Publications

• What to Ask Before Retaining a Divorce Lawyer

  January 23, 2018

  Retaining a divorce attorney requires careful consideration.  When a marriage ends, spouses and their children often face a perfect storm of stressful decisions:  new living arrangements, parenting schedules, and of course issues concerning property and money.   Your attorney will inform you about the legal process, explain how the courts interpret the law and will help […]

• New Deduction for Pass-Through Entities

  January 23, 2018

  The recently enacted tax act significantly changes the way businesses will be taxed.  The tax rate for C corporations was changed from a progressive-rate system with a maximum rate of 35% to a flat rate of 21%.  Combined with a Qualified Dividend rate of 15% for many taxpayers, the combined tax rate on corporate earning […]

• Game Over for Entertainment Deductions

  January 16, 2018

  The cost of business entertainment just got more expensive.  The good old days of deducting expenditures to entertain clients and customers has come to an end.  Under the recently enacted tax reform, no deduction is allowed with “respect to an activity generally considered to constitute entertainment, amusement or recreation.”  While portions of the current IRS […]

• Commercial Litigation Team Shares Insight on 2017

  January 15, 2018

  Happy New Year! Our Commercial Litigation Team would like to say THANK YOU to the many accountants, financial advisors and other professionals for the confidence you show in our team by referring clients to us in the past year.  Our commercial litigation team has worked diligently to develop unique capabilities in finance, accounting, and business valuation, […]

• Court of Appeals Publishes Opinion Impacting Use of Experts

  January 4, 2018

  The Michigan Court of Appeals recently published a new opinion clarifying expert qualification for nursing experts and the standard applicable to a request for permission to disclose a new expert following a ruling that the party’s timely disclosed expert is unqualified.  Cox v Hartman, ___ Mich App ___; ___NW2d ____ (2017) (Docket Nos 333849, 333994). […]

• Take 2? Supreme Court Asked to Revisit Harrison

  December 20, 2017

  Harrison v Munson Hospital leaves the Court of Appeals for a second time on its way to the Supreme Court to possibly consider whether or to what extent peer-review documents can serve as a basis for attorney sanctions. The Supreme Court is once again being asked to address the question of whether a peer-review document […]

• Holy Schneikes! I’ve Been Hacked. Now What?

  November 28, 2017

  As cybercrime becomes increasingly widespread, businesses should not only have a policy to reduce the likelihood of a cyber-intrusion, but also be prepared on how to respond if and when they are hacked. Advance preparation, including a response plan, can minimize the adverse effects and opportunity costs that are inherent in every data breach. There […]

• New LUST Money Available to Fund Cleanups in Michigan

  November 2, 2017

  It’s a good time to move forward with leaking underground storage tank (LUST) cleanup work in Michigan.  Last week, a new law was enacted to create the Legacy Release Program (LRP) to reimburse eligible owners and operators for a portion of the cleanup costs for older, “legacy” releases. We have seen them many times: old […]

• Court of Appeals Addresses a Plaintiff’s Ability to Pursue New Theories of Malpractice Not Included in the Plaintiff’s Notice of Intent

  October 31, 2017

  The Court of Appeals released a published opinion on October 24, 2017 addressing the analysis required by a trial court where the plaintiff’s experts in a medical malpractice action abandon the standard of care theories in the plaintiff’s notice of intent (NOI) and articulate entirely new standard of care theories not addressed in the notice […]

• PACA Contracts: Court Ruling Outlines Best Practices for Payment Terms

  October 3, 2017

  Sometimes growers and other sellers of perishable agricultural commodities (fruits and vegetables) lack attention to the details when it comes to their contracts. Many sales occur by way of handshake. While that process may be what is expected in your locality, growers and sellers in the Western District of Michigan are putting themselves in serious […]