When Your Insurer Issues a Reservation of Rights: Why You Should Choose Your Own Lawyer
You or your business is served with a lawsuit. It could be for a slip-and-fall, construction defect or even wrongful death. In any event, you paid those hefty insurance premiums for this very moment – right? After receiving the plaintiff ’s Complaint, you likely send it to your insurance agent or your carrier. In the…
Mitigating Risks When Entering Into Contracts: An Employer’s Primer
All employers will likely enter into at least one written contract with a third party, whether for services, equipment, and/or agreements with their own employees (e.g., confidentiality agreements, non-competition agreements, and/or non- solicitation agreements). Though verbal contracts are enforceable in many contexts, a written agreement allows the parties to create or expand their relationships, to…
Business Tax Rate Drops with New Tax Law
This article is the fifth in a five-part series regardingthe Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law December 22, 2017 The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provides a dramatic decrease in the tax rates applicable to C corporations, along with changes that may benefit other U.S. businesses, including S corporations, partnerships and other pass-through entities. CORPORATE…
Higher Standard Deduction May Offset SALT Limit
This article is the third in a five-part series regardingthe Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law December 22, 2017 The Tax Policy Center estimates that, of the approximately 46 million households that itemized deductions under the old law, about 19 million households will do so in 2018 — meaning 27 million fewer households…
Individual Income Tax Provisions
This article is the second in a five-part series regarding the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law December 22, 2017 MOST TAXPAYERS WILL BENEFIT FROM LOWER TAX BRACKETS AND HIGHER STANDARD DEDUCTIONS When the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“The Act”) was signed into law on December 22, 2017, American taxpayers were promised tax reductions…
Sweeping Tax Law Revision Affects Nearly Everyone
This article is the first in a five-part series regardingthe Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law December 22, 2017 As you undoubtedly know, President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act three days before Christmas. This law, contained in over 500 pages, represents a sweeping reshuffling of tax policy reminiscent of tax laws signed…
Disability Advocates Prepare for Multiple Attacks on Lifeline Services
Advocates are bracing themselves for a rollback of community-based supports provided to individuals with disabilities. Regardless of your political affiliation, there are currently a number of challenges facing advocates of persons with disabilities in Washington, with several bills and policy changes that threaten the future of persons with disabilities and their families. The purpose of…
Post-Emancipation Support Available Only If Adult Child Is Under Guardianship
The Massachusetts Appeals Court recently clarified the obligation of a non-custodial parent to pay support for an adult disabled child beyond age twenty-three (23). In Vaida v. Vaida (No. 13-P-1827), the Court found that continued support beyond the age of emancipation is not available to adult children who are not incapacitated persons placed under guardianship. By way of…
Developing a Property Under M.G.L. Chapter 40B: What Developers Need to Know
Even the most experienced property developers can find themselves mired down in the complexities of 40B rules. Delays, litigation and opposition can drive up costs and potentially suspend development for an extended period of time – and time is money. Such problems, however, can be avoided not merely by understanding the law, but by effective…