Actress’s Lawsuit Against IMDb.com and Amazon.com is One Step Closer to Trial
On March 30, 2012, the Washington Federal Court Ninth Circuit made several findings in the case of Huang Hoang, who has been making headlines in the entertainment industry for her lawsuit last October claiming website IMDb.com and its parent company Amazon.com are liable to her for damages because they had revealed her true age of 40 years old. Ms. Hoang, who is better known in the entertainment industry under her stage name Junie Hoang, has insisted that her true age is a secret and that she has lost acting jobs because her true age has been...
read moreBe Wary of Tax Debt Reduction Promises
If you listen to the radio or watch television, there is no doubt you have heard advertisements for companies offering to settle your tax debt. They typically will have a testimonial from a client (or customer) stating the “ABC company reduced my tax debt 90%” or something to that effect. While this is possible in certain circumstances, it is not the norm nor is it guaranteed. The typical means for reducing a tax debt is through a process called an Offer In Compromise, or OIC. There is no mystery about this process, and the form to...
read moreLiving Trust Series: The Power of Attorney
Although a Power of Attorney is a separate document from a living trust, it is an integral part of a comprehensive estate plan. In the event a donor to a revocable living trust becomes incapacitated the trust generally allows the trustee (successor trustee) with the power to manage the trust’s assets. However, there may be assets that are not held within the trust (and in the case of an unfunded trust, all the assets are outside the trust). The trustee does not have the power to manage these assets. This is where a durable power of...
read moreLiving Trust Series: The Pour-Over Will
A Pour-Over Will is typically used with an unfunded revocable trust or a nominally funded revocable trust. The donor does not transfer property into the trust during his or her lifetime but rather transfers property into the trust at death through a pour-over will. Because the assets are in the donor’s estate at the time of death, the probate process is not avoided. This situation may be beneficial if the donor believes it may take a period of time to fund the trust. If the trust is funded prior to death, then probate can be avoided...
read moreLiving Trust Series: The Basics
A Living Trust, as it is commonly referred to, is a method for a person to dispose of their assets without subjecting the assets to probate. More technically, this is a Revocable Living Trust. Generally, the donor can revoke the trust and the trust assets revert back to the donor. A donor can set up the trust and transfer assets into the trust (making it a funded revocable trust). These assets avoid probate because they are not considered part of the donor’s estate. The probate process can be both expensive and time consuming. The...
read moreSandra Bullock Sues ToyWatch USA for Using Her to Sell Watches: Rights to Publicity at Issue
It’s no secret to most consumers these days that celebrities and the corporations they team up with make tons and tons of cash selling products. These celebrity endorsements can help skyrocket sales of nearly any product or service. The bottom line is that celebrity endorsements work. The law makes clear that celebrities have a right of publicity, which basically means the celebrity has a property interest in his or her name, image and likeness. This is why celebrities get paid thousands and thousands by companies who use these...
read moreGoogle Takes a Stand in MPAA Lawsuit Against Hotfile
The Motion Picture Association of America has filed a summary judgment motion in its lawsuit against Hotfile,which could allow the court to decide fairly soon whether or not Hotfile will be held liable for encouraging and facilitating copyright infringement. Many consumers may be unfamiliar with the Hotfile website and more familiar with past websites like Napster and Limewire. Similar to Napster and Limewire, Hotfile is a website that serves as a download hub where users are encouraged to upload files to Hotfile’s servers. Hotfile does...
read moreBravo and Ryan Seacrest Settle with “Shahs of Sunset” Participant
Many people may may have been surprised when one of the participants of the upcoming reality show the “Shahs of Sunset” filed a lawsuit last November claiming she was being forced to play the bad girl role in the show. Most people have the gut reaction that in reality television, anything goes- including bad behavior. For those of you not familiar with the anticipated new reality series, it is a show that brands itself by showcasing affluent thirty-something Persian Americans. Yes, it is another show about rich people doing nothing else...
read moreLawsuits Threaten Jay-Z’s Fortune More than a Decade After the Release of Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin” Musical Hit
It may take you a while to recall the song “Big Pimpin” by Jay-Z, but it is likely that even if you do not listen to rap music, you have heard it in a movie, a television sitcom, on the radio, or as background music in a store. This song was a major hit for Jay-Z and likely one of the songs that put him on the map to stardom more than ten years ago. Many thirty-somethings can probably recall a time when this song played constantly on most radio stations. What many do not know is the fact that Jay-Z and many companies like Warner Brothers,...
read moreGrantor Retained Annuity Trusts and the Facebook Founders
In an article on Forbes’ website entitled “Facebook Billionaires Shifted More than $200 million Gift Tax Free” the author describes how two of the creators of Facebook were able to give away sizable amounts of money without any tax consequences. While the relative youth of the Facebook founders and perhaps the size of the gifts are uncommon, the method they used is not uncommon. The technique used by the Facebook founders is called a Grantor Retained Annuity Trust. Basically, the grantor puts an asset in an irrevocable trust. Under...
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