COSGRAVE LAW / Legal Ez

On Friday, January 20th, a Multnomah County Circuit Court judge ruled that Oregon’s $500,000 cap on noneconomic damages does not violate the Oregon Constitution as applied to a verdict in favor of plaintiff Scott Busch and against Cosgrave’s client, McInnis Waste Systems, Inc. The decision has significant ramifications for future cases in Oregon subject to […]

Oregon’s ABLE Savings Plan officially launched this morning.  Take a look at the eligibility cheat sheet and then head over to www.oregonABLEsavings.com  to open an account for your eligible loved ones.  The online system is said to be “fun, simple and only takes 10-15 minutes to complete.”  If you set one up, please let us know […]

A Texas federal judge entered a nationwide injunction today blocking the U.S. Department of Labor from implementing its controversial rule increasing the salary threshold for its “white collar” overtime exemptions.  The change was set to take effect December 1, 2016.  Employers for now can put on hold any salary increases as this battle winds its […]

Starting December 1, 2016, the minimum salary requirement for overtime-exempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act increases from $23,660 annually ($455/week) to $47,476 ($913/week).  If the new requirement is not met, then the employee will longer be considered exempt from overtime.  To comply, employers should review each of their overtime-exempt designated employees to determine: […]

Yesterday, the IRS finally confirmed that it will recognize unnecessary QTIP elections on 706 returns filed to elect portability. This is good news and answers an ambiguity created by the final portability regulations that were issued last year. A qualified terminable interest property (“QTIP”) election is an election under which a portion of a deceased […]

Negotiating and executing a lease is tricky, even without the state-legal, federally-illegal cannabis industry in the mix.  So what should a landlord consider if choosing to lease to a business that operates in the cannabis industry?  And what should a cannabis licensee do to protect its interests?  The following are six basic rules for landlords […]

As I mentioned in my last post, the IRS recently released proposed regulations which effectively end valuation discounts that have been relied upon for over 20 years. If the IRS’s current timetable holds, these regulations may become final as early as January 1, 2017. Although that date isn’t set in stone, we expect that the […]

It is commonly understood that if you sign a paper contract with an ink pen, you are bound by its terms. In a legal sense, by writing your name in a unique and distinctive way, you are identifying yourself and indicating your agreement to the document on which your signature appears. We can all think […]

If you’ve been putting off making gifts of your closely held business interests, you may want to kick start that process. Yesterday, the Treasury department announced its proposed regulations to curb taxpayers’ ability to take significant fractional interest discounts when valuing gifts of closely held business interests for estate and gift tax purposes.  These proposed regulations are targeting, […]

Clients often ask: “Should I register my trademark?” And, as required by law, I have to respond: “Well, it depends.” (Okay, so I am not actually required by law to respond this way. But I feel like attorneys — including me — respond this way so often that our clients might think this is the […]