1. Mechanic's Liens revisited: Eric has a dispute with the roofer who put a new roof on his house. The roofer puts a Mechanic's Lien upon the title to Eric's house. What did the Judge do with the Mechanic's Lien, and what can we all (contractors and homeowners) learn from the case?
2. A Jury awards a massive amount of punitive damages against a Connecticut municipality for discriminating against people with disabilities. How much is "too much?" The Second Circuit Court of Appeals gives guidance. Spoiler alert: look at the ratio of punitive damages to compensatory damages.

We only had one airable call: Gentleman asked about what happens when an Irrevocable Trust terminates, and what are the tax consequences for the beneficiaries who receive the final distributions?

1.The story of Meril and her emotional support parrots: How the landlord tried to evict them, what happened, and the take-aways for our landlord listeners and our tenant listeners. With a guest appearance by veteran Executive Producer Joey Bourgoin, we did a "Joey be the Judge" segment to see how an insightful layperson would size up the situation compared to what happened at Court.

2.We did updates on "Non-Compete Clauses" in employment agreements in light of the Federal Trade Commission's efforts to invalidate them and the numerous law suits seeking to rein in the FTC on this issue.

3. We reviewed a bitter dispute between two neighbors and what the trial judge did with their claims. spoiler alert: both parties lost!
Take-away: the Judges dislike childish conduct and will look for a reason not let the Courts be used as a means primarily to cause pain to a neighbor that you don't like...
Listener calls:
a. Tax Deduction issue: If dad gave his house to daughter, but continued paying the mortgages and real property taxes, who gets to claim the income tax deduction? Note: there are other, more subtle tax issues in this scenario, as we pointed out in providing an answer.
b. if a utility customer whose obligation to pay their bill was deferred during the Covid emergency, and the customer then dies, who pays the unpaid bill?