Southland

Straying a bit from legal shows but staying close to the genre, I also try to catch Southland. This “cop” show is well acted and goes through several different plotlines each week covering both uniformed patrol officers and plainclothes detectives.


I was a little disturbed, however, by some issues that were raised in the last episode. One of the patrol officers, a rookie who is a main character and clearly supposed to be a viewer’s favorite, violated all sorts of procedures by contriving a traffic stop to harass and threaten a man who he believed (mistakenly, it turns out) had sexually molested his mother. When the man files a complaint with the precinct commander, the commander obligingly covers up for the patrolman and tells him not to do such a thing again.

In the same episode, the patrolman and his partner respond to a robbery at an Asian food carry-out in which the owner’s daughter was apparently punched. While there, our hero sees an illegal weapon in the owner’s desk drawer. The officer is about to take the gun (but not charge the owner), when the owner begs him to let him keep the gun – until he can get a fully licensed one – for protection against robbery in the interim.

The officer complies, but orders him to get a legal gun within two weeks. Sure enough, by the end of the episode, a young man whom several witnesses claim was merely asking to use the bathroom in the carryout is shot dead by the owner who claimed he was a robber. Our hero’s partner says to the hero,” it’s too bad we didn’t see that gun when we were in here before.” Our hero looks chagrined.

Meanwhile, another of the main characters, a detective applies for a security job, despite the fact that he has applied for full disability from his police job. This is forbidden and, if he is really disabled, he could not perform the job. He is told he is lucky, receiving only a notation in his file with no action being taken against him.

One has to wonder if these shows and others (a recent episode of Hawaii 5-0 comes to mind wherein our heroes stole $10 million to save a colleague from being killed) are attempting to set a different moral standard for law enforcement officers than for the rest of society.

Each of the instances specified above are at least civil wrongs, derelictions of duty or crimes, yet the shows manipulate us to root for the bad guys - who are really the good guys – who are fighting the bad guys.

Is this really the message the TV industry wants to send? Is this really how we want our police to act?

Estate and Gift Tax

On Dec. 10, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (“2010 Act”). This sweeping legislation addressed many aspects of taxation, including the estate and gift tax rules.

For starters, it stipulated that the estates of persons who died in 2010 can elect not to have any federal estate tax apply. Or, they can elect to have a federal estate tax apply, but with a $5 million federal estate tax exemption and a maximum federal estate tax of 35 percent.

If you elect to not have the federal estate tax apply, then the basis in the assets passing from the decedents to the heirs would be a carry-over basis. That is, whatever Mom paid for the stock continues to be the basis of the stock in the hands of her heirs. If Mom bought IBM stock at $5 per share, and if IBM stock is trading at $148 per share when the heir sells it, then the heir would have to recognize $138 of capital gains on every share of stock that she sold.

Although the capital gains tax rate is less than the federal estate tax rate, this still could generate a significant amount of income tax to be paid by the beneficiary. However, if Mom’s estate chooses to be subject to the federal estate tax in 2010, then the basis in the assets inherited by the heirs is the fair market value at the date of Mom’s death. If Mom died when the IBM stock was trading at $148 per share and the heir sells the stock when it is trading at $158 per share, then the heir only would have to recognize capital gains on $10 per share.

Deciding whether to elect to have the federal estate tax apply for persons dying in 2010 requires a determination of how much capital gains tax might be assessed, as well as how much federal estate tax might be assessed. This becomes a very complex analysis.

The 2010 Act further provides that for the years, 2011 and 2012, there is a federal estate tax with a $5 million federal estate tax exemption at a maximum 35 percent tax rate. If the estates of people dying in 2011 and 2012 are less than $5 million, then there will be no federal estate tax to pay.

The 2010 Act terminates as of Dec. 31, 2012. For those dying in 2013, the rules from 2001 will go back into effect: a $1 million federal estate and gift tax exemption and a maximum tax rate of 55 percent. My guess is that Congress will struggle with its next short-term fix toward the end of 2012. We will keep you informed.

Legal Drama Blog

Well the holiday rerun season is over and we are back to new shows. The Good Wife continues to be a great drama, but absolutely lacks an understanding of the legal process. In the latest episode, the “firm” proposed representing both the son of a rich client and his girlfriend in a drug possession count.

Our heroine allowed the children to make statements (I saw no Miranda warnings), after which they were both promptly charged with murder. Our favorite law firm then proposed that they still could represent both the young man and his girlfriend on the murder charges EVEN AFTER the prosecutor made an offer. The first defendant would cooperate and only get three months in jail, while the other one would get 25 years. Our heroes saw no conflict in this.

Ultimately, the prosecutor, who had been fired by the law firm and is out to avenge his firing (and is permanently assigned to cases against or law firm – another conflict?), convinced the young woman and her mother to get a separate lawyer. He did this by pointing out that the boy’s father was a big contributor to the States Attorney’s election campaign and she better make a deal fast.

This show has great acting, but screams for a technical advisor.