A mortgage broker's fees for document preparation don't count as the unauthorized practice of law, but they might qualify as unjust enrichment, the Missouri Supreme Court said in a split decision last week. In a 5-2 decision, the court upheld a St. Louis County judge's decision to toss unauthorized practice of law claims against Golden Oak Lending, saying the mortgage broker helped only in preparing financial documents for customer and plaintiff Bonnie Hargis' refinancing of her Barnhart home. Legal documents were prepared by another company, Document Systems Inc., or title companies and investors, the opinion said.
People generally understand the difference between criminal and civil law. Criminal law is the exciting law in most television shows or movies and includes the climactic scenes in which someone confesses or is exonerated. Civil law, by contrast, is the subject of fewer shows and most often is represented as being either a burden on the individual because someone is losing custody of their child, just plain boring, or as a backdrop to what is happening to the attorney outside of court. Civil law is the law of contracts, employment and labor disputes, probate, divorce and custody, oil and gas, and real estate, just to name a few. I practice civil law, not because I want to deal in child custody battles, or because I enjoy boring work, or even because I have so much going on elsewhere that...
A group of Missouri lawyers who want the legal document website LegalZoom.com to stop doing business in the state won a victory last week when a federal judge in Jefferson City said the suit could proceed as a class action. The class of plaintiffs, represented by lawyers from five different law firms, alleges Los Angeles-based LegalZoom engages in the unauthorized practice of law by charging a fee for providing "customized legal services" such as wills, trusts, divorce pleadings, business incorporation documents and intellectual property filings, among others.
Law practice and legal education are facing fundamental changes. Many assume that these changes will force law schools to give up on theory and focus more on training students for the practice of law. However, this Essay shows that the future may be more uncertain and complex. The only thing that is certain is that law schools may face, for the first time, the need to provide the type of education the market demands rather than serving lawyers’ and law professors’ preferences. Legal educators must respond to these demands by serving not just the existing U.S. market for legal services but also a global market for legal information. This may call for training in some, but not all, of the theories and disciplines that have been developing in law schools.
Positions taken by the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) are sometimes difficult to understand. A case in point is the position taken as it relates to CPAs filing Pennsylvania Inheritance Tax returns. The PBA seems to take the position that the preparation and filing of Pennsylvania REV-1500 by CPAs constitutes the practice of law, but its position is less than clear. PICPA leadership has reached out to the PBA to discuss this and other matters of mutual interest. Unfortunately, to date, there have been no meaningful discussions as to what constitutes the unauthorized practice of law as it relates to this matter. For CPAs preparing Pennsylvania Inheritance Tax returns, this is an issue that needs resolution. If a CPA exercises his or her skill, knowledge, and training, and determines t...
Corporate law theory and practice considers shareholder relations with companies and the implications of ownership separated from control. Yet through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout and the government's resultant shareholding, ownership and control at many companies have merged, leaving corporate theory and practice for the financial and automotive sectors in chaos. The government's $700 billion bailout is a unique historical event; not merely because of its size, but also because of a resulting ripple through corporate scholarship and practice. This article builds on the author's five testimonies before Congress during the financial crisis and implementation of the TARP bailout and his consultation for the Special Inspector General for TARP. After considering corporat...
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