Adoption of a Friend's baby/child
What a wonderful part of our practice. We had a call from a lady who wants to adopt a baby from a friend of hers. The friend is unable to care for another child and considers it a gift to both her friend and the baby to allow the adoption.
Now the issues.
My new client thought adoption was a very expensive process. In many cases the attorney fees are less than $4,000! They become more expensive as the work increases, international adoption, interstate placement, surrogacy and other factors make for a much more expensive process. Much of that is for the care of the pregnant mother as well as the costs of keeping things legal and on track.
She was afraid that she would have to keep the adoption a secret from her child to be. That is a decision for her and the birth mother to decide. It can be open with everyone know to the child. or closed with the child growing up knowing only his/her adopting parents.
She wanted to help the mother with some support and medical care assistance but was afraid that would be considered "buying" a baby, an illegal prospect at best. If done properly with all finances in the open and depending upon what is paid for and what is given, it can be perfectly fine to help the birth mother. That is something that you need speak with legal counsel to determine.
She thought that the state might object to the adoption as there are other people waiting for babies. Nothing could be further from the truth. If the birth mother wants her friend or family to raise her child and adopt it there is a simple process with the state to confirm that you are not a bad risk.
They will do a study that includes looking at the home, criminal records and a full background check. And no, things that you might consider as bad may not be. For instance I had one client who had a troubled youth, including police involvement up until he was 19 years old. DCF's report glowed. He has been clean for a long time, has an exemplary work and volunteering record and was the person of choice by his sister.
Cal us if you have any concerns regarding adoption and the whole process. I would be happy to talk with you about the facts of your situation.
Bruce
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Probate fees and the penalties for not knowing what you are doing!
I am off to court to deal with problems between brother and sister over an accounting for their father's estate. Inexperienced counsel helped brother and the accounting is a mess. He wound up paying over $100,000 in penalties for not getting the tax return done in time, he was advised to claim multiple fees for things other people did (such as the final tax return) and this has essentially taken what was a fragile relationship between them and shattered it.
Don't let this happen to you. If you have anything more than a very simple estate get experienced help. Yes it costs but it sure costs less than IRS penalties and the fees for arguing in court over how much is a reasonable fee for doing this work.
Bruce
I am off to court to deal with problems between brother and sister over an accounting for their father's estate. Inexperienced counsel helped brother and the accounting is a mess. He wound up paying over $100,000 in penalties for not getting the tax return done in time, he was advised to claim multiple fees for things other people did (such as the final tax return) and this has essentially taken what was a fragile relationship between them and shattered it.
Don't let this happen to you. If you have anything more than a very simple estate get experienced help. Yes it costs but it sure costs less than IRS penalties and the fees for arguing in court over how much is a reasonable fee for doing this work.
Bruce
Thursday, January 10, 2013
What is Jurisdiction and why is it important?
Most people think of the word jurisdiction as denoting a place. Police have jurisdiction over the particular city or state they work for. As any old time gangster knew you rob only Non-Federal banks and only on the state border. That way there is no way for the police to follow you over the line into the other state and the Feds couldn't do anything about it!
Before you run out an rob a bank, the laws have changed since those days and there are ample ways for police and federal agents to cross borders or get the help of the other state. But of course one state has to ask the other for the help, and then they have to ask for the arrested person to be sent over the line into their state. This is called extradition. But I digress a bit here.
So Jurisdiction does have a geographic component to it. But there is more to it than that. The court must have the right to hear and make a decision about an issue and the right to deal with the people involved. If you ask a housing court judge for a divorce you will be told you filed in the wrong place. Even if that judge is the same one who the next day is over in divorce court! There is usually a requirement that the people live where they bring the action or that the incident occurred there.
So we have to be in the right place and the right court, and as a last matter there has to be something in question that the court can make a decision about. This is the one that is causing a lot of problems lately. I have a client who was married in the State of Connecticut but lives in Florida. She and her wife want a divorce. Not a problem, go into the court in Florida and tell them you have lived there long enough ( she has) and that you live in the right place, pay your fee to the right court and ask for a divorce. Simple enough, but one wrinkle, She and her partner another woman got married in Connecticut where it is legal. She live in Florida where they can't get married legally, so the Florida court can't hear the case! She is stuck. The Defense of Marriage Act, which is currently in the process of being struck down in court after court, states that Florida doesn't have to accept the marriage of to people in another state if they don't want to.
They don't live in Connecticut so Connecticut can't claim jurisdiction.
Stay tuned Friends, I haven't given up on this yet.
Most people think of the word jurisdiction as denoting a place. Police have jurisdiction over the particular city or state they work for. As any old time gangster knew you rob only Non-Federal banks and only on the state border. That way there is no way for the police to follow you over the line into the other state and the Feds couldn't do anything about it!
Before you run out an rob a bank, the laws have changed since those days and there are ample ways for police and federal agents to cross borders or get the help of the other state. But of course one state has to ask the other for the help, and then they have to ask for the arrested person to be sent over the line into their state. This is called extradition. But I digress a bit here.
So Jurisdiction does have a geographic component to it. But there is more to it than that. The court must have the right to hear and make a decision about an issue and the right to deal with the people involved. If you ask a housing court judge for a divorce you will be told you filed in the wrong place. Even if that judge is the same one who the next day is over in divorce court! There is usually a requirement that the people live where they bring the action or that the incident occurred there.
So we have to be in the right place and the right court, and as a last matter there has to be something in question that the court can make a decision about. This is the one that is causing a lot of problems lately. I have a client who was married in the State of Connecticut but lives in Florida. She and her wife want a divorce. Not a problem, go into the court in Florida and tell them you have lived there long enough ( she has) and that you live in the right place, pay your fee to the right court and ask for a divorce. Simple enough, but one wrinkle, She and her partner another woman got married in Connecticut where it is legal. She live in Florida where they can't get married legally, so the Florida court can't hear the case! She is stuck. The Defense of Marriage Act, which is currently in the process of being struck down in court after court, states that Florida doesn't have to accept the marriage of to people in another state if they don't want to.
They don't live in Connecticut so Connecticut can't claim jurisdiction.
Stay tuned Friends, I haven't given up on this yet.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Don't stay in your home just to protect your right to assets or alimony!
I just spoke with a new client who was concerned. Her home had become a verbal battleground and she wanted to leave, her friends told her to stay or she would wind up with less of the assets and never get alimony or support. She might even lose custody of her child. These notions are based on what is called abandonment, the leaving of the other spouse.
Before we even start. IF YOU ARE IN DANGER GET OUT. Call the police if you have to to get your personal property. We always help people get a restraining order for their own protection if needed, at no charge, and the judge will not care that you left with your child if you are in danger and may well give you the right to be in the home and order the other person our of it.
In Connecticut there is a statute that protects parents from a claim of abandonment when they leave to preserve peace in the home. The law recognizes that it is better for some people to be apart right from the start and that will provide a better environment for all concerned.
Second assets are dealt with by division depending on many factors, but leaving the home to establish peace is not one of them.
Alimony is established based upon the needs of the parties to survive, and their need to get reestablished.
So if you are being abused get out, if it is violence get the police
I just spoke with a new client who was concerned. Her home had become a verbal battleground and she wanted to leave, her friends told her to stay or she would wind up with less of the assets and never get alimony or support. She might even lose custody of her child. These notions are based on what is called abandonment, the leaving of the other spouse.
Before we even start. IF YOU ARE IN DANGER GET OUT. Call the police if you have to to get your personal property. We always help people get a restraining order for their own protection if needed, at no charge, and the judge will not care that you left with your child if you are in danger and may well give you the right to be in the home and order the other person our of it.
In Connecticut there is a statute that protects parents from a claim of abandonment when they leave to preserve peace in the home. The law recognizes that it is better for some people to be apart right from the start and that will provide a better environment for all concerned.
Second assets are dealt with by division depending on many factors, but leaving the home to establish peace is not one of them.
Alimony is established based upon the needs of the parties to survive, and their need to get reestablished.
So if you are being abused get out, if it is violence get the police
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Alimony as a tax planning tool.
I just got off the phone with a client. She was upset that I wanted to ask for alimony in our request to the court for a divorce, until she realized that it can actually save everybody money!
Today's Mantra: Tax deduction good!
When is alimony used, and how can even the person paying it be protected? The law in Connecticut as it is in many parts of the country is that alimony is remedial. The rule of thumb is that it is used to provide just enough support to help one party or the other get back on their own two feet.
HOWEVER, the parties can decide to use it for other reasons such as shifting a tax burden. for instance in the case described above I am anticipating that we may use the alimony to shift part of the burden of the taxes.
The person paying child support pays the tax on that money, but the person receiving alimony pays the taxes on that money. In this case my client makes three time what her husband does and they already agree that they will be sharing physical custody. When that happens the person making more money pays to the other person some child support.
A recent case where this occurred had a husband who had been stay at home dad, and was just getting back into the job market. the mother was making about $ 120,000 per year and the father was making about $10,000 per year. The child support net to the dad was about 300 per week and the for him to have a reasonable home and feed and cloth the children he needed another 500 per week. this $500 would cost the mom about $600 for payroll taxes and such, the support however would cost her close to $500/ wk because she not only had to pay social security etc, she had to pay income taxes.
So, how to get more money for both of them? Have the child support go over as alimony. this is done by what is called an "unallocated" order. In other words we never say what the support is, just that it is support from mom to dad. The IRS treats that like it is an alimony payment.
So why is that good? When they file separately, dad is in the lowest tax bracket and actually pays no income tax at all. He will take on the tax burden from the mom, freeing up mom's money at the highest tax rate, and he will be paying st the lowest. He can get $875 per week which is $75 more than he would have gotten, and allowing for his tax rate and deductions he will pay about $30 more in taxes than he would getting the same money as child support and alimony.
Mom on the other hand transfers the money and the tax burden to dad, saving her $ now. Assuming the money from the top of her tax bracket was the money being used, she saves close to $100 per week and transfers $75 of it to dad, keeping 25 of it for herself.
Thus after taxes there is an additional 70/week for the family as a whole. Mom gets protected by putting non modifiable limits on the payments and the term they are made for. The children benefit because everyone has an extra $3700 each year.
I just got off the phone with a client. She was upset that I wanted to ask for alimony in our request to the court for a divorce, until she realized that it can actually save everybody money!
Today's Mantra: Tax deduction good!
When is alimony used, and how can even the person paying it be protected? The law in Connecticut as it is in many parts of the country is that alimony is remedial. The rule of thumb is that it is used to provide just enough support to help one party or the other get back on their own two feet.
HOWEVER, the parties can decide to use it for other reasons such as shifting a tax burden. for instance in the case described above I am anticipating that we may use the alimony to shift part of the burden of the taxes.
The person paying child support pays the tax on that money, but the person receiving alimony pays the taxes on that money. In this case my client makes three time what her husband does and they already agree that they will be sharing physical custody. When that happens the person making more money pays to the other person some child support.
A recent case where this occurred had a husband who had been stay at home dad, and was just getting back into the job market. the mother was making about $ 120,000 per year and the father was making about $10,000 per year. The child support net to the dad was about 300 per week and the for him to have a reasonable home and feed and cloth the children he needed another 500 per week. this $500 would cost the mom about $600 for payroll taxes and such, the support however would cost her close to $500/ wk because she not only had to pay social security etc, she had to pay income taxes.
So, how to get more money for both of them? Have the child support go over as alimony. this is done by what is called an "unallocated" order. In other words we never say what the support is, just that it is support from mom to dad. The IRS treats that like it is an alimony payment.
So why is that good? When they file separately, dad is in the lowest tax bracket and actually pays no income tax at all. He will take on the tax burden from the mom, freeing up mom's money at the highest tax rate, and he will be paying st the lowest. He can get $875 per week which is $75 more than he would have gotten, and allowing for his tax rate and deductions he will pay about $30 more in taxes than he would getting the same money as child support and alimony.
Mom on the other hand transfers the money and the tax burden to dad, saving her $ now. Assuming the money from the top of her tax bracket was the money being used, she saves close to $100 per week and transfers $75 of it to dad, keeping 25 of it for herself.
Thus after taxes there is an additional 70/week for the family as a whole. Mom gets protected by putting non modifiable limits on the payments and the term they are made for. The children benefit because everyone has an extra $3700 each year.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Worker's Compensation works for who?
I just had a call from a long time client about her worker's compensation case. She was trying to deal with the insurance company on her own, but felt she was getting the run around. A 20 year run around!.
Whoa why did she wait 20 years? Simple, there was ongoing treatment and continued care, however as she looked back she realized that the employer wasn't paying what they should. they were letting the costs default to her health insurance, her time off was coming out of her vacation and sick time and she didn't even know she was entitled to any mileage or lost time at work for doctor's visits.
Now my client has had various things done by us in this office and never once mentioned her worker's compensation case. Further she thought that she would have to pay a large percentage of everything she got over to us for the case.
This is how worker's compensation works. There is a social contract set out by law between employers and their employees. In exchange for not having to prove the employer caused the injury, the employee gets paid based upon their wage scale automatically for everything they incur as an expense related to an injury on the job. There is no large potential recovery, as there might be with an auto accident, but there is also a guarantee of support while getting taken care of. While there are often claims of abuse by people who have a second job, or are faking a claim, for the most part, people are honest, few want to have a permanent injury and fewer still actually fake anything. The vast majority of people are honest and can't wait to get back to a healthy life.
The insurance company, however, has as their job the protection of the employer, and if there is ANY doubt about the matter they immediately deny the claim. even if they accept the claim, they do everything they can to delay payment. Why? The insurance company makes money on the money in there hands. If they can delay payment for a month they make a little more on their investments before they have to cash it in and turn over the payment to the injured employee.
This phenomenon actually got bad enough at one point that there are now rules in place adding significant penalties for delays in payments once ordered by the Worker's Compensation Commissioner.
So why not have an attorney do it? People wonder how the attorney gets paid, they worry they won't get enough from the employer to pay for their needs and he attorney.
First the attorney's fee in a Worker's Comp case is limited to 20% of the actual recovery. Unlike an automobile suit, the fee does not apply to any medical fees paid, nor for any medical records or other such recoveries. Thus where an automobile law suit might reimburse for all the medicals and paid an suffering and other damages, the damages and the attorney fees are both restricted by law.
The other thing you get by having an attorney help with the case should be a better understanding of the outcome and someone who knows how to ensure that you are getting everything you should from the insurer. The insurer may have their own doctor look at your file and reduce the claims that your doctor makes on your behalf. An attorney can help deal with that, right or wrong, and likely improve your overall outcome by questioning the doctor's reports and even helping work with your doctor to counter the insurance company doctor's claims.
More about that in another blog. The message here is call to find out if your case is one that can benefit from our help. There is no charge to discuss it.
Bruce Gordon
Whoa why did she wait 20 years? Simple, there was ongoing treatment and continued care, however as she looked back she realized that the employer wasn't paying what they should. they were letting the costs default to her health insurance, her time off was coming out of her vacation and sick time and she didn't even know she was entitled to any mileage or lost time at work for doctor's visits.
Now my client has had various things done by us in this office and never once mentioned her worker's compensation case. Further she thought that she would have to pay a large percentage of everything she got over to us for the case.
This is how worker's compensation works. There is a social contract set out by law between employers and their employees. In exchange for not having to prove the employer caused the injury, the employee gets paid based upon their wage scale automatically for everything they incur as an expense related to an injury on the job. There is no large potential recovery, as there might be with an auto accident, but there is also a guarantee of support while getting taken care of. While there are often claims of abuse by people who have a second job, or are faking a claim, for the most part, people are honest, few want to have a permanent injury and fewer still actually fake anything. The vast majority of people are honest and can't wait to get back to a healthy life.
The insurance company, however, has as their job the protection of the employer, and if there is ANY doubt about the matter they immediately deny the claim. even if they accept the claim, they do everything they can to delay payment. Why? The insurance company makes money on the money in there hands. If they can delay payment for a month they make a little more on their investments before they have to cash it in and turn over the payment to the injured employee.
This phenomenon actually got bad enough at one point that there are now rules in place adding significant penalties for delays in payments once ordered by the Worker's Compensation Commissioner.
So why not have an attorney do it? People wonder how the attorney gets paid, they worry they won't get enough from the employer to pay for their needs and he attorney.
First the attorney's fee in a Worker's Comp case is limited to 20% of the actual recovery. Unlike an automobile suit, the fee does not apply to any medical fees paid, nor for any medical records or other such recoveries. Thus where an automobile law suit might reimburse for all the medicals and paid an suffering and other damages, the damages and the attorney fees are both restricted by law.
The other thing you get by having an attorney help with the case should be a better understanding of the outcome and someone who knows how to ensure that you are getting everything you should from the insurer. The insurer may have their own doctor look at your file and reduce the claims that your doctor makes on your behalf. An attorney can help deal with that, right or wrong, and likely improve your overall outcome by questioning the doctor's reports and even helping work with your doctor to counter the insurance company doctor's claims.
More about that in another blog. The message here is call to find out if your case is one that can benefit from our help. There is no charge to discuss it.
Bruce Gordon
Friday, January 4, 2013
Special Needs Trusts a valuable tool for the care of family members of diminished ability
If there is a family member you want to provide special assistance to but haven't because it would affect their ability to get special services from state or federal programs Read On!
We are often asked about how to give money or special things to a person getting State Aid. A person who is getting State Aid because of diminished abilities, whether by birth, accident or illness, cannot usually have more than a very small amount of money and other liquid or other assets without putting their aid at risk. Worse a gift to that person may even be claimed in its entirety by the State to repay for the care they have already given!
A Special Needs Trust allows you to provide a fund of money to let that special person have some special things or experiences without triggering any claims by the State. A properly established trust can even be limited in what the money can be used for to specifically protect it from being used for the very things that the State is providing.
Whether set up directly or in your will the trust has to be set up properly or the funds can be taken by the state to repay for care provided.
A recently set up trust was limited to use for travel and non medical needs. It was important to the giver that her son be able to travel to see family a few times a year. By using the Special Needs Trust the money was set aside and cannot be touched by the state during the persons life. They will be able to visit family without triggering any claims by the State of Connecticut.
Atty Bruce S. Gordon www.myfamilylawyer.com
A Connecticut Attorney devoted to the care of families and their business'
We are often asked about how to give money or special things to a person getting State Aid. A person who is getting State Aid because of diminished abilities, whether by birth, accident or illness, cannot usually have more than a very small amount of money and other liquid or other assets without putting their aid at risk. Worse a gift to that person may even be claimed in its entirety by the State to repay for the care they have already given!
A Special Needs Trust allows you to provide a fund of money to let that special person have some special things or experiences without triggering any claims by the State. A properly established trust can even be limited in what the money can be used for to specifically protect it from being used for the very things that the State is providing.
Whether set up directly or in your will the trust has to be set up properly or the funds can be taken by the state to repay for care provided.
A recently set up trust was limited to use for travel and non medical needs. It was important to the giver that her son be able to travel to see family a few times a year. By using the Special Needs Trust the money was set aside and cannot be touched by the state during the persons life. They will be able to visit family without triggering any claims by the State of Connecticut.
Atty Bruce S. Gordon www.myfamilylawyer.com
A Connecticut Attorney devoted to the care of families and their business'
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