wislawjournal.com recently reported that "Milwaukee County Circuit Court Chief Judge Jeff Kremers issued a directive Monday morning that reimbursement of court-appointed expert witnesses should not exceed $2,800 at a maximum rate of $150 per hour." How is this likely to affect businesses involved in litigation in Milwaukee County?
Continue Reading...An excellent article with the 10 most common questions about Wisconsin's new Concealed Carry Statute has been posted by the State Bar of Wisconsin in its December, 2011 edition of Business Law News. This article was written By Peter F. Mullaney, von Briesen & Roper S.C., Milwaukee.
Many employers worry about how they classify workers. While it seems less costly to classify many workers as "independent contractors" rather than "employees," the IRS can generally make a wrong decision in this area very costly to the employer. This all stems from the collection of taxes associated with payments to such workers.
Continue Reading...Murphy's Law, "If something can go wrong, it will," has picked in inopportune time to strike the IRS. Just as we head into year-end, trying to cram one last transaction into 2011, the IRS computers have gone down, making it impossible to obtain Federal Employer Identification Numbers (FEIN). Without such numbers, entities cannot open bank accounts and transfer monies into and out of such accounts.
This will cause many transaction to fail or fall into a "no man's land" as far as determining whether matters have closed for tax purposes.
Continue Reading...On December 7, 2011, Wisconsin's Governor, Scott Walker, signed into law a provision that will limit the amount of attorney fees that can be awarded to three times the amount of compensatory damages awarded. While the new law was designed to protect those who create jobs from facing unduly harsh legal fees, the most common area cited by those discussing the law came in the area of what is known as Wisconsin's Lemon Law.
Continue Reading...I have been writing Title Insurance on Real Estate Closings for a number of years. My underwriter is Attorneys' Title Guaranty Fund, Inc. ("ATG"), which only writes title insurance through its attorney-members.
In the past year or so, I have received dozens of inquiries about people considering either buying or selling under conditions of a "short sale," where the proceeds of the sale will not be sufficient to cover the balance of the underlying mortgage. Fortunately, for buyers, sellers and lenders, there is a way to do a transaction when such conditions exist. It is difficult, but it can be done.
Continue Reading...I will be hosting two call in talk shows on WTKM, 104.9FM and 1510AM, starting at 10:00am, on Tuesdays, November 22 and December 20. WTKM is located in Hartford, Wisconsin, but reaches listeners from Racine to Madison to Sheboygan. Listeners are encouraged to call in with their legal questions. Callers in Hartford may dial 262-673-3550, from Oconomowoc may dial 262-567-7588, from the Milwaukee metro area may dial 262-252-4567, or from beyond may dial 800-924-9856. Callers calling from a US Cellular phone may dial *105.
I would love to have you join us for an hour of interesting legal discussion!
On September 14, 2011 the IRS issued Notice 2011-72, intended to provide "guidance on the tax treatment of cellular telephones or other similar telecommunications equipment (hereinafter collectively 'cell phones') that employers provide to their employees primarily for non-compensatory business purposes."
The Notice states that when such a cell phone is provided to an employee primarily for non-compensatory business reasons, the IRS will treat use of the cell phone for reasons related to the business as a working fringe benefit, the value of which is excludable from the employee's income.
Continue Reading...The Wisconsin Court of Appeals, Second District, on August 10, 2011, in the case of Ferris v. Location 3 Corp., 2010AP2203, found that agents of a corporation, even when acting within the scope of their corporate authority, could be found personally liable for tortious conduct in the nature of false representation.
Continue Reading...In a recent post, Findlaw, a large web-orientated legal business, suggests that "FindLaw's estate planning content covers the range of options for our users to find the plan that fits them best." and that "FindLaw's estate planning content includes....do-it-yourself forms." Is it a good idea to try to do one's will by oneself, using online forms, without consulting an attorney?
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