Tax Lawyer Rob Wood "Even The IRS Has Time Limits"

Tax law expert Rob Wood wites in Forbes "If you face a tax audit and can legitimately point to the statute of limitations to head off trouble and expense, you should. Why should you have to prove you were entitled to a deduction (or have to find and produce yellowed receipts) if it is simply too late for the IRS to make a claim?

Given the importance of the statute--both to heading off audit trouble and to knowing when you may be able to throw some of those receipts away--it is surprising how few taxpayers are statute savvy."

Scott Drake discusses the article with Tax Law Channel host Robert Wood. (Wood and Porter)

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Arizona Supreme Court Rules on Metadata

Hidden data embedded in electronic public records must be disclosed under Arizona's public records law, the state Supreme Court said Thursday in a groundbreaking ruling that attracted interest from media and government organizations.

The Supreme Court's unanimous decision, which overturned lower court rulings, is believed to be the first by a state supreme court on whether a public records law applies to so-called "metadata."

"This is at the cutting edge -- it's the law trying to catch up with technology," said David R. Merkel, a lawyer for a municipalities group that urged the justices to rule that metadata doesn't have to be disclosed.

Metadata can show how and when a document was created or revised and by whom. The information isn't visible when a document is printed on paper nor does it appear on screen in normal settings.

The Arizona ruling came in a case involving a demoted Phoenix police officer's request for data embedded in notes written by a supervisor. The officer got a printed copy but said he wanted the metadata to see whether the supervisor backdated the notes to before the demotion.

"It would be illogical, and contrary to the policy of openness underlying the public records law, to conclude that public entities can withhold information embedded in an electronic document, such as the date of creation, while they would be required to produce the same information if it were written manually on a paper public records," Justice Scott Bales wrote.

Disclosing metadata shouldn't be overly burdensome on public entities, Bales wrote.

Dan BarrArizona's law generally requires governmental entities to release public records, but they don't have to create them to meet a request.

A Washington state appellate court ruled last year that metadata in e-mail received by a city's deputy mayor was a public record. Unlike Arizona's law, the Washington law specifically says the data is subject to disclosure. That case is pending before the Washington Supreme Court.

The League of Arizona Cities and Towns and other governmental entities filed briefs citing burdens of complying with requests for metadata and urging the justices to uphold a Court of Appeals ruling.

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Immigration Lawyer Bradford Bernstein

Brad Bernstein, President of the Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein and new LBN Commentator talks about his New York, immigration law practice and radio show with LBN host Scott Drake.

Go to his LBN Commentator Profile

Rothstein Fraud Illustrates Need For Settlement Planning

In this short video Jack Meligan and Rick Bishop, two of the founders of SPI and leaders in the growing field of Settlement Planning discusses the Scott Rothstein fraud and how it illustrates the necessity of continuing to educate lawyers and others on what settlement planning is all about. The fact that Rothstein was able to establish and run a major fraud piggy backing on the trade name or term, Structured Settlements, and to confuse lawyers and investors as to how they actually work brings home just how big a void in settlement planning knowledge their is.
 
Watch this short video by two of the leaders in settlement planning and learn how lawyers can start developing a coherent method of working with professionals on settlements so that scams such at the Scott Rothstein debacle are few and far between.

Chimp Attack Victim's Lawyer...Matt Newman on $150 Million Lawsuit

Charla Nash, the woman who was severely mauled on February 16,2009, by a friend’s pet chimpanzee, appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show. The chimpanzee weighed 200 pounds when it brutally attacked Nash, and left her face completely destroyed.

Nash appeared on the talk show wearing a black veil. After talking with Oprah for a bit, Oprah asked if she would be willing to remove the veil. Nash had no objections and stated she was much stronger now and did not care what people saw. When she removed the veil, Oprah explained to her that her face would be all over the media.

Nash’s face is extremely disfigured. She lost both of her hands, her eyelids, nose, lips and the bony structure of her middle face. Nash says she is not in any pain, and does not remember the attack at all. Her family has filed a lawsuit against the owner of the chimp for 50 million dollars, and the state of Connecticut for 150 million dollars.

Nash, who just turned 56, is still recovering at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. She is hoping to become a candidate for a face and hand transplant.

Scott Drake talks with Nash's lawyer Matt Newman.

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Health Care Bill Prognosis...."DOA?"

(Reuters) After a landmark win in the House of Representatives, President Barack Obama's push for healthcare reform faces a difficult path in the Senate amid divisions in his own Democratic Party on how to proceed.

On a 220-215 vote, including the support of one Republican and opposition from 39 Democrats, the House backed a bill late on Saturday that would expand coverage to nearly all Americans and bar insurance practices such as refusing to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions.

The battle now shifts to the Senate, where work on Obama's top domestic priority has been stalled for weeks as Democratic leader Harry Reid searches for an approach that can win the 60 votes he needs to overcome Republican procedural hurdles.

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Wahlstrom/Schlichtmann Commentary -- Alleged scheme by Scott Rothstein could top $1B

(Associated Press) Investigators say the alleged fraud scheme run by a prominent South Florida lawyer is likely to exceed $1 billion and involve thousands of investors.

Miami FBI chief John Gilles (GILL-eez) said Thursday morning that investigators want investors with attorney Scott Rothstein to come forward. Rothstein is suspected of misappropriating millions through a legal settlement investment scam.

No criminal charges have been filed yet, but in a civil complaint, prosecutors accused Rothstein of concocting a Ponzi scheme that lured millions from investors. Gilles said the investigation is likely to take weeks or longer.

In a special edition of Voices of the Law, Mark Wahlstrom and Jan Schlichtmann discuss how this fraud has smeared the structured settlement industry by falsely implying that Rothstein was selling or manipulating structured settlements, when in fact it was a standard variety, but grand scale Ponzi scheme based on the cash now industry that is plaguing the legal profession.

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Securities Fraud Lawyer Mark Tepper Dicusses Elderly Victims

Securities Fraud Lawyer Mark Tepper, the attorney for the Carmels, is interviewed by Scott Drake.

(National Law Journal) Seniors are increasingly filing complaints against their brokers for conning them into bad investments, say securities fraud attorneys, Recent  victims --  the Carmels of Florida -- an 82-year-old husband and 75-year-old wife who claim their Bank of America broker cozied up to them, gained their trust and then stuck them with a bad investment that cost them $1.425 million. 

Their claim, filed Oct. 26 with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the agency that handles broker complaints, says the broker visited their house as often as four times a week, made home repairs and played chess with them. Then the broker convinced them to buy high-risk investments -- without full disclosure -- in companies that had little or no previous operating history.

The couple claims that the broker took advantage of their trust and their age.Mark Tepper

 The Carmels are also seeking to hold liable the broker's employer -- Banc of America Investment Services -- a subsidiary of Bank of America. Their complaint alleges that Banc of America Investment Services should have detected and prevented the broker's recommendations to invest in unregistered securities that were illiquid, had no recognizable market value and overexposed the seniors to risk.

"What offended me is I don't like to see elderly, vulnerable people allegedly being taken advantage of," said the couples' lawyer, Mark Tepper of the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based securities boutique firm Mark A. Tepper. He said his firm has seen a significant increase in calls from elderly investors in the last year.

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$16.4 Million Jury Award Over 2003 Plane Crash And Lack Of Training

Scott Drake interviews attorneys Dan O'Fallon and Phillip Sieff cousel for the family of the passenger James Kosak. Both are with the firm Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi in Minneapolis

A jury has awarded the families of two men killed when their Cirrus SR-22 crashed in Minnesota in January 2003 a total of $16.4 million in damages. The families of the men argued in their lawsuit that Cirrus Aircraft and the University of North Dakota provided training that should have made pilot Gary Prokop proficient in his plane and that the SR-22 was marketed as easy to fly.

But the pilot’s family said he wasn’t proficient in using the plane’s autopilot because Cirrus’ training program was lacking, and that if Prokop knew how to use the autopilot, the crash could have been prevented. The plane crashed after Prokop took off at dusk in marginal VFR conditions and then flew into instrument conditions, the National Transportation Safety Board said in its probable cause report. Prokop had 250 hours of total time, including 19 hours in the SR-22, with almost all of the rest of his flight time in a Cessna 172. While Prokop had 57 hours of instrument time, the transition training program he completed with Cirrus limited him to VFR flight in his new plane. Cirrus has not decided whether it will appeal the jury’s decision.


On Jan. 18, 2003, plaintiff’s decedent pilot Gary Prokop, 47, an entrepreneur, and plaintiff’s decedent passenger James Kosak, 51, who works in management, took flight from an airport in Grand Rapids at 6:30 a.m. during cloudy conditions. They were headed for St. Cloud to attend their sons’ hockey tournament. At about eight minutes into the flight, Prokop’s new Cirrus SR22 plane crashed outside of Hill City. They both died instantly.

Prokop was a VFR (visual flight rules), single engine-licensed pilot who had over 200 hours of flight experience — mostly in a Cessna 172 — and was studying for his IFR (instrument flight rule) license. An IFR-rated pilot, as opposed to a solely VFR-rated pilot, can use the plane’s instrumentation to assist in flying through visually impaired weather. Prokop had scheduled to take his IFR test prior to the crash. He purchased the plane about a month before the crash and underwent 3.5 days of training (not required by the Federal Aviation Administration) through the North Dakota Aerospace Foundation in Grand Forks. By the time he piloted the plane on the day of the crash, Prokop had about six hours of solo time in an SR22. Plane manufacturer Cirrus Design Corp. created the training program for the SR22 planes and it hired the University of North Dakota Aerospace foundation to train the pilots who purchased those planes.

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WSJ Blog: The Anonymous Lawyer on Law Firm Bonuses

 Here is Anonymous Lawyer Jeremy Blachman's, end of year, bonus memo from the WSJ Law Blog.

LBN talked with Blachman a couple of months ago in the video below.

5 Facts About Veterans And How You Can Help

(Huffington Post) Veteran's Day only happens once a year, but our nation's veterans need our support year-round. We've pulled together five facts about U.S. veterans, the great organizations that are supporting them and how you can help any time of the year.

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Tax Lawyer Rob Wood "10 Ways To Audit Proof Your Tax Return"

In a recent Forbes article, tax lawyer Rob Wood (Wood and Porter) discusses simple ways to avoid an IRS audit.

Read the article

Tax Law Channel

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Jan Schlichtmann "Chemical Delivery Set Up Danversport Blast"

(Boston Globe) Danversport Trust lawyer Jan Schlitchmann says a Kentucky-based chemical company delivered a tanker of chemicals to an ink and paint factory, contributing to an inferno that destroyed or damaged nearly 100 homes and businesses.

Jan SchlichtmannSchlichtmann said a worker for Ashland Inc., based in Covington, Ky., also participated in filling up the 2,000-gallon mixing tank that overheated inside the CAI/Arnel factory, causing an explosion that nearly flattened the Danversport neighborhood.

“We believe this was part of a routine practice,’’ Schlichtmann said of the employee’s actions.

“That makes it particularly egregious. It was an explosion waiting to happen.’’

In a statement, Ashland said it bears no responsibility for the Nov. 22, 2006, explosion, one of the state’s worst industrial accidents.

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Settlement Capital's Matt Bracy "Scott Rothstein Scheme Not About Structured Settlements"

Matt Bracy, general counsel of Settlement Capital Corporation tells LBN's Scott Drake that the Scott Rothstein scheme isn't about structured settlements.

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Sean Carter "Sex For World Series Tickets"

How desperate was Susan Finkelstein to have World Series tickets?

VERY desperate, investigators say. So desperate, in fact, they say the 43-year-old suburban Philadelphia woman posted an ad on the Web site Craigslist in which she described herself as a "gorgeous, tall, buxom blonde diehard Phillies fan" desperately seeking Series tickets.

LBN Senior Correspondent Sean Carter says there is no basis for the charges.

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Aviation Lawyer Charles Brewer Commentary On the Northwest Pilots

The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday revoked the licenses of the two Northwest Airlines pilots who overshot their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles.

The pilots — Timothy Cheney of Gig Harbor, Wash., the captain, and Richard Cole of Salem, Ore., the first officer — told safety investigators they were working on their personal laptop computers and lost track of time and place.

The pilots, who were out of communications with air traffic controllers for 91 minutes, violated numerous federal safety regulations in the incident last Wednesday night, the FAA said in a statement. The violations included failing to comply with air traffic control instructions and clearances and operating carelessly and recklessly, the agency said.

"You engaged in conduct that put your passengers and your crew in serious jeopardy," FAA regional counsel Eddie Thomas said in a letter to Cheney. Northwest Flight 188 was not in communications with controllers or the airline dispatchers "while you were on a frolic of your own. ... This is a total dereliction and disregard for your duties."

A similar letter was sent to Cole.

The pilots said they were brought back to awareness when a flight attendant contacted them on the aircraft's intercom. By then, they were over Wisconsin at 37,000 feet. They turned the Airbus A320 with its 144 passengers around and landed safely in Minneapolis.Aviation Lawyer Charles Brewer

The revocations of the pilots' commercial licenses are effective immediately, FAA said.

The pilots have 10 days to appeal the emergency revocations to the National Transportation Safety Board. If that fails, they can apply for a new certificate after one year.

The pilots' union at Delta Air Lines, which acquired Northwest last year, had cautioned against a rush to judgment. The pilots told investigators who interviewed them on Sunday that they had no previous accidents or safety incidents.

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Jury awards $16.57M in suit over water-drinking death. The family's attorney Roger Dreyer talks with LBN.

A jury has awarded $16.57 million to the plaintiffs in a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of a Rancho Cordova mother of three who died after a water-drinking contest sponsored by local radio station The End (KDND 107.9 FM).

Sacramento attorney Roger Dreyer of Dreyer, Babich, Buccola & Callaham LLC filed the suit on behalf of Strange’s husband, William Strange, their two children, and Ronald Sims, the father and guardian and Strange’s oldest child.

The family of Strange, who was 28 when she died, sued Philadelphia-based Entercom Communications Corp. and its subsidiary Entercom Sacramento LLC. Entercom owns and operates KDND 107.9 The End. The lawsuit named eight employees of Entercom as defendants, including “managing agents” John Geary, Steve Weed, Robin Pechota and Liz Dial, and “the talent,” Adam Cox, Steve Maney, Patricia Sweet and Matt Carter.

The jury found that neither Strange, nor Entercom Communications, had any fault in her death. They assigned 100 percent of the fault to Entercom Sacramento.

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Profile: Attorney Solomon Neuhardt, Billings, Montana

Solomon Neuhardt is a dedicated attorney in Billings, MT who specializes in accident and personal injury cases.

With years of experience as an attorney in Billings Montana and surrounding areas, Solomon has developed Neuhardt Law Firm into one of the best in America.

Profile: General Counsel's Stuart Blake

Scott Drake interviews General Counsel founder and managing principal Stuart Blake. The General Counsel, LLC was founded in 2005 with a straightforward mission - offer cost effective, full and part-time in-house general counsel services to fast-growth and mid-size companies. GC helps these businesses chart their growth and mitigate the risks associated with success.

Stuart is an attorney with over 25 years of in house corporate legal experience. Stuart has vast experience in consumer products industries, for which he has counseled on a wide variety of general business, commercial contracts, employment matters, litigation, mergers and acquisitions and corporate compliance and governance. He has a proven track record of forging successful working relationships with executive management teams.

John O'Quinn Killed in Car Accident

Prominent Houston attorney John O'Quinn and assistant Johnny Cutliff died this morning when their speeding SUV slammed into a tree on Allen Parkway after the O'Quinn apparently lost control, police said.

 "I'm stunned. The community lost one of its biggest assets," said Rick Laminack, who worked with O'Quinn from 1987 until 2006. "He was a great lawyer who shared a lot of his wealth with people who needed help."

 O'Quinn, who made his fortune largely in personal injury cases, most notably in successful breast implant cases in the early 1990s, was a local philanthropist. He gave money to the Harris County Children's Assessment Center, the Houston Council on Alcohol and Drugs and various Texas Medical Center institutions including St. Luke's Hospital, which has a tower bearing his name..

The football field at the University of Houston's Robertson Stadium also is named for O'Quinn, a big UH supporter.

"Big man, big loss," Laminack said.

He also was a prolific giver to Democratic Party candidates. In the 2006 governor's race, he was the single biggest donor to Democratic nominee Chris Bell's unsuccessful campaign to unseat Republican Gov. Rick Perry. O'Quinn gave Bell $2.5 million. (Dale Lezon, Houston Chronicle)

Legal career

Making his name in handling plaintiff's litigation among O'Quinn's biggest wins were:

• $1 billion verdict in 2006 against Wyeth Laboratory for its diet drug, fen-phen
• $17.3 billion tobacco settlement for the state of Texas
• $100 million for silicone breast implants made by Dow Corning

In total, O'Quinn is estimated to have won $1.5 billion for the firm of O'Quinn & Laminack of Houston. According to a 2006 article in Forbes, O'Quinn's own firm had pending cases against stock brokers  and hedge funds for shorting the shares of weak companies, and against Ford for rollover accidents caused by the Ford Explorer  In the past decade, O'Quinn won, through settlement or verdicts, more than $20 billion for his clients.