News

Innocent Spouse Relief Expanded

By EsqSocial Corporation 05/08/14

By filing a joint income tax return, spouses make themselves liable for all of the income tax due on their combined income. While filing a joint return can provide significant advantages, it also can create an unfair burden for a taxpayer saddled...

What Is Palimony? How Does It Work?

By EsqSocial Corporation 05/08/14

Palimony sure sounds an awful lot like alimony, and it also works in a very similar way. Alimony, of course, refers to spousal support payments made by one spouse to another as set out in either a settlement agreement following a divorce, or in a court order. By contrast,......

New Investment Thinking for Trustees?

By EsqSocial Corporation 05/08/14

Traditionally, trustees invest the assets within a trust to ensure the assets are preserved for when they are distributed to the beneficiaries, often when the beneficiaries reach a certain age. However, this “cautious” investing by trustees, while...

State Attorneys General Bringing Actions Under Dodd-Frank

By EsqSocial Corporation 05/08/14

As the CFPB celebrates its three-year anniversary, the current trend appears to be lawsuits brought by state attorneys general or state regulators pursuant to their authority under Dodd-Frank Section 1042. Under Section 1042, a state regulator or...

New Jersey Supreme Court affirms award of bid that deviates from proposal

By EsqSocial Corporation 05/08/14

The New Jersey Supreme Court has affirmed a state agency’s decision to award a contract to the lowest bidder even though the bid did not comply with the scope-of-work requirements of a request for proposal. Matthew J. Barrick, Jr. v. State of New...

What a Tangled Web We Weave, When First We Practice to Deceive: Second Circuit Holds that “Deliberate Deception” Creates Legal Presumption of Consumer Confusion and Injury in a Two-Player Market

By EsqSocial Corporation 05/08/14

On July 29, the Second Circuit clarified its view that, in a two-player market, willfully deceptive advertising – even non-comparative advertising – creates a legal presumption of consumer confusion and injury, applicable to determination of both...

Rating Agency Developments

By EsqSocial Corporation 05/08/14

On July 31, Moody’s released its rating methodology for global manufacturing companies. On July 25, Fitch released its global rating criteria for Corporate CDOs. On July 25, DBRS issued its methodology for rating companies in the industrial products...

D.C. Circuit Upholds Claim Of Corporate Attorney-Client Privilege

By EsqSocial Corporation 05/08/14

A recent blog post addressed a noteworthy decision in United States ex rel. Barko v. Halliburton Co., No. 1:05-CV-1276, 2014 WL 1016784 (D.D.C. Mar. 6, 2014), which held that materials relating to an internal investigation were not protected by the...

Rules for Rail Transport of Crude Oil and Ethanol Still a Work in Progress

By EsqSocial Corporation 05/08/14

In response to rail accidents over the past several years involving crude oil and ethanol, the U.S. Department of Transportation (“DOT”) has been working with industry stakeholders and the National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”) to improve...

Proposed Data Reporting Rule Issued

By EsqSocial Corporation 05/08/14

If you are looking for some light reading these last few weeks of summer, you might want to take a look at the recently released proposed rule regarding changes to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) also known as Regulation C. HMDA data provides...

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