The Arizona Housing Department awarded $20 million in tax credits to 18 projects last week and has worked out deals for the projects to be completed in almost half the time. These credits are expected to save each developer approximately $1 million on new Arizona projects and encourage additional housing development over the next decade. Read more…
Between March 2011 and March 2012, U.S. homes sold to foreign buyers rose 24 percent, with 51 percent of the purchases by foreigners occurring in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas. Read more…
azcentral.com: The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the constitutionality of some provisions of the “Affordable Care Act” (Obamacare). At this point, however, an article in azcentral.com explains why analysts expect that the ruling will not change the tide that will cause more employees in Arizona to pay more fees for health care. Employers are choosing plans that force employees to front the first $1000 to $10,000 of their health care before their coverage begins. As a result, an increasingly well-researched population of patients will use the internet to pick and choose which procedures they can afford just as they might pick from a cafeteria line. This seems to set up patients and doctors alike for failure. Lawyers, however, should become busier drafting waivers and releases to ensure doctors are able to perform the services patients request in these isolated circumstances.
findlaw.com: Have you been hurt in an accident that wasn’t your fault? No, we’re not hawking legal services on television. We just want to let you know that you may need to bring a serious claim if you’re hoping to collect on the pain and suffering. This article details the factors that jurors may consider:
- The age of the injured victim. Younger victims may get larger pain-and-suffering damages, if they will have to deal with pain for the rest of their lives.
- The type of injury. Brain injuries, and injuries that cause continuing physical pain, will generally result in larger awards.
- How the injury affects the victim. This includes consideration of past, present, and future pain and suffering — including the certainty of future pain.
ABA Journal: “New statistics from NALP paint a bleak picture of the job market for 2011 law grads.
The overall employment rate nine months after graduation was 85.6 percent, the lowest it has been since 1994, according to a NALP – The Association for Legal Career Professionals press release. But the employment rate doesn’t tell the whole, dismal story.
Among law grads whose employment status was known, only 65.4 percent were in jobs requiring bar passage, the lowest percentage ever measured by NALP. The number has fallen nine percentage points since 2008. Only 60 percent were working full-time as lawyers in jobs that required bar passage.”
ABA Journal: “The U.S. Supreme Court is suffering from public perception problems, as a new poll shows declining public approval and opposition to lifetime tenure.
Sixty percent of those surveyed by the New York Times and CBS News said they believe that appointing Supreme Court justices for life is a bad thing because it gives them too much power. Thirty-three percent, on the other hand, said lifetime appointments were a good thing because it keeps the justices independent.”
ABA Journal: “In past economic downturns, the number of law school applicants jumped as students extended their studies rather than look for jobs in a down market.
But this year at least 10 law schools are cutting class sizes in an “unprecedented” nod to the changing legal profession, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. The number of applicants is also down by 14 percent from last year.”
Estate of Denial: “For a man who’s been diagnosed with diabetes, you’d never guess that about Steven Cooksey. His life choices fly directly in the face of the American Diabetes Association’s recommendations for people living with the disease. He maintains a no-grain/low-carbohydrate diet, commonly known as the Paleo diet, and as a result is in fantastic health. Incredibly, because of his dietary decisions, Cooksey no longer requires insulin injections (on his website, he states that before adopting the Paleo diet he was taking four insulin shots a day). With those kind of seemingly miraculous results, it’s no surprise that Cooksey wanted to share his story and hopefully help others with what he’s learned through his own research and experience.
While trying to help others, Cooksey also has no problem making his disagreements with the ADA known. However, little did he know that by blogging about his success in maintaining his diabetes with the Paleo diet while also lambasting the ADA for its dietary policies would lead to him becoming a target for government censorship.”
Algorithms could be used to make predictions based on the historical data, Law Technology News reports. “Called quantitative legal prediction, it’s basically what happens when the latest technology trend—called ‘big data’—meets the law,” the story says. “And it just might change how corporate general counsel and BigLaw manage legal matters and costs, how they craft legal arguments, and whether, how, and where they file a lawsuit.””
ABA Journal: “Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law isn’t the first to consider helping new graduates hard-hit by the dismal legal economy establish their own law firms.
But it’s hoping to do so in a bigger way than others than other law schools have previously done.
Dean Douglas Sylvester hopes to create an affiliated program akin to a medical residency for new graduates at what is being billed as the nation’s first large-scale nonprofit law firm for training attorneys, the National Law Journal (reg. req.) reports in an article reprinted in the New York Law Journal.”