San Diego Estate Planning Lawyer Blog

In San Diego, many trials and depositions take place on a daily basis in the San Diego Superior Courts. The court rooms are open to the public except in limited proceedings such as juvenile hearings and other “closed door” testimony. During these hearings, many humorous comments are made during very serious proceedings. It is not unknown for jurors to laugh in a court room during testimony when something unexpected or funny is stated and, most of the time, the witness did not realize what they were saying.

Below are some examples from court rooms and depositions across the country.

The following things were actually said by people in courtrooms across the country.

San Diego taxpayers pay both the federal government, IRS, and the California government, FTB, and many taxpayers become in arrear in their payments and often are placed in collection action by the IRS. As such, offers to compromise and companies which promise assistance in settling these claims are numerous. Be sure to check with the San Diego Better Business Bureau before paying for any of these services.

The Internal Revenue Service has published new regulations that will make it easier for taxpayers to negotiate settlements of their tax debts. The regulations expand the “offer in compromise” program, under which settlements can be reached with taxpayers who cannot pay their entire tax debts.

Under the old policies, the IRS could accept a taxpayer’s offer of settlement only if there was a doubt about whether the taxpayer was liable or the debt could ever be collected. These bases for compromise remain in effect, but the new regulations add flexibility, making the IRS decision to accept or reject a compromise offer dependent on the taxpayer’s particular circumstances. The bottom line is that a taxpayer is eligible for a compromise where collection of the entire tax debt would create economic hardship or where there are compelling public policy or equity considerations favoring a settlement.

San Diego has many golf courses. Some are public and some are private. One of them is the Balboa Park Golf Course and there are many other and included is a site for assistance in finding San Diego Golf Courses.

For some, golf courses are like outdoor board rooms. The emphasis is as much on conducting business as it is on lowering handicaps. But if business transactions have taken priority over the game itself, there is a risk that an injury caused by some one’s negligence can have repercussions for the firm’s bottom line.

A member of a golf club invited a guest for a round of golf and a sales pitch as to why he should come to work for the member’s family business. The guest was new to golf, and his host did not fill him in about basic golf etiquette. The guest teed off on the first hole when another golfer on the same hole was only about 70 yards down the fairway. The tee shot struck the golfer in the eye, causing permanent partial loss of vision and a scar.

San Diego is a very expensive place to live and most homes have a mortgage. As such, San Diego residents either obtain a loan for a local bank or finance company or get one from out of state. Many borrowers search on line with search engines such as google or yahoo. Always make sure that the company is researched on the San Diego Better Business bureau of the Better Business Bureau in the city where the company is located who will be lending.

At a time when stock prices have tumbled, so have interest rates on home equity loans and mortgages, and many homeowners are borrowing against their homes to generate cash. As a result, more people are at risk of being victimized by “predatory” lenders. A predatory loan occurs when a company misleads, tricks, or even coerces someone into taking out a home loan with excessive costs and without regard to the home owner’s ability to repay. The consequences of such a loan can be especially severe since the defaulting borrower could lose the home itself.

For the most part, predatory lending has been associated with companies that specialize in marketing to people with poor credit histories or who are simply strapped for cash. Typical targets are elderly people with high medical bills or overdue home repairs, middle-class individuals swamped by credit card debt, and lower-income consumers with less access to reputable lenders.

In San Diego, many residents have computers. Some computers are purchased by an employer, such as in the below example, and some are purchased privately. BestBuy and Circuit City are two locations where computers can be purchased and there are many others. At Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP, we endorse neither company and they are listed for illustrative purposes only.

The rules and expectation of privacy are different for computers for employment use purchased by an employer for an employee and a private user. Of course, in neither case would there be privacy if a search warrant from a Judge of the San Diego Superior Court was issued for the computer as this would authorize law enforcement to seize the computer as part of illegal activity. If you have any questions regarding this, please feel free to e mail our law firm.

An insurance services company bought two computers for use by Robert, one of its employees. One computer was used at the office, and one was used exclusively at home. Robert signed a policy statement in which he agreed that he would use the computers for business purposes only and not for various inappropriate purposes, including accessing obscene material. He also consented to having his computer use monitored “as needed” by employer personnel and agreed that his communications by computer were not private.

In San Diego, may employees work on an annual salary and sales commission determined by compensation as part of their contract. If you have any questions on this issue, or any other legal matter, please do not hesitate to contact our office of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP by phone or e mail. If we cannot assist you, we can refer you to the San Diego County Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service in which you will be given a one half hour free in-house consultation by a qualified member of their referral panels. There are many other lawyer referral services which are also certified by the State Bar of California and the Attorney Search Network and the Attorney Referral Service are two of these.

As a sales representative for a computer software company, Richard received an annual salary and sales commissions as determined by a compensation plan that was part of his contract. There was a specific formula for how commissions were to be calculated, but language in the plan gave the company broad authority to make a final decision about compensation and to change the plan at any time. For sales commissions, in particular, the employer reserved the right to review any transaction generating a commission beyond a salesman’s annual quota and to determine the “appropriate treatment” of it.

When Richard scored an especially large sale, the company decided that its “appropriate treatment” was to cap Richard’s commission at an amount that was less than he expected under the usual formula. The company’s position was that the large commission expected by Richard was not justified because it arose from a single transaction on which Richard had not done as much work as he claimed, and because he had only been employed by the company for eight months. Richard quit and sued for breach of contract.