Tax Refunds

The end of the year is here.  Thanks to everyone who has been reading my blog.  I have gotten a lot of good feedback.  With the end of the year comes tax time.  Unfortunately, divorce cases often drag on for extensive periods of time.  A tax refund is martial property and often times parties separate around the end of the year.  An earlier post of mine located here deals with some tax issues in divorce.  I am in the process of drafting a motion on a case this morning to require the parties on an ongoing divorce case to execute joint tax returns for 2013 with the parties to split the refund.  As long as the parties are married at the end of the year, they can file a joint return.  IRC 6013(a) and 7703(a)(1).  This often benefits both parties more than filing as married filing separate. 

Typography for Lawyers

I finished reading yesterday Typography for Lawyers by Matthew Butterick.  The book is available for purchase on Amazon.  It is pretty good on some things.  The main emphasis of the book is how to make your documents look more presentable and easier to read.  I am still old school and prefer Times New Roman which the author does not like but I may experiment with doing briefs in Century Schoolbook which makes them easier to read.  Several federal circuits require briefs to be written in the Century family of fonts now.  This book is worth the purchase to make you start thinking in new directions as far as presentation. 

Holidays

I have been off for a few days with the holidays.  I am actually at home writing this article at the moment.  Holidays for some reason brings out the best and the worst in people.  On personal injury cases, insurance companies tend to get more reasonable toward the end of the year.  On family law matters, parents tend to deny visitation this time of year more than any.  This is the time of year that it is important to get parents on the same page when it comes to kids and get everything going in the right direction on all cases whether it be resolution or trial. 

Federal Tort Claims Act Case

On Monday U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves entered a judgment of $1,903,961 in Chickaway v. U.S. located here.  This was a Federal Tort Claims Act case dealing with medical negligence.  I previously discussed the Federal Tort Claims Act here.    The opinion in the case does one of the best jobs I have seen in discussing all the elements of proof in a medical malpractice claim which makes it worth adding to the research file. 

Book of Interest

I started reading Spy the Lie by Philip Houston.  It has been a good read so far.  It deals with CIA interrogation techniques which can be useful in a deposition setting.  These kind of techniques can play a vital role in determining if someone is lying as opposed to being honestly mistaken.  I took a deposition recently where everyone in the room knew the guy was lying after a little questing but lots of times it is not that easy.  This might be something to look into in order to hone those skills. 

Both Parties at Fault

In divorce cases, many times both parties have statutory grounds for divorce.  What does the judge do then?  A discussion of this is in Kimbrough v. Kimbrough, 81 So. 3d 1187, 1188 (Miss. Ct. App. 2012) located here.  In this case the trial court granted both parties a divorce on mutual desertion.  The case was appealed and the Court of Appeals ruled that only one party may be granted a divorce on fault based grounds.  Ultimately, the trial court has to pick whose conduct is greater in being the proximate cause of the breakup of the marriage.  This can create a mess and yet another good reason for parties to proceed on irreconcilable differences.

Request Supplementation

Rule 26 of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure requires that an opposing party supplement their discovery timely.  Some do, some do not.  One avenue to consider is to file a request for supplementation a few weeks before trial.  That way, if they do not supplement it, they have no real argument to get the case continued.