Thursday, March 25, 2021
New Law Requiring Two Witnesses for Power of Attorney Forms
Previously, the form just had to be signed, initialed, and dated by a principal with capacity, but now you are going to need 2 disinterested witnesses as well.
The new law, Senate Bill S888, is curiously only applicable to financial and estate planning, but why?
Its stated purpose is to provide extra protection against fraud and abuse, but how does adding 2 witnesses accomplish that?
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Employment Sexual Harassment - Case of Interest at the NYPD
A homosexual detective was just given his chance to prove that he experienced workplace discrimination at a trial and recoup damages.
Here are his facts:
- His homophobic colleagues vindictively called other officers wherever he was stationed & told them to harass plaintiff because he was gay;
- 2 Sergeants constantly made homophobic slurs at civilians & gay officers in his presence;
- He endured over a year of homophobic derision, harassment, and verbal abuse;
- He was singled out to do tasks, which his peers were not required to do, such as:
- He was repeatedly required to enter a holding cell, by himself, with prisoners still inside, while plaintiff carried metal and wooden cleaning implements. This was potentially dangerous, as plaintiff could have been overwhelmed & attacked by the prisoners. Other officers were not required to do it, as it was usually a task for the maintenance crew;
- He was required to go on foot patrol alone during the midnight shift in dangerous areas at the 77th Precinct while other officers patrolled with partners;
- He was given extra work when he arrived on the job; and
- He experienced some new or escalated conduct after he started to fight the discrimination, which could be deemed retaliatory.
Thursday, January 07, 2021
PODCAST | How Businesses Can Get The PPP Round 2 Loan
- You can get a second loan
- What the qualifications are to apply
- What size businesses can apply
- How this works with taxes
- If the first loan needs to be forgiven to get the second loan
And MUCH MORE!
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
No NYS Residential Foreclosures Until May – New Law
On 12/28/2020, the COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2020 became law.
This law effectively stops all residential foreclosures in NYS until May 1, 2021, but it does nothing about the borrower's obligation to repay their loan.
Do you think that makes
sense?
Isn’t that just delaying the
inevitable foreclosure crisis?
Shouldn't something be done about the loan too?
Here is how the law works
– a homeowner needs to submit a hardship declaration to their lender and magic,
no more foreclosure until May.
The Details:
o
Either the court or lender (depending on foreclosure
status) must provide the borrower with a statement explaining the law.
o
To qualify, a borrower must be suffering a
financial hardship including, such as
§ A
significant loss of household income;
§ Increase
in necessary expenses;
§ Childcare
responsibilities;
§ Moving
expenses; and/or
§ Other
circumstances negatively affecting the borrower’s ability to find meaningful
employment.
o Sample hardship declarations will be available on
the Office of Court Administration website.
o
New Foreclosures – If the borrower does
not provide the declaration, the lender is required to file all sorts of
documents to commence a foreclosure proceeding, including:
§ Affidavit
of Service of the Hardship Declaration in English and in the borrower’s primary
language.
§ Affidavit
of Service of RPAPL 1303 and 1304 notices; and
§ Affidavit
of the Petitioner/Petitioner’s agent attesting that the Petitioner or his agent
did not receive a Hardship Declaration from the Borrower.
o
Existing Foreclosures – Paused (stayed)
for at least 60 days to provide the borrower time to complete and submit the
hardship declaration.
o
This also stops foreclosure sales if the
case already was decided by the court in a judgment.
Make no mistake, this new law does NOT excuse borrowers from paying the mortgage.
So, what is the point?
Isn’t it misleading borrowers into digging an even bigger
financial hole?
What do you think?
Monday, December 28, 2020
Employment Sexual Harassment - Case of Interest - Exceeding Petty Slights or Trivial Inconveniences
Back on October 11, 2019, the NYS Human Rights Law was modified with a new standard for actionable employment sex discrimination. The new standard was intended to align NYS more closely with the NYC Human Rights Law.
The new standard is that conduct that exceeds "petty slights or trivial inconveniences" is actionable.
As to what that means, the NYC law was interpreted by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals (Federal Court) in Mihalik v. Credit Agricole Cheuvreux North America, Inc., which is the leading case.
Now, we have a leading case interpreting the NYS law as well by a State Court.
On December 15, 2020, the NYS Appellate Division decided Franco v Hyatt Corp. and found the following allegations to constitute conduct that exceeds petty slights or trivial inconveniences:
- Supervisor made repeated sexual advances towards him, including reaching out to touch his face and holding his hand in an elevator while they were alone.
- Supervisor also initiated conversations that made him uncomfortable, telling him she had a "crush" on him, telling him she was single and twice inviting him to her home to repair "a hole" in her apartment.
- Supervisor said she had a tattoo, adding that "You have to undress me to see it."
- After victim rebuffed advances, supervisor brought him to the Human Resources manager's office to complain about his work product and that she solicited complaints about him from other coworkers.