An industry colleague ran into a situation today where a financial advisor is recommending that the plaintiffs take cash and purchase a SPIA in lieu of receiving a structured settlement and called to ask me for my thoughts. A Single Premium Annuity Contract or "SPIA" is a contract between a person ...

It was bad enough that Toyota had recalled hundreds of thousands of newer models of their best-selling Camry and the Corolla and Tundra and certain Lexus models for sudden uncontrolled accelleration. That recall, blamed by Toyota executives as being caused by defective rubber floormats, ...

The lack of enthusiasm, drive and willingness to do anything more on ObamaCare is the result of political malpractice on the part of the White House, the Speaker and Senator Reid. For all their deal making and arm twisting, the public, the interest groups, the staff and Members of Congress are disp ...

In a development that should be of interest to structured settlement and retirement planning stakeholders, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) have published a request for comments regarding lifetime income options for participa ...

Since the advent of iPhone applications in July, 2008 over 134,000 iPhone applications have become available at the Apple App Store. Over 3 billion of such applications for news, information, entertainment, and more have been downloaded by iPhone users. With ESPN, The New York Times, Facebook, Li ...

In the month of February we celebrate Presidents Day in honor of two great United States Presidents; George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Both were heroes of wars fought on U.S soil for freedom and unity of our great country. The United States has fought many wars throughout the world since that ...

In-house counsel calls you on the eve of trial, admonishing “I trust you know I expect you cannot lose this case. After all, your opponent is a pro se plaintiff.” But surprisingly, you can lose. In addition to never underestimating a pro se’s appeal to jurors, the following steps will help insula ...

Last week, Professor Paige Marta Skiba of Vanderbilt Law School presented her paper, titled, “Race, Gender, and Political Ideology in Personal Bankruptcy Outcomes,” to the Law and Economics Workshop here at Chicago (the most recent draft is available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstrac ...

Pets are a large part of our daily life. Pets can provide relief from stress, companionship, and an opportunity to get some exercise and socialization. Pets also can have a beneficial effect on our health in other ways. A study at the State University of Buffalo showed that people with high blood ...

Peter Mahler brings us his usual careful analysis of a recent NY opinion (Matter of 1545 Ocean Avenue, LLC v. Crown Royal Ventures, LLC) which, in reversing an order dissolving an LLC, articulates for the first time the NY standard for judicial dissolution of an LLC. Here I will highlight a few impo ...