Family Law News

My firm PBKG LLC is proud to announce that five of our partners (David Pollock, Todd Begg, Candice Komar, Dan Glasser and Brian Vertz) have been named to the 2011 edition of The Best Lawyers in America.

Since its inception in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which more than 39,000 leading attorneys cast almost 3.1 million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their practice areas, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”

It is important to note that the lawyers listed in Best Lawyers have no say in deciding which practice areas they are included in. They are voted into practice areas entirely as a result of the votes they receive from their peers. 

This is the second consecutive year that I have been voted into The Best Lawyers in America.  The Best Lawyers in America® 2011 (Copyright 2010 by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, S.C.).

My friends at Crawford Ellenbogen LLC  know a lot about taxes. One of their principals, Victor Dozzi CPA, recently sent me a great tip about kids who are earning income from summer jobs, and I asked him if I could share it with you. He agreed, so here it is:

Are your children working at summer jobs this year?  If so, here are some tax reminders.

* If a child did not owe any income tax last year and doesn’t expect to owe any this year, the child can claim “exempt” when completing the federal withholding allowance form (Form W-4). This will eliminate having federal income tax withheld from his or her paychecks.

* For 2010, your child can earn as much as $5,700 without owing federal income tax. There will still be withholding from your child’s paycheck for a number of other taxes, including: social security, Medicare, PA, PA UC & perhaps local.

* As long as you provide more than half of your child’s support, you can still claim the child as an exemption on your 2010 tax return.

* Earnings from a summer job will qualify a child to contribute to an IRA – up to $5,000 or the child’s 2010 earnings, whichever is less. If your child would rather spend his earnings than save for retirement, you could gift all the cash, or agree to match what your child saves. As long as the amount put into the IRA doesn’t exceed the child’s wages (or the $5,000 limit), it doesn’t matter where the cash comes from.

The principals of Crawford Ellenbogen (Joan, Victor, and Barb) can provide great advice and personalized service – it’s just a phone call away.

Department of the Treasury Required Disclosure

In accordance with IRS’ Circular 230 we are required to advise you that any written advice we provide to you cannot be used for the purpose of avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code.

A New York Times columnist, The Ethicist, recently published a question from a divorcing spouse, pondering whether it was ethical to keep quiet about errors that a judge or opposing counsel had made in her favor, apparently unnoticed by her ex-husband’s lawyer:

My ex-husband and I could not revise our child-support arrangement ourselves, so we took it to court. At the hearing, my lawyer, a specialist in family law, was better prepared than his, a generalist who made numerous mistakes in preparation and presentation. The hearing officer’s recommendation included several large calculation errors, most in my favor. Each side has 20 days in which to report such errors. Am I ethically obligated to do so? NAME WITHHELD, PENNSYLVANIA

The newspaper columnist, who consulted with a legal ethics expert, indicated that the spouse had no legal duty to report the error but might want to notify her ex anyway. Taking advantage of the situation might destroy any mutual respect or trust left between the ex’s, which would make all future dealings more difficult and expensive.

It’s not easy to take the high road when dealing with an ex, particularly after a hard-fought divorce. Still, it is important to consider the “costs” of a bellicose relationship with an ex. Sometimes it is unavoidable, but often a small concession can melt the ice just enough to save legal fees and mental anguish.

The Jon and Kate divorce provided another example this week of what to do – and what not to do – in divorce situations. The Gosselins were ordered this week to attend mandatory co-parenting classes in Berks County.  Allegheny County and most surrounding counties in Western Pennsylvania have a similar program. In Allegheny County, it is known as the “Generations” program.

The Generations program, part of the Child Custody Department, is a mandatory two-part process for individuals involved in a custody dispute. This alternative dispute resolution program includes an educational seminar for adults, an interactive group for children ages six through fifteen, and a mediation orientation session.

The adult education seminar of the Generations program is approximately three hours in length and offers parents/caregivers the skills to reach their own resolution on custody issues. The following topics are addressed:

• How to build a co-parenting relationship
• How to communicate and problem-solve
• How to help children cope effectively with their changing family
• Identify how parent/caregiver conflict can affect the behavior of children
• Understand that most children do best when they have the opportunity to know and love both parents
• General overview of the mediation session

The children’s group serves children between the ages of six and fifteen years old. Children are appropriately grouped by age so that they can identify and share with peers similar experiences in their families. These groups are facilitated with activities, discussions, art, music and play.

Later in the week, after being ordered to attend parenting classes, Jon Gosselin was spotted in a mall bookstore, reviewing a copy of Kate Gosselin’s latest book, “I Just Want You to Know: Letters to My Kids on Love, Faith and Family.” Perhaps he was looking for dirt to use against Kate in the mediation.

I generally advise clients not to go to the Generations mediation with a chip on their shoulders. It is really not productive to enter mediation with a laundry list of “wrongs” perpetrated by the other parent. It does not impress the mediator. Remember that even if the other parent confesses to a murder during the mediation, the mediator cannot be called to testify. Concentrate instead on telling the mediator what custody arrangements you want, focusing on how your plan will benefit the children. If you keep your focus on the kids and why your proposal is best for them, you are much more likely to get good results.

Pittsburgh ranks #325 and Philadelphia ranks #360 in a recent survey of the wealthiest American cities, conducted by Portfolio.com, a website operated by American Business Journals, publisher of the Pittsburgh Business Times. Allentown ranks #392, Erie ranks 412, and Reading ranks dead last at #420 in the survey.

A quick glance at the statistics cited by the survey reveals serious flaws. In its ranking of Pittsburgh, for instance, the survey lists the population as 297,187. This means that the survey completely overlooked the population of suburban communities like Fox Chapel, Upper St. Clair, Sewickley and Mt. Lebanon. Only City boroughs such as Shadyside and Squirrel Hill were considered in the wealth survey.

Presumably, the Philadelphia survey only included the City of Philadelphia and not the affluent suburban communities in Bucks County, Montgomery County, Chester County, or Southern New Jersey. Again, these flaws would cause one to question the validity of the rankings.

The Portfolio.com survey claims that the median home value was $86,000 and the median household income was $36,709 in Pittsburgh. Yet these statistics only include the City proper. In Sewickley, the 2008 median home value was $169,960 (from city-data.com) and the median household income was $50,414. In Fox Chapel, the 2008 median home value was $574,280 and the medial household income was $187,530. In Upper St. Clair, the median home value was $243,880 and the median household income was $111,502.

It is not possible to understand the economics of Pittsburgh or Philadelphia without considering their suburban communities.

The Guardian ran a news story today about a London department store where they’ve established a new kind of gift registry …. for divorcees. Perceptively, the Debenhams department store realized that newly-separated people need toasters, towels and china, just like fiancees. Apparently England was also the site of the recent “Starting Over” show, a divorce version of a bridal show. These phenomenon were cited by the article’s author as harbingers of a trend toward celebration of divorce, instead of commiseration.  Ironically, the author’s name was Lisa Bachelor.

A new application developed for iPhone – ironically called iTrust – records the keystrokes of an unwitting interloper when the application is activated. For the price of a mere 99 cents, iPhone users can discovery tampering by a spouse or loved one who is trying to snoop on the user’s call history, text messages or email.

Oh, if only Tiger Woods had known.

Full story on iTrust reported in the London Telegraph.

A constellation of Rising Stars has ascended! My law firm, Pollock Begg Komar Glasser LLC, is proud to announce that four of our associates – Stephanie Jablon, Dana Levine, Ben Orsatti and Angel Revelant – were named as SuperLawyers Rising Stars. Congratulations to Stephanie, Dana, Ben and Angel for this recognition of their hard work and dedication to the practice of family law.

My friend Cheryl Hepfer appeared on a recent episode of the ABC News program “Nightline” to discuss how marital cheaters are being caught these days: their racy text messages. Like lipstick on a man’s collar in days of yore, text messages are alerting spouses to their loved ones’ infidelity.

Tiger Woods is a good example. His wife Elin Nordegren learned about his cheating when she viewed text messages sent by one of Tiger’s girlfriends. Now the couple is heading for divorce, according to news sources. 

Video of the Nightline story here.

The Supreme Court of North Dakota has been asked to decide whether breast implants should be identified as marital property and valued for divorce purposes. Clearly, the owner’s husband is the advocate of this novel argument. His lawyer argued that the expense should be included in instances when a medical expense is “clearly cosmetic, elective, (and) non-necessary.” Insurance companies often make those judgments in deciding what to cover, she said.

The trial judge reported to news sources that he considered the argument to be frivolous. “I can’t imagine people would actually waste time thinking that breast implants are marital assets. It just defies common sense,” the judge stated. “I don’t know how you would expect me to award breast implants, if you want me to have them cut out and given to Mr. Isaacson. It is absolutely nonsense.”

The implant owner’s husband valued the implants at $5,500. No word on whether they might depreciate over time.