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The continued evolution of bankruptcy petitions, schedules
Recently and perhaps in the Halloween spirit, I stumbled upon a link to Edgar Allen Poe’s 1842 bankruptcy filing. Despite his release of “The Murders In The Rue Morgue” a year earlier, the author was mired in debt and eager to take advantage of Congress’ recent enactment of the Bankruptcy …
Who is a ‘joint employer’?
In a recent decision rendered in the context of a Union organizing campaign involving Browning Ferris Industries [i], a divided National Labor Relations Board has adopted a greatly expanded standard for determining who is a “joint employer” under the National Labor Relations Act. This decision will have wide-ranging consequences for …
Consumers: Be Aware of Changes Coming Soon to Mortgage Financing – You Will Be Impacted!
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is requiring all lenders to implement new disclosure forms for most mortgage loans applied for starting October 3, 2015. From the consumer’s point of view some of the changes you may see:
Landlords, no-pet clauses and emotional support animals
I am often asked for advice by landlords who own a single apartment and property management groups who own multifamily apartment buildings alike, whether they need to accommodate a tenant’s request to have an emotional support animal in light of a no-pet policy at the premise. This has truly become …
Dementia, intimacy, and the ability to consent
Can someone with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia consent to sexual contact with another person? What if it’s a situation involving a married couple or two persons that have engaged in a long-standing intimate relationship? Questions such have these are difficult to answer, but have become a topic of great debate …
Planning for Your Digital Assets
The law is always going to be playing catch up to technology. That is an often-used saying amongst attorneys, and nowhere is it more prevalent than in the area of digital assets estate planning.
Canadian Anti-Spam Law: What U.S. Lawyers Should Know
Canada set a worldwide precedent against spamming with its new anti-spam law going into effect on July 1, 2014.
Why Young Professionals Are Taking the Duplex Dive
Many local students, graduates and young professionals seek to live within the city bounds of Rochester. With the high price of properties, some homebuyers have turned to an increasingly popular option: a two-family home, or a duplex. While duplexes carry with them numerous responsibilities, they offer distinct advantages to those …
Western District of New York Bankruptcy Update (June 2014)
I. Recent Decisions: 1) Adelphia Recovery Trust v. Goldman, Sachs & Co., 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 6211 (2d Cir. April 4, 2014): Do avoidance powers under the Bankruptcy Code apply to funds that are not property of the bankruptcy estate? After full repayment of unsecured creditors of Adelphia Communication …
The Future of Courtroom Surveillance
Put aside for a moment the creepiness most of us have experienced in immediately seeing an ad on Facebook for an item you were shopping for moment earlier on another site.
Heading to Overtime: How Potential FLSA Updates May Impact Employers
March Madness brings competition, surprises, upsets, and the most climactic of all – overtime.
Case Summaries – Monroe County Bar Association Bankruptcy Committee
Devin Lawton Palmer, Esq. 1) Ring v. Feathers-Swan (In re Swan), 2014 Bankr. LEXIS 650 / BK No. 08-11210/AP No. 13-1027 (Bankr. W.D.N.Y., Kaplan, J., February 18, 2014): Is a debtors’ failure to honor a turnover order because they do not have the funds to do so constitute a …
The Nonprofit Revitalization Act of 2013: What It Means
As a prudent lawyer once said, the law is much like a promise – fluid. While litigators find and emphasize fluidity among ambiguities in the law, corporate planners prefer clarity, only experiencing fluidity when legislators act and the black letter of the law is changed. Such change is inevitably on …
Local Municipal Approval of Projects – Crowd Control
With the continued popularity of social media such as Twitter and Facebook, we are now, more than ever, more acutely aware of our neighbors’ opinions.
Minimizing Exposure to Stark Law
If you are a physician or provider, when was the last time you reviewed your written services contracts for compliance with the Stark Law?
Put a Lid On It – Ensuring Continuity for Online Bank Accounts
Vast digitalization has our generation buzzing. Work and social affairs have rapidly become taken over, and largely run by, the Internet. Quick to follow suit have been the more historically pen-and-paper affairs, such as banking and bill-pay. This trend has succession planners concerned. What will your children do when they …
Lease Exit Strategies
Most physicians lease office space for terms of five or ten years, initially considering immediate needs, but often not negotiating appropriately for unexpected future developments. The purpose of this article is to give you – the prospective tenant – some guidance for developing strategies that give you some flexibility in …
Advances in Technology and the Evolution of Service
I recently had a client come into my office with a foot high stack of documents mailed to him over several months in Kodak’s bankruptcy. For him, the volume rendered a review an all or nothing proposal; unfortunately, he chose the latter, hoping instead that I could make heads or …
Recent Supreme Court Decisions Are Pro-Employer
The Supreme Court’s recent pro-employer decisions, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar and Vance v. Ball State University clarified some of the standards for employer liability for workplace retaliation and harassment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and provide some measure of comfort and guidance to …
Marketplace Fairness Act – Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Many would find it hard to believe that the Marketplace Fairness Act has a long legal history. While shopping on the internet may be a fairly modern concept, shopping from home is not. The progeny of the act is a 46 year old Supreme Court Case involving a mail order …
Small Estate Musings – When Real Property is the Estate
No doubt, people are living longer these days, and that means that more people are living on their social security and pensions in their senior years, having outlived their retirement accounts. If they are lucky, they own their own home which they maintain with their monthly income. However, complications arise …
Bankruptcy Case Summaries – September 2013
1.) Sheet Metal Workers’ National Pension Fund v. Collins and Walton Plumbing and Heating Contractors, Inc., 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84812 (W.D.N.Y., June 17, 2013): Can a district court sever a plaintiff’s claim against a bankrupt debtor to allow the plaintiff to continue the litigation against the non-debtor party? …
Bankruptcy Overview and FAQ
“I’VE GOT MORE DEBT THAN I CAN HANDLE AND I NEED HELP” Options: Bankruptcy: Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 Settlement: Time Payment (CCCS) / Debt Settlement in lump sum Do Nothing: You may not be subject to enforcement process Bankruptcy: “Petition” Federal Court for “Relief” under the …
Case Summaries – Monroe County Bar Association Bankruptcy Committee
Devin Lawton Palmer, Esq. 1) Route 21 Associates of Belleville, LLC v. Millennium Custodial Trust (In re Lyondell Chemical Co.), 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 21471 (2d Cir. Oct. 23, 2013): How are claims arising from a debtor’s rejection of an executory contract treated in bankruptcy? With little in the way …
The Challenge of Open Government in an “Always On” World
By Donald A. Young, Esq. I don’t use an alarm clock – at least not in the traditional sense. I also don’t have a home telephone. My “smart” phone serves both purposes nicely. It sleeps with one eye open on my nightstand every evening and, each morning, serenades me with …
