No Lip Service to Public Service

While many people chirp about how dedicated they are to public service, Robert Morgenthau backs it up. After serving in the Navy and then as a US Attorney for nine years, Morgenthau became Manhattan's District Attorney in 1975. Now, in 2009, at 90, he retires. He is the longest serving D.A. in Manhattan history, he served as model for the D.A. on the original Law and Order, Justice Sotomayor called him boss for 5 years. Calling him a "lion" of the legal profession seems to fall a little short.

CNN Article detailing Morgenthau's career.

New York Times article on Morgenthau's last press conference.

Wall Street Journal interview.

Change Blindness

Harvard Medical School says we don't pay attention to changes in our environment, or something like that:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/science/01angi.html

Visual Demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38XO7ac9eSs

75% of people do not notice the switching of the actors. Makes you wonder about any conviction based solely on eyewitness testimony.

The Supreme Court 101

The SCOTUS blog has started a very good series of posts geared at the non-lawyer. Yesterday's post explains the process of case selection - certiorari or "cert" for short - and discusses cases selected and denied by the Court.

The post can be found here.

Harvesting Tax Losses

2009 has been another up and down year on Wall Street. This means your mutual fund is likely busy buying and selling securities internally. While the aggregate ends up in a loss for you, your 2009 tax bill may still show capital gains from the internal workings of your mutual fund company. As such, it's important to harvest investment losses to offset any possible taxable gains for 2009. It's only May, so there is no need to dial your broker as you read this. But it's never too early to familiarize yourself with the concept of harvesting losses and prepare for the 4th quarter of 2009.

Last year, Kiplinger published this excellent article detailing the loss-harvesting procedure.

You Can't Drive 55

So you got a speeding ticket in Ohio. Is there any reason to go to court?

These days a lot of speeders are clocked using the Laser system. While previous generations of laser speed monitoring devices had flaws, Ohio Courts seem pretty confident in the current iteration. Most jurisdictions in Ohio have taken judicial notice (taken as fact by the court) that the current version of laser speed-monitoring technology is accurate within 2 MPH under the reading and 1 MPH over the reading (so if you get a ticket for going 1 MPH over the speed limit - take it to court). "One beam, one car" leaves little room for an attorney to argue the readout on the laser device.

However, Ohio is not an absolute speed limit state. This means that driving at a speed exceeding the limit does not necessarily mean a driver broke the law. If the driver can prove that her speed was safe and reasonable for the conditions, then she can successfully "beat" the ticket. Another option is to ask the prosecutor to amend the charge to a lesser offense. Further, there are driving school options to keep the points off her record and keep her insurance rates down. While each situation is different, consulting an attorney after receiving a speeding ticket is never a bad call. Just drive safely on the way to the office.

Red Light, Green Light Top 10

Stoplight was definitely a favorite game of mine growing up. So let's take a minute to look at the law governing stoplights in Ohio and do it in Top 10 fashion:

10. A green light indicates you have the right away when you are approaching an intersection. A red light indicates you do not have the right away to an intersection. A yellow light indicates you are about to lose the right away to that intersection.

9. A green light does not give you carte blanche to tear through the intersection. You are still under a duty to exercise ordinary care as you pass through the intersection. This means observing the traffic around you, paying attention to road conditions, observing all other traffic laws, etc.

8. Because the yellow light provides a warning, the loss of right of way occurs immediately when the light turns to red. There is no grace period.

7. Stopping at a green light may constitute negligence and the driver of a car stopped at a green light can be held liable for any resulting damages.

6. Pedestrians generally have the right of way if the green light is showing for the street parallel to the crosswalk in which the pedestrian is walking.

5. The first electric traffic light in the world was installed at the intersection of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914.

4. To make a proper right on red, a driver must come to a complete stop before the stop line and then cautiously enter into the intersection. Keep in mind people making a right on red do NOT have the right of way to the intersection and do so at their own risk.

3. In Ohio, it is legal to make a left on red onto a one-way street provided there is no posted signage against doing so.

2. It is the body of the car that is taken into account when determining whether a car has entered an intersection, not just the location of the driver.

1. If your car has entered an intersection before the light turns to red, you have the right of way until you leave the intersection. Even if the light changes while you are in the intersection, a car that enters an intersection with right of way will always leave with it as well.

In other words, if the light turns red after your car has crossed the stop line, you have the right to the intersection until your car leaves the crossroads.

Stoplights are governed by ORC 4511.13.

Borrow is to College as Bankruptcy is to Real World

The Supreme Court of the United States heard arguments concerning the discharge of student loan debt in bankruptcy proceedings on December 1. Currently, a "hardship" hearing must occur before a person filing for bankruptcy can discharge (or clear away) student loan debt. This provides an extra procedural hurdle (and another standard of proof to meet) for the debtor.

Attorneys for a trade school alum in Arizona argued that a hardship hearing should not be required to discharge a student loan debt. Inclusion of the student loan debt in a bankruptcy plan - absent objection from the creditor - is sufficient for eliminating the debt, they argued.

Should the Court find in favor of the trade school alum, will this create a back-door path to financial aid? Possibly, but one would think student loan officers would start structuring loans in such a way that it would be difficult to discharge them in a bankruptcy filed straight out of college. However, resourceful college grads will definitely have to consider filing bankruptcy before collecting their first paycheck. While there are obviously consequences associated with declaring bankruptcy (credit freeze, credit score, employment issues, etc.), these could be significantly outweighed by the benefits of bankruptcy for a freshly-minted college grad. Absent the hardship hearing, a student could rack up serious debt and turn it into financial aid by declaring bankruptcy immediately after graduation.

USA Today story: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2009-12-01-court-student-loans_N.htm

Perhaps it would be easier if the fallacy that one 'must attend college to succeed' was eliminated. College is definitely beneficial to a lot of people, but it is not for everyone. Ask Bill Gates.

Ohio Estate Tax Follow-up

As a follow up to the State Estate Tax blog from Monday, Here is a simple breakdown of the Ohio Estate Tax from the Cuyahoga County Probate Court:

"
An Ohio estate tax is levied by the State of Ohio on the estate (including both probate and non-probate property) of a decedent who was a resident of Ohio at time of death.

An Ohio estate tax return must be filed when the value of the gross estate exceeds $200,000 for deaths in 2001 and $338,000 for deaths on and after 01/01/2002.

If the value of the gross estate is less than $200,000 for dates of death in 2001, an Ohio estate Form 22 must be filed if there is real estate.

An estate tax must be paid when the amount of the gross estate exceeds the $6,600 tax credit for 2001 or $13,000 for 2002 (generally equivalent to a $200,000 or $338,000 estate exemption), plus the amount of the administration costs, debts, and deductions allowed by law.

A surviving spouse receives an unlimited marital deduction for dates of death on and after July 1, 1993 which can result in no estate tax on property passing to a surviving spouse.

The Ohio estate tax rates are as follows:

If the taxable estate is:	The tax shall be:
Not over $40,000	2% of the taxable estate
Over $40,000 but not over $100,000	$800 plus 3% of the excess over $40,000
Over $100,000 but not over $200,000	$2,600 plus 4% of the excess over $100,000
Over $200,000 but not over $300,000	$6,600 plus 5% of the excess over $200,000
Over $300,000 but not over $500,000	$11,600 plus 6% of the excess over $300,000
Over $500,000	$23,600 plus 7% of the excess over $500,000

"
- from the Cuyahoga County Probate Court website.