Der Termin für die Abstimmung über die Erbschaftssteuerreform steht fest. Er wurde auf den 14. Juni 2015 festgelegt. Dies hat der Bundesrat an seiner Sitzung vom 28. Januar 2015 beschlossen. Die geplante Abstimmung basiert auf der Volksinitiative: „Millionen-Erbschaften besteuernfür unsere AHV (Erbschaftssteuerreform)“. Würde sie angenommen, hätte dies zur Folge, dass neu auf Bundesebene eine Erbschafts- und Schenkungssteuer eingeführt würde (vgl. Lawblogswitzerland.ch vom 07.06.2014). Im Gegenzug würde die heutige Autonomie der Kantone in diesem Bereich vollständig aufgehoben. Die Kantone würden allerdings mit einem Drittel der Steuereinnahmen beteiligt werden. Die restlichen zwei Drittel der Steuereinnahmen würden der AHV zukommen. Der Verlust der kantonalen Autonomie im Bereich der Erbschafts- und Schenkungssteuern wäre nicht der einzige Einschnitt. Mit der geplanten Reform würden auch Erbschaften…
Geplante Erbschaftssteuerreform: Der Countdown läuft
↧
↧
Counting on Complacency
Slate has up a new article titled, "Why Public Apathy Isn't All Bad." The gist of it is that the public's apathy toward criminal justice issues has paved the way for quiet criminal justice "reform." "Reform" is used in the article to mean the same thing it always does in this context, to wit, "slashing sentences for criminals." If someone other than criminals are the most direct and immediate beneficiaries of this "reform," no one has told me who else it might be.The article gets its mileage out of using the word "apathy" where "complacency" would be more precise. The public has indeed become more complacent about crime. This has happened for one perfectly obvious reason: there's so much less of it. And there is so much less because of -- ready now? -- exactly the successful measures (longer sentences, more prisons, more police, more…
↧
Fall Tugce: Ändert die Frage der Todesursache etwas am Schuldvorwurf?
Es sind neue Erkenntnisse zur Todesursache von Tugce aufgetaucht. Wie weit hat dies Auswirkung auf die mögliche Strafe und den...
↧
Should There Be an Age Restriction on Driving?
Senior drivers are now the fastest growing demographic of licensed drivers. In fact, it is estimated that at least 25 percent of all drivers will be 65 or older by 2025.1 While seniors are often considered safety risks on the road, new research shows they are actually safer drivers than their teen counterparts. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that drivers between 70 and 79 had the same crash rates as drivers in their 30s, drivers between ages 80 and 84 had crash rates similar to drivers aged 25 to 59, and drivers older than 85 had crash rates comparable to drivers aged 20 to 24. Despite their reduced accident rates, older drivers have statistically higher injury and death rates. However, these increased rates were due more to their “diminished ability to survive a crash” rather than an increased number of crashes. In fact, drivers aged 85 and older have fewer crash-related death rates than any other demographic.2 Teen Driving Restrictions In California,…
↧
4th Amendment Violations And Your Rights
The United States Supreme Court Has Now Allowed 4th Amendment Violations to occur because Law Enforcement Officers are Ignorant of the Law. If you do not believe that the government, including the U.S. Supreme Court, is at odds with your freedoms protected by the U.S. Constitution, then just read Heien v. North Carolina, 135 S. Ct. 530, (December 15, 2014). For the first time in the history of American Jurisprudence, the United States Supreme Court has authorized law enforcement officers to stop you in your vehicle, interrogate you, search you and arrest you because the police officers are “dumb!” The 4th Amendment of the United States Constitution has been reduced to ignorance of the law, through the recent Heien holding. The facts of Heien in a nutshell are: Sgt. Matt Darisse was employed with the Surry County Sheriff’s Department, North Carolina. As all police officers do, the deputy sheriff began following the defendant’s vehicle and dubbed it…
↧
↧
Michigan fighting claims of sexual abuse by teens in prison
2-2-2015 Michigan: Michigan's prison system is the target of a class-action lawsuit alleging that guards and other workers failed to prevent the sexual assault of male teen inmates who were locked up with adults. Inmates under 18 were forced to engage in sex acts with adult prisoners and staff, according to the lawsuit, with some abuse "open and obvious." The Corrections Department disputes
↧
Correlation, Causation, and Education
How many times have we heard "correlation does not prove causation"? Too many to count. How many times have we heard that elementary truth recited and then ignored, as people proceed to argue for policy changes based on correlation alone. Almost as many.Charlie Wells has this article in the WSJ on financial education of kids and their financial behavior as adults. It has nothing to do with crime, but it sounds a cautionary note about the argument we hear all the time. "Studies show that educational program X is correlated with positive outcome Y. Therefore we must spend more on X to produce Y, and that is more important and more cost effective than the solution only you ignorant rednecks believe in, Z." It does not follow. Wells reports (emphasis added):It's time to rethink how we teach children about money. For all the effort parents put into helping their children understand dollars and cents, and…
↧
Valentine’s Day Date…or Court Date?
Valentine’s Day is a wonderful time to share an evening with your special one, but it can also go south quickly. Each year, more than a few participants in Valentines’ celebrations end up in police cruisers, and ultimately in lawyers’ offices, being charged with everything from DUIs to domestic assaults. This article offers a few tips on how to keep Valentine’s Day from turning into a future court date: Keep the evening simple, romantic and understated. Don’t let high expectations for Valentine’s Day create stress and resentment, which can produce anger and blame. Soak those ill feelings in alcohol and you have a recipe for potential domestic violence. (Here is a lawyer’s question for you: Can candy or roses be considered deadly weapons? Answer: yes. Anything that is capable of acting as a weapon to cause serious bodily injury can be considering in a court of law to be deadly weapon.) Instead, try planning a unique,…
↧
KIERAN FALLON HAS PASSED AWAY
Kieran Fallon, superb lawyer, restauranteur, husband of Criminal Defense Attorney Rae Shearn, passed away today. Many of us knew Kieran was in the fight of his life. Bruce Fleisher has sent out tis email with details:Friends and colleagues, it is with deep sadness that I inform you that our friend and colleague Kieran Fallon passed away early this morning. Rae Shearn, his wife and our friend and colleague, requested that I convey the following details: VIEWING/WAKE Wed Feb 4 @ Stanfill Funeral Home 10545 South Dixie Highway 33156 7-9 PM: FUNERAL MASS Thurs Feb 5 @ 11AM Holy Rosary-St. Richard Church 7500 SW 152 St, Palmetto Bay 33157. Gathering to follow after funeral mass @ 899 Bella Vista Ave, Gables By The Sea.33156. I am certain that many of you will want to pay your respects to Rae & family. Kieran was a fine lawyer, special guy in every sense of the word, and I had the pleasure and honor of working with him for the past 25 years.…
↧
↧
Merritt Island Dog Fighting Ring Busted
Two people were arrested Saturday night after the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office uncovered a dog fighting ring in Merritt Island. Deputies responded to a Merritt Island home after the Sheriff’s Office was tipped off by a concerned citizen who heard what they believed was animal cruelty in progress. Deputies alleged they found several severely malnourished dogs, as well as a fighting ring and visible blood on the fighting structure and the dogs. Agents from the Sheriff’s Office’s Special Investigations units and Brevard County Animal Services responded to the scene where they collected evidence and safely rescued the dogs. A 41-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman, both of Merritt Island, were arrested. The man was charged with fighting dogs and was taken to the Brevard County Jail, where he’s being held on no bond. According to court records, the man is currently on federal probation and has a lengthy violent criminal history, including…
↧
HOW TO STOP JUDGES FROM GIVING PREFERENCE TO PROSECUTORS IN FLORIDA CRIMINAL SENTENCING
Since time immemorial under common law sentencing decisions have not been made by juries, nor by defense attorneys, nor thankfully, by prosecutors. Yet many judges either from laziness or abject cowardice defer to prosecutors at the time of sentencing. Fair Judge of more than AccentIn the Tampa Bay criminal courts in the Clearwater courthouse most prosecutors are assigned to specific divisions. Each criminal division has its own presiding judge. The judges see the prosecutors almost every day, see them when a search warrant needs to be signed at night, see them occasionally on weekends at advisories for the newly arrested's bond hearings, see them at parties for court personnel such as the bailiffs or the judge's judicial assistant or the judge herself. In short the judges trust and know the prosecutors much better than they do private defense lawyers. Clearly, prosecutors should be assigned cases randomly in different divisions so that they do not have…
↧
A Terrible Idea All Around
It seems that ABATE of Arizona, which I would like to think of as a rights organization, has decided to support a statewide law against texting while driving. The proposed statute would create penalties of $100.00 for a first offense and $300.00 for second and subsequent offenses, and fines of $500.00 where there is an accident and $10,000.00 where death results from the accident. The proposed law is not only pointless and maybe even dangerous, but it is more or less guaranteed to further erode our rights. It is not the sort of thing any purportedly freedom-loving organization should ever support. First, as others have noted before me, we have plenty of laws to deal with the problem already. If your texting results in even the slightest issue with your driving, we have more civil laws than we could ever want. Cross a single marked line once? A cop will use A.R.S. § 28-729 to stop you for that. Violate someone’s right of way? Article 9 of Title 28 of the…
↧
Indiana sentencing reforms highlight how low-level criminal justice is forced to fill public health gaps
↧
↧
North Dakota DUI Arrest Not Your Usual Drunk Driving Bust
On Friday January 30, 27-year-old Steven Anderson was arrested after he allegedly drove drunk while cleaning the ice at a girl’s high school ice hockey game. According to the New York Daily News, Anderson, who was driving a Zamboni at the Fargo, ND game, was arrested at about 8:15 p.m. when fans noticed he was driving the Zamboni erratically, crashing into the boards. The girls’ teams at Williston High and Davies High Schools were in competition when the incident occurred at the South Sports Arena. Anderson has worked part-time as a Zamboni driver for the Fargo Park District for six years. He was fired immediately, according to reports. Fargo Park District director of finance and human resources Jim Larson said that in his 25 years, he had never known of this happening. He said that there is zero tolerance for this type of behavior. Anderson was arrested on suspicion of DUI, and booked into the Cass County Jail. If found guilty of driving under the influence,…
↧
Las Vegas Probation Review
Probation Review Someone who has been convicted of a crime in Las Vegas may be required to serve probation. It’s vital to follow the terms of probation to the letter because failing to do so means serious consequences. That’s why it’s important to continue to rely on trustworthy legal advice throughout any probationary term. The conditions of an individual’s probation can be quite complex. Some people are forbidden to engage in interstate travel. Additionally, they may be barred from owning weapons and must submit to routine drug testing. People on probation may also need to obey a strict curfew and make regular reports to a probation officer. It’s important not to make any mistakes while on probation. If you need help with probation review in Las Vegas, contact the experts at Potter Criminal Defense. They can be reached at (702) 997-1774.
↧
Barker on the Nordic Alternative to Mass Incarceration
Vanessa Barker (University of Oxford - Border Criminologies) has posted Nordic Exceptionalism Revisited: Explaining the Paradox of a Janus-Faced Penal Regime (Theoretical Criminology 17 (1): 3-23 (2013)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Nordic penal regimes are Janus-faced: one side...
↧
Recently Exonerated Brothers Live in Dire Straits as North Carolina Lags to Review Pardon Application
For Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, the future looked promising last September when both men were exonerated of the 1984 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in North Carolina. But that promise has faded as the two half-brothers-both said to be mentally challenged-face unemployment, health ailments and a cold shoulder from the state of North Carolina. Newsobserver.com writes that life outside of prison has allowed few privileges for McCollum, 50, and Brown, 47. Both men were exonerated four months ago by North Carolina's Innocence Inquiry Commission based on DNA evidence that implicated another man. The brothers spent 31 years of their lives incarcerated-McCollum on death row-for convictions based on coerced confessions. On the day they were released, they were each given a meager $49 by prison officials. Geraldine Brown, their sister, said to Newsobserver.com, "They dropped them out here like they were bums. . . . [l]ike they were trash at a landfill." …
↧
↧
Tough Talk With Judges: Dore v. Barreau du Quebec
The Canadian courtroom is not a venue for the faint of heart. It is “ground zero” for our adversarial system of justice, pitting the state against a criminal accused; corporate titans battling competitors; spouses jousting to establish a fair division of the spoils of their marriage; and average citizens seeking redress for motor vehicle accidents, human rights complaints, estate disputes and so many other legal matters that are part of everyday life. “See you in court” is a threat that is feared by most people, with the exception of trial lawyers, who have studied, practiced and for the most part, crave the adrenalin pumping through their veins, like gladiators entering the arena. In hard-fought cases, clients expect their lawyers to champion their cause aggressively with a “take-no-prisoners” zeal. Many trial lawyers are proud to be called “a bulldog, a bruiser, a basher, a pit-bull” and other normally unflattering nicknames.…
↧
Texas CCA Goes West
In most states, the state high court sits primarily in the capital city. California is the oddball (so what else is new?) with its Supreme Court headquartered in San Francisco. The dual high courts of Texas and Oklahoma follow the usual pattern.Courts occasionally hear arguments outside their usual place, though, to give more citizens a look at how they work. Thursday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will go west -- as far west as you can go and still be in Texas -- holding arguments at the University of Texas - El Paso. An announcement is on the court's website.Neither of the cases is from West Texas. The capital case is that of a man who shot three people in a grocery store parking lot in Fort Bend, killing two of them. Briefs in the case are here.
↧
ILLINOIS ENACTS NEW LAW TO PREVENT "REVENGE PORN"
Before the modern digital era, jilted lovers would exact revenge on their unhappy exes by mailing those compromising photos. Once the photos or negatives were destroyed, however, the images were gone. End of problem. But in these times, things are not so simple. Photos taken by cellphone during an unguarded moment may be impossible to eradicate. And transmitting a damaging image has never been so simple. As a result, Illinois has enacted a law to ban the dissemination of private sexual images without the subject’s consent. Starting June 1, 2015, it is a Class 4 felony punishable by 1 to 3 years to intentionally disseminate an image of another who 1) is at least 18, 2) engaged in a sexual act or where intimate parts are exposed and 3) is identifiable from the image or information with the image. If you are charged with this or a similar crime, contact an experienced criminal law attorney immediately. An attorney can review your situation to determine your best…
↧
