Fifth Avenue Forum

Congrats dodint!!

Congratulations to dodint on his admission to the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Hah, thanks. As soon as the session adjourned I de-suited then logged off and went to pick my Mom up to take her out to Shanksville and I've been offline most of the day.

I was going to drop you a note but I'm happy to mention it here. Shyster was kind enough to motion me into this federal bar this morning. Given that I studied the law outside of PA and did not do a lot of local networking it was very difficult to find someone who was already a member of the USDCWDPA to motion on my behalf. He stepped up (and woke up, ) to help me out and I am exceedingly grateful for that. I entered an Of Counsel agreement with a DC firm to represent clients here in Western PA for them and I could not have done that without being admitted to this court.

By the way, I had no idea that the movants were going to make the little speeches so props to you for coming up with something to say. Luckily I talk about myself too much around here and you absorbed enough of it to do great. I feel like I was the only one there that didn't have a decade of experience.

One of the Bordases of Bordas & Bordas swore in at the same ceremony.

Congrats @dodint !

Good on Shyster, that is cool. Look at 5af doing good in the world

Congrats to you, dodint! Saw that pop up earlier while I was out and about and made a mental note to say a word of congratulations. Very big deal imo

And props to Shyster, you are a good egg.

I'd be a pretty poor lawyer if I couldn't make up something on the spot. Spontaneous speechifying is part of the profession.

I had no idea they did the speeches either. I was admitted to the WDPA right after law school though a mass-admissions ceremony organized by Pitt Law. The other federal courts where I've been admitted did everything through the mail with no in-person ceremony required.

Congrats, dodint!!

Grandpa passed away end of September and my dad and uncle are selling off the farmland. They have gotten several offers so far, and the two highest wanted to pay 100k cash to my dad and uncle and then run the rest through the sale.

Obviously tax evasion on the selling side, but what does the buyer gain from this? Other than saving some closing cost money, I can't figure out the play here. Is there something on farms in the last tax bill that there is a gain in "lowering" the purchase price?

Are you saying they want to pay $100k off the books, and in return the actual transaction price that will get reported to the county will be lowered by that amount? That doesn't sound legal. I think in order to be kosher, it would have to be a $100k down payment on the full offer price. They're paying the same amount of money, but it definitely smells like a fraud set up to lower the assessed value if they are offering that cash off the books.

But I would think there'd be some kind of review by the county assessor when they see a dramatic reduction in the 'value' of a piece of property year-over-year. Maybe I'm just not understanding the situation clearly.

I think the buyer pays the transfer taxes, so that would lower the tax bill. It's definitely set up for tax fraud of some sort.

Are you saying they want to pay $100k off the books, and in return the actual transaction price that will get reported to the county will be lowered by that amount? That doesn't sound legal.

That is correct and I know it isn't legal. I'm trying to figure out what the buyer gains other than some reduced closing costs. Seems like a lot of trouble to save a few thousand. I'm missing bigger picture. I told my dad to stay away from anything off record, but was trying to rack my brain on what the buyer is getting because it has to be more than some transfer tax / closing costs up front. I think?

Oof.

It’s amazing how dumb these people can be

I say this as someone that calls into a meeting every day at 9:45am from my bed, naked under a blanket, desperately making sure my camera is turned off

Hoo boy. Glad that wasn't me.

long time listener, first time caller.
I am on the Board of the local hockey league. as you can imagine, our members are testing positive for COVID. when a member tests positive they must report to our communications coordinator who figures out when they played while possibly infected and emails the players on those teams so that the players can be on the lookout for symptoms. the infected player must complete a protocol before being allowed to return.
the CC and I want to have the league post a spreadsheet where members can see how many have tested positive in X amount of time. no names just something like "between 11/7 and 11/21 there were X amount of positive COVID tests by league members". so far we've encountered resistance to this idea from other Board members but the president will give us the floor to make our case at the next Board meeting. I feel that if we're going to tell people, "everyone needs to weigh the risk for themself" then I feel they should have access to all the information.
we already have them sign a waiver that says if you contract COVID while playing, you can't sue us.
what I'd like to know from you lawyer types is, can you think of any legal reasons why we SHOULDN'T give them access to the number of cases?
thanks, I'll hang up and listen.

Spent much of the holiday weekend and the last couple days taking online CLE classes. For this year only, the PA Supreme Court changed the rules such that all 12 credits can be taken using distance-learning classes. Also, in-person credits can carry over for several years, but distance credits do not. So I decided to take 12 hours of online credit, which will push five of the in-person hours I took last year over into 2021 and cut down the number of credits I need for next year.

Officially I have taken only 1.5hrs but I am taking a **** ton of them off the record while I try to learn to actually practice.

What kind of classes are they? Are they for specific types of specializations or just independent units?

CLE classes are generally an update on specific specialties and topics. For example, here are some upcoming course titles from PBI:

Criminal Law Update
Handling the Workers' Comp Case
Mortgage Foreclosure in the COVID Era
A Conversation with the Judges from the Western District
12 Rookie Blunders Good Lawyers Often Make in Drafting Contracts
To Civility and Beyond: Elevating Civility and Professionalism within the Bench and Bar

Lawyers in PA have to take 12 hours' worth of credits every year, with at least two of the 12 counting as "ethics" credits. You can take any course you want, although I usually stick to litigation-related CLEs because that's my main area of practice. There aren't any tests or anything for this stuff; you just have to attend.

Maybe the wrong thread but... Has anyone formed an LLC in PA? I'm thinking of doing it for my writing gig but am curious whether there are any potential hassles to be aware of, especially in terms of filing taxes, etc.

I did it recently. As a sole proprietor LLC (I presume) you are the LLC so the income would be reported on your taxes (pass-thru) as if you were a sole proprietor. Unless you take the additional step of declaring the LLC would like to be taxed as an S Corporation. Then it would be its own entity for tax purposes.

Groovy. Many thanks!

No worries. PA is actually pretty modern with their filing process. The PDF forms can be filled out online and submitted to the portal for processing. You'll need to get an EIN for it which is also pretty easy. If you need a hand message me.

Fun fact: I have more experience setting up a new corporate entity in Australia than in the United States. Woooo!

In bar exam mix-up, Kentucky applicants who failed were told they passed
https://www.reuters.com/article/lawyer- ... SL1N2IK2C7