Dispute Resolution Gets a Makeover
September 02, 2003
Several governmental and regulatory bodies have announced new initiatives aimed at increasing access to their dispute resolution programs, strengthening the credentials of their neutral panels, and improving the efficiency of their dispute resolution processes. These decisions were reached, in part, after evaluating success rates and feedback relating to these dispute resolution programs.
Jury Awards $5.2 Million in Disability Case
September 02, 2003
A jury awarded $5.2 million to a plaintiff whose former employer, a modeling agency, failed to accommodate her asthma, subjected her to a hostile work environment, and terminated her in retaliation for making complaints about smoking in the workplace. <i>Gallegos v. Elite Model Mgmt. Corp.</i>, No. 120577/00 (N.Y. Co. Sup. Ct. 5/14/03)
Direct Evidence Not Required in Mixed Motive Case
September 02, 2003
Last month, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a plaintiff must present direct evidence of discrimination in order to obtain a mixed-motive instruction under Title VII, as amended by the Civil Rights Act of 1991. <i>Desert Palace, Inc. v. Costa</i>, 2003 WL 21310219 (U.S. June 9, 2003) The Court unanimously held that direct evidence is not required.
The JGTRRA of 2003: Financial Implications for Divorce
September 02, 2003
On May 23, 2003, the U.S. Congress approved the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (JGTRRA) and, within a week, President Bush signed the act into law. JGTRRA reduces tax rates across the board, increases the Child Tax Credit from $600 to $1000, and eases the marriage tax penalty. It also reduces the tax on dividends and capital gains and increases write-offs on capital assets for businesses. Marriage-penalty relief directly affects married taxpayers, but what effect will the new law have on people going through divorce?
Dissolving a Same-Sex Marriage
September 02, 2003
American gay couples have a new place to get married. In a landmark ruling last month in Ontario, Canada, the Court of Appeal held that it was unconstitutional to prohibit homosexuals from entering into same-sex marriages, thus opening the way for the first full-fledged same-sex marriage right anywhere outside of Europe. (The Netherlands has permitted same-sex marriage since December 2000, but only to Dutch parties. Belgium has allowed such marriages since January of this year.) The ruling has sent some gay American couples over the border to get marriage licenses and legalize their unions.
Recovering Attorneys' Fees As an Administrative Expense
September 02, 2003
In counseling clients on whether to structure a transaction as a lease or a loan, there are several financial considerations. The first is the potential that the client's customer could file for bankruptcy, and its impact upon recovering rent payments as a priority administrative expense. In that case, attorneys' fees are a factor as well. The Bankruptcy Code provisions that govern the rights and remedies of an equipment lessor in comparison to the rights and remedies of a secured lender differ significantly — they may be considered more favorable to an equipment lessor than a secured lender for the reasons discussed later in this article, although certain provisions of the Code that address the remedies of a secured lender are applied to an equipment lessor as well.
Legislature Overrides Pataki's Veto
September 02, 2003
Now that the New York State Legislature has overridden Governor Pataki's veto of the bill increasing compensation rates for court-appointed attorneys under Article 18-b of the County Law, a long-fought battle to drag state-funded attorney fees up to 21st-century levels may have come to a close. The increase will affect attorneys working on behalf of indigent criminal defendants, children in custody matters, and victims of domestic abuse.
