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High Rate Of Divorce In Georgia

According to a recently released analysis of U.S. census figures, Georgia is near the top of the list of states where men and women most often end marriages.

For every 1,000 men married in Southern states in 2009, 10.2 divorced. The rate was higher among Southern women with an average of 11.1 divorces for every 1,000 women. Divorce rates in Georgia exceeded 10 per 1,000 for both men and women in 2009. For some Southern women, the divorce rate topped 16 per 1,000.

The divorce rate in the Northeast averaged 7.5 divorces for every 1,000 women and 7.2 per 1,000 men, falling well below the respective national averages of 9.2 and 9.7.

Short Sales And REO Disputes Rank High In NAR Study

Short-sale disputes ranked as the most significant legal issue facing real estate professionals, according to a recent study conducted by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). NAR conducted a study combining legal data and research with survey results from key industry participants.

Approximately 55 percent of survey respondents listed short sales as the cause of “a significant number of disputes.” One cause of short-sale disputes is a lack of sufficient short-sale training among agents, according to respondents.

More than 48 percent of respondents listed REO- related issues as a cause of “a significant” number of disputes.

Respondents reported insufficient training in REO marketing and contracting processes as a cause of REO disputes.

In addition to short sales and REO disputes, respondents listed agency issues, property condition disclosures, and the real estate settlement procedure act (RESPA) among the top legal issues real estate professionals face.

Why Are Women Losing Jobs And Men Gaining Jobs?

Men are regaining jobs faster and women are losing them, according to the Pew Research Center. The study found that men are making inroads in industries long dominated by women, such as nursing and teaching. The percentage of male nurses climbed from 9.5% in 2003 to 12.2% this year.

Men gained jobs at a faster rate than women in education and health services, professional and business services, and leisure and hospitality. In other sectors, including retail, finance, and federal government, men gained jobs while women lost jobs.

In each of the recovery periods since 1970, women have regained jobs at a faster rate than men within the first two years of the recovery. Between the end of the recession in June 2009 through May 2011, men gained 768,000 jobs and women lost 218,000 jobs.

Treasury Department To Pay Servicers For Quicker Loan Modifications

The Treasury Department will pay mortgage servicers more for modifying loans in an earlier stage of delinquency and less the longer the process takes, according to guidelines released July 6, 2011.

The guidelines, effective October 1, will be adopted by Fannie Mae when the Federal Housing Finance Agency releases the new mortgage servicing fee structures.

Through HAMP, a servicer receives $1,000 when a homeowner is placed in a verified income trial modification for three months before becoming permanent. Effective October 1, mortgage servicers will receive $1,600 if the trial starts before a loan becomes more than 120 days delinquent, $1,200 for loans between 121 days and 210 days delinquent and $400.00 for loans placed in the trial stage after being 210 days delinquent.

Servicers are prohibited from requiring borrowers to make past due payments before entering a trial modification which would result in a higher fee for the servicer.

U.S. SUPREME COURT RULES: YOUTH'S AGE IS RELEVANT IN MIRANDA ANALYSIS

A youth’s age is relevant when deciding whether a person being questioned by police is in “custody,” triggering the need for a Miranda warning, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision.
At issue was whether J.D.B., a 13-year-old special education student, had the right to a Miranda warning when he was pulled from his middle school classroom and questioned by a police officer. The North Carolina Supreme Court had ruled the teen was not in custody when he was questioned, so a Miranda warning was not required.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who wrote the majority opinion, said age is relevant to the analysis and remanded for a new determination of whether the student was in custody. “To hold, as the state requests, that a child’s age is never relevant to whether a suspect has been taken into custody—and thus to ignore the very real differences between children and adults—would be to deny children the full scope of the procedural safeguards that Miranda guarantees to adults,” she wrote.
The ABA had filed an amicus brief in the case arguing that children, as compared to adults, have unique vulnerabilities. It is the third time in recent years that the ABA has filed an amicus brief on the unique status of children.

GEORGIA PHYSICIANS MUST DISCLOSE WHETHER THEY HAVE MALPRACTICE INSURANCE

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed a law last month, requiring physicians to inform the Georgia Composite Medical Board if they are insured. The board will make the information available on its website as part of a physician's public profile. Physicians must disclose whether they are covered by insurance when asked by patients. If the physician declines to inform his or her patients, the physician is subject to disciplinary action by the board.

THE STATUS OF FEDERAL SUPPORT FOR GIFTED STUDENTS

Congress eliminated Jacob K. Javits grants for research on gifted and talented education in the fiscal 2011 budget agreement.
The Talent Act, sponsored by Sen. Charles E. "Chuck" Grassley, R-Iowa as S.857 and by Rep. Elton W. Gallegly, R.-Calif. as H.R.1674 has put forth a set of changes to incorporate gifted education in the next authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It would:
• Overhaul the Javits research grants;
• Require assessments capable of measuring growth among high-performing students;
• Include gifted education in federal professional development grants for teachers; and
• Call for schools to include plans to serve high-performing students in poverty in their Title I or school improvement plans.
Sen. Grassley said he considers the bill "a marker for the upcoming reauthorization debate for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.”
For more details on the bill, see Talent Act presentation.ppt delivered at the Senate.

Are some elementary and secondary schools discouraging the enrollment of undocumented immigrant children?

The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights and Office of the General Counsel addressed this question in a "dear colleague" letter issued May 6, 2011. "Recently, we have become aware of student enrollment practices that may chill or discourage the participation, or lead to the exclusion, of students based on their or their parents' or guardians' actual or perceived citizenship or immigration status," says the "dear colleague" letter.
The letter cites Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on such factors as race, color, or national origin, by public schools. It also cites Plyler v. Doe, the 1982 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that held a state may not deny access to a basic public education to any child, whether that child is present in the country legally or not.
The letter and accompanying materials clarify that schools may ask for birth certificates to establish age requirements, but may not bar enrollment because a child has a foreign birth certificate. Furthermore, schools may not deny enrollment if parents refuse to provide a child's Social Security number.

Justices Ask Obama Administration Its Views On Special Education Case

This week the U.S. Supreme Court asked the Obama administration for its views on whether a parent may bring a negligence claim against a school district that allegedly failed to identify a high school student's disabilities.

The justices asked the U.S. solicitor general's office to give its view on the issue raised under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

The case involves an appeal filed by a California school district of two lower court rulings that the mother had a valid legal claim under the IDEA that the district had failed to identify her daughter's disabilities.

The facts in court papers show that when the student was in 10th grade, her teachers became concerned that her work was "gibberish and incomprehensible" and that she had failed every class. The school district referred the girl to a mental health counselor, who recommended that the student be evaluated for learning disabilities. The district did not follow the recommendation, and it promoted the girl to the 11th grade.

The mother later made a request for an individualized education program (IEP)for her daughter, and the district determined that the girl was eligible for special education services for a learning disability.

The mother brought an administrative claim under the IDEA, arguing that the school district failed under the law's "child find" requirement to identify the girl's disabilities sooner. That requirement obliges states to ensure that all children with disabilities who are in need of special education services are identified, located, and evaluated.

An administrative law judge largely sided with the family, ordering as much as 150 hours of compensatory tutoring for the girl's lost educational opportunities.

The school district appealed that ruling in federal district court, arguing among other things that if the family prevailed, students with disabilities would be able to bring "educational malpractice" claims against districts.

The district court rejected the school district's arguments, and a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, in San Francisco, also sided with the family.

In a 2-1 decision, the 9th Circuit panel rejected the school district's arguments. The majority held that there was a broad jurisdictional mandate under the federal special education law, and that in this case there was "willful inaction" on the district's part in the face of numerous "red flags" about the student's disabilities.

The appeal is Compton Unified School District v. Addison (Case No. 10-886). The solicitor general's office usually takes several months to respond to the high court's request for its views in a case.



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U.S. Proposes New Education Privacy Rules

The U.S. Department of Education proposed new regulations under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA).
The department proposes the following changes to FERPA: 



1. Tighter enforcement:
In the past, department officials said there has been confusion about whether agencies permitted to work with student data—but not collect it or work with the children directly—could be held to the same standards for protecting students' privacy. The new rules would require that everyone who has access to student data, even through an "exception" in FERPA, would still be held to the law. Those who fail to meet the requirements could see their grants withheld or be barred from student data-sharing for five years.

2. Directory information protection:
The department proposed that schools be allowed to have directories for limited uses, to limit the ability of marketers or identity thieves from accessing the data. For example, a school may collect data for a yearbook, like a student's name, grade, photo, and activities, but restrict that use to the yearbook itself.


3.State representation:
FERPA allows districts to enter into written agreements with researchers to use data to evaluate programs, but the department also would allow states to create such agreements on behalf of multiple districts. This would permit state officials to research the effectiveness of a statewide kindergarten-reading program, for example, or to compare the implementation of math coaches among districts. 


4. 
 P-20 tracking:
In keeping with the department's effort for better college and career readiness information, it would allow high school administrators to share student achievement data to track graduates' academic success in college.
The department launched a new division devoted to "responsible stewardship, collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of information at the national level within the Education Department."
Under the proposed rules, the department would define "education program" for the first time as any program principally engaged in the provision of education. The proposed rules point out that some early childhood, special education, and adult education programs are run not by state or local educational authorities, but by other agencies, such as state human resources departments, which often oversee Head Start programs.

Another provision involves student identification badges. The proposed rules say parents could not use their right to opt out of making public their child's directory information to excuse the child from having to wear a school ID badge.

Comments on the proposed regulations are due by May 23.
The department hopes to release final rules by the end of the year.

New EEOC Guidelines Revising The Definition Of A Disability Under The ADA

New EEOC guidelines revise the definition of what constitutes a disability under the ADA.

The guidelines, ordered by the ADA Amendments Act, significantly expand what constitutes a disability for discrimination purposes.

Prior to these changes, a disabled employee was required to show that a medical condition significantly limited a major life activity. Under the new rules, a disability can be shown by demonstrating that an ailment impacts a major bodily function.

What does this mean?

Now, a disabled employee can function on a daily basis and still receive ADA protection if the employee suffers from an endocrine disorder (diabetes), neurological condition (bipolar disorder), or an immune deficiency disorder (HIV).

Furthermore, if the employee suffers from a periodic condition, the employee is a legally disabled employee. Examples of a periodic condition are epilepsy or a condition currently in remission.

The EEOC ADA regulations apply to all claims beginning on January 1, 2009 according to Disability Scoop.

If you think you are a disabled employee under the new rules, and were denied a requested reasonable accommodation or subject to disability discrimination, you may now be entitled to compensation.

AARP SUIT TARGETS FEDERAL RULE CHANGE ON REVERSE MORTGAGES

AARP filed a suit challenging a federal decision on reverse mortgages that is causing some widows and widowers to lose their homes. According to a New York Times article, the suit claims a rule change by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development imposes tougher requirements on surviving spouses and heirs than on strangers, Under the change in the rule, homes with reverse mortgages that are worth less than the loan balance can be sold to strangers for less than the mortgage balance, while surviving spouses not named on the reverse mortgage must pay the full loan amount.

Is the new health care law unconstitutional?

This week, the Justice Department appealed judge Roger Vinson’s January ruling that declared the new health-care law unconstitutional. The case will now move to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
Vinson voided the law in January but stayed his ruling last week, conditioned upon the Obama administration’s appealing it within seven days. He also required the government to seek expedited appellate review.

Two other federal appeals courts, in Richmond, Va., and Cincinnati, are preparing to consider the constitutionality of the law late this spring. To date, three lower courts have found the law constitutional, while two have ruled the other way.

First Amendment

Today, the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protects a fringe religious group that protested the funeral of a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq. The court, in an 8-to-1 vote, ruled that the soldier's father could not sue Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, for celebrating his son's death with a funeral picket that included signs saying "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and "consider the protest did not disrupt the funeral at all.God Hates You," along with more vulgar messages. It is important to consider that the protest did not disrupt the funeral.

Estate Planning

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Georgia Restrictive Covenant Act

 The Georgia Restrictive Covenant Act ("Act") was to be effective November 3, 2010, after Georgia voters’ ratified a Constitutional amendment designed to give effect to the Act.  However, the Constitutional amendment failed to include an effective date, thus the amendment did not take effect until January 1, 2011.  Now, the Act is exposed to possible constitutional challenges, including questions as to whether it did or can take effect as intended.

Therefore, State Representative Wendall Willard, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee,  introduced House Bill 30, which states that its intention is to “remove any such uncertainty by substantially reenacting the substantive provisions of HB 173 [the Restrictive Covenant Act].”   The Bill also states that its enactment should not be taken as evidence that the previous statute was invalid.  If passed, House Bill 30 would go into effect immediately when the Governor signs it, but would not retroactively apply to any contract signed before it takes effect.
When or if this new bill may pass is not known at this time.

Unemployment Benefits

 A federal bill was signed in December extending  unemployment benefits.

Eligibility requires  being out of a job; state unemployment rates and the duration of an individual’s unemployment.

To collect benefits for the maximum period of 99 weeks, the average state’s unemployment rate must be above 8.5% for three months. *

The new law restores the 99-week maximum for states which do meet the rate requirement but  does not provide further benefits to individuals who previously reached the limit of their unemployment benefits

*Georgia residents, see http://www.dol.state.ga.us/