was discredited in the late 1980s. Decades later, DNA connected ...

California Health Care Providers Can Dispute Denied Insurance Claims The American health care system is rife with complications. Though health care providers rightly want to focus on helping their patients get healthy and stay well, they also need to get paid for their work. Unfortunately, health care providers too often find themselves fighting with insurance companies to get appropriate reimbursement for the medical treatment they have provided. When an insurance company wrongly denies a claim, a health care provider has a right to appeal the denial and take legal ...

Connecticut Supreme Court Upholds Medical Negligence Verdict People who suffer injury or prolonged illness due to medical malpractice deserve access to justice and compensation for protracted suffering, ongoing medical expenses and other damages. When a doctor or oncologist fails to diagnose cancer or another serious illness, a patient can lose precious time to fight a serious or terminal condition. A recent case before the Connecticut Supreme Court involved a woman's lawsuit against an obstetrician and gynecologist whom a jury had found negligent for failing to properly ...

Employees Should Be Wary of Classification Enforcement According to numerous reports, the U.S. Department of Labor has become more aggressive in enforcing wage and hour laws, and there are a number of cautionary tales that should keep employers vigilant in following employee classification rules. For instance, more DOL investigators are conducting unannounced wage and hour investigations, catching many employers unprepared. According to the National Restaurant Association, the DOL collected $225 million in back payments for wage and hour violations last year. While ...

NFL Makes Major Grant for Brain Injury Research In any personal injury action that involves head trauma, the injury victim's attorney must work diligently to document the full extent and effects of the resulting brain injury. This often presents challenges, because the harm suffered is not always immediately apparent, and patient recovery times can vary substantially. Medical research into the diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injuries recently received a significant boost due to increased attention toward the long-term effects of concussions on professional ...

New Jersey Foreclosure Trends and Hope on the Horizon RealtyTrac, a firm that tracks the U.S. foreclosure market, reported that August 2012 foreclosures were up nationally by 1 percent from July, but down 15 percent from August 2011. Bank repossessions, called REOs for short, were also down 2 percent in August from July 2012 and down 19 percent from the year before. That's good news for homeowners and communities in general, but 20 states still saw increased foreclosure activity in August 2012 from the previous year. New Jersey Numbers Among those states was New ...

Property Division in Georgia Divorces: Two Recent Cases To modern ears, the common law conception of marriage sounds like a bad joke or possibly a feminist nightmare. The husband and wife were one, but the husband was the one. Today, of course, a wife's separate property isn't subsumed into her husband's estate, as on the popular PBS series "Downton Abbey." Instead, when a couple divorces, most property is fair game for equitable division. Two recent Georgia divorce cases are a reminder, however, that each party to a marriage can also have separate property. Retirement ...

Study Shows More Males Engage in Distracted Driving Connecticut drivers have probably heard about the increasing number of distracted drivers on the road. Distracted driving has resulted in numerous accidents with tragic consequences. Although females are often characterized by the media as being chatty, a new report shows that the highest numbers of distracted drivers in Connecticut are males. Connecticut was amongst the first states to impose a ban on handheld cellphones as well as texting while driving. Since this ban went into effect in 2006, males have consistently ...

Keeping the Auditors Out of Your Small Business According to data compiled by the United States Small Business Administration (SBA), there are nearly 28 million small businesses in the country today. Small businesses are an integral part of the American economy, employing about half of the country's workforce. No one would dispute that, for the most part, these businesses are run by hard-working, honest people who are earnestly trying to comply with the thousands of pages of federal regulations that make up the country's tax code. Sometimes mistakes are made, and ...

Modification of Georgia Child Support Turns on Judicial Discretion The Great Recession officially ended in 2009. The after-effects continue to be felt, however, in the uncertain economy that has followed. In this altered economy, income or asset reduction due to job loss or other factors happens much more frequently after a divorce settlement than it used to in the past. For people who make or receive child support or alimony payments, the issue of reducing the payments has therefore become a very important one. This article will discuss the process for child support ...

California Death-Spiral Lawsuit Against Health Insurer Blue Shield The phrase "death spiral" has sobering implications in any context. In the health-insurance world, it refers to the events set off when an insurer closes an existing insurance policy to new enrollees, then raises rates on those remaining in the policy to a largely unaffordable level. Those remaining insureds are usually forced to jump to new, more expensive policies with lower coverage levels, or to become uninsured. California Death-Spiral Prohibition In 1993, reportedly in reaction to ...

Florida Trails Far Behind in Passing Adequate Distracted Driving Laws When motorists or passengers suffer injuries in a car accident or tractor-trailer wreck, a personal injury lawyer's most important role is to assess the circumstances of the crash to identify all potentially liable parties. Whether the accident was primarily caused by reckless behavior, intoxication or driver distraction, a review of witness accounts, police reports and other evidence can unearth negligence to justify full compensation for injury victims. Unfortunately, Florida has lagged behind ...

Prenuptial Agreements: Gaining a Financial Picture Before Marriage Everyone has their own financial personality. Your spending and saving habits may differ greatly from friends and family. According to a 2011 study from Utah State University, married couples who disagree about money issues once a week are twice as likely to divorce than couples who have money conflicts less than once a month. Experts explain that money disagreements encompass a variety of issues that reach beyond financial matters. These contested discussions involve issues of control, freedom and ...

Texas Is Rethinking Its Tough Prostitution Laws After ten years of crowded prisons and increased incarceration costs, the state of Texas is reconsidering its 2001 decision to send those charged with prostitution to prison after multiple convictions. Instead, the state may pursue sentencing that provides treatment, not jail time. Current Texas Prostitution Laws Include Prison Time In 2001, Texas legislators voted to send people convicted of prostitution with three or more convictions to state prison or jail. The law was passed in an effort to reduce prostitution ...

The proposed law could be a boon for law enforcement, but it could also threaten personal privacy and civil liberties. New Jersey's DNA Database The New Jersey DNA Database was established in 1994 and originally required samples to be taken from persons found guilty of, adjudicated delinquent for, or found not guilty by reason of insanity, for certain violent crimes, such as murder, kidnapping, and sex offenses. The databased was then expanded in 2003 to cover persons convicted of any crime of the first, second, third, or fourth degree. The Proposed DNA Sampling ...

The amendment would modify Article I of the state constitution, which currently guarantees a right to bail for all criminal defendants, except those charged with capital offenses "when the proof is evident or presumption great." Under the proposed change, judges would be able to deny bail to defendants who pose a flight risk or who've been accused of violent crimes--particularly those with a prior record of criminal violence. In support of his bail reform proposal, Governor Christie has cited statistics from a 2007 study that found that a third of all defendants ...

Currently there is approximately $1 trillion in outstanding student loan debt. With the floundering economy, many have found themselves struggling to pay back that debt. An increasing number of Americans are looking to bankruptcy for relief. Unfortunately, student loan debt cannot be wiped out in bankruptcy unless payment would be an undue hardship to the borrower. More traditional forms of debt such as medical bills, credit card debt and unsecured loans, can be wiped out or discharged in bankruptcy. Many frustrated borrowers throw up their hands after a while and simply ...