Sir Walter Scott wrote, “Oh what a tangled web we weave.” Buyers seeking to purchase a business that is partially held in a trust may face this tangle more than others. They wonder, “With whom am I actually doing the deal?” and, “What are my legal rights should the deal fall through?” On the flip […]
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You can hardly throw a textbook today without hitting a media story about student loans. From the debt burden that graduates face to the actual loans that students have access to and how they’re structured, our country is taking a hard look at college costs and financing. Now the landscape is shifting. Students, who used […]
Attorneys Joseph Gumina and Erica Reib authored a Labor and Employment Law article series entitled, “Anticipating and Managing Wage & Hour Pitfalls” on InsideCounsel.com. This monthly magazine serves general counsel and other top in-house legal professionals and provides strategic tools to help them better manage their legal departments. To learn more about the wage and […]
Does a Lender’s title insurance policy cover construction liens filed by unpaid contractors where the lender has discontinued disbursing its construction loan mid-stream due to insufficient funds to complete the project? In BB-Syndication Services, Inc. v. First American Title Insurance Co., 780 F.3d 825 (7th Cir. 2015), the United States Court of Appeals for the […]
Electronic signatures are alluring to time-pressed clients who are closing deals all over the city, the state, the country and the world. But are electronic signatures enforceable? Can you enforce an agreement when the only “signature” you received was the other party’s typed name at the bottom of an email or a text? How about […]
As Baby Boomers continue to age, an increasing number of elderly Americans and their families are forced to deal with the devastating effects of dementia. According to the National Center on Elder Abuse, approximately 5.1 million Americans over the age of 65 suffer from some form of dementia. In addition, nearly half of all individuals […]
In an opinion dated January 13, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States reversed a decision of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, unanimously holding that borrowers may exercise their three-year right of rescission under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) simply by providing written notice to their lender. The Court in Jesinoski v. […]
Effective January 1, 2014, a fundamental change was made to the method by which public construction projects are led by the State of Wisconsin’s Department of Administration. Wisconsin adopted a new single-prime delivery method to replace its former multiple-prime method. Under the former multiple-prime method, the State would contract with a principal contractor, but would […]
Under a federal statute known as the False Claims Act, whistleblowers with knowledge of overcharges or other fraudulent activity directed at the federal government may be entitled to substantial monetary rewards through lawsuits known as qui tam cases. The monetary rewards authorized by the False Claims Act provide those who have valuable information about government […]
On June 12, 2014, the United States Supreme Court held that funds in an inherited individual retirement account (IRA) are not “retirement funds” within the meaning of the Bankruptcy Code, and therefore such funds are not exempt from creditor claims in bankruptcy proceedings. Ordinarily, when a debtor files for bankruptcy relief, his or her legal […]
