The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act (“Act”) was enacted in 2007 to allow an income tax exclusion to taxpayers who have had a debt cancelled or discharged on their primary residence. Prior to the enactment of this Act, if a taxpayer’s debt was discharged or cancelled it had to be reported as income on the…
Is Technology Making the Practice of Law Less Personal?
Every morning without fail, I arrive to my office to see my email inbox inundated with emails. While sifting through the messages in an attempt to prioritize I will inevitably receive a new email stating “I am just following up on the below email.” To my surprise, the referenced email was only sent a few…
You are being audited by the IRS, what next?
It is tax time again! There is no sure way to avoid an IRS audit. The IRS uses some sort of formula to determine what returns to audit. These formulas are among our nation’s biggest state secrets. You are more likely to uncover the U.S. Nuclear codes or find out who actually killed JFK than…
Can you violate copyright laws when watching sports?
The majority of sports fans enjoy having friends over for “the big game.” However, most broadcasts contain disclosures in fine print relating to the unauthorized reproduction of the broadcast, and how such reproductions, or broadcasting the game to large numbers of people, without the express written consent of the league is a violation of copyright…
Developments of Technology vs. Developments of the Law
In today’s age of gadgets and technology, essentially everyone has, or at least has access to, mobile phones, iPads, Tablets, portable laptops, to name a few. All of these devices not only provide access to the Internet and social media, but they also have the ability to record video and to instantaneously post to a…
A Tale of Two Friends
This is a tale of two friends. One friend became a very rich business person. The other became an architect. When they were younger, the architect saved the life of the rich friend. Over time, the rich friend became extremely wealthy, while the architect earned a mediocre income. The architect harbored a little bit of…
New Regulations Finally Giving Homeowners Teeth to Explore Settlement Options
One of the biggest disappointments I have had to deal with in fighting foreclosures is banks that string our clients around for years, refusing to provide reasonable responses to settlement offers. While the Making Home Affordable (HAMP) program has really opened the doors for a lot of our clients to receive modifications and other forms…
Foreclosure judges Rip Banks at Forum
The above is a headline from an article that appeared in the Palm Beach Post on January 25, 2014. The article goes on delineating specific quotes from Judges in Palm Beach County, Florida who were anything but complimentary as to how the “Banks” and their attorneys are handling the deluge of foreclosure cases. Have the…
Have you been bitten by a dog? No Free Bite in Florida.
You have a dog, maybe he is a 25 pound beagle name Rex. Your dog is extremely friendly and perhaps is afraid of his own shadow. One day, you are walking him around your neighborhood, he is not on a leash because you know he would never bite, or hurt anybody. You see little Johnny,…