Law Office of Douglas P. Humes

"Philadelphia’s small-business owners are relieved to hear that their Small Business Administrations loans of up to $50,000 could be wiped clean. ... Business owners who borrowed $50,000 or less can fill out a simplified one-page form and can ignore some of the calculations required of other borrowers. A link to the Form 3508S is available at sba.gov, or by googling SBA PPP forgiveness application form. For more on the forgiveness trms, check this article: https://www.inquirer.com//sba-treasury-ppp-loans-small-bus

FINDERS KEEPERS In Concord, Pennsylvania last month [November 2009] , according to the Delaware County Daily Times, "State police said a 74-year-old man lost a large sum of money in a purple Crown Royal whiskey bag Monday morning." There followed a spirited comment section in which some people claimed "finders keepers" as the law of the land, while others berated them for suggesting that the playground rule is actually the law. This is one of those old sayings that I have a...Continue reading

A thoughtful Florida judge, Milton Hirsch, writes a short blog entry every week or so about some topic related to the practice of law. Here is the latest one, on lawyers being castigated for whatever it is their clients were charged with: Edward Bennett Williams was one of the greatest and most successful of American trial lawyers. (Unsurprisingly so. He was a graduate of Georgetown Law School, often referred to as the cradle of great criminal trial lawyers. I often r...efer to it that way.) But even Williams was not spared the false criticism that associates the lawyer with the client’s misdeeds. In his professional memoirs, Williams recalls: "When I represented the late Senator [Joseph] McCarthy in his censure case, I received a large amount of mail excoriating me for being a McCarthyite and a fascist. At about the same time I agreed to represent some motion-picture writers who were accused of contumacious conduct in refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist activities. The tenor of the mail shifted. Now I was a red. On the same day in 1954 I was referred to in a west-coast paper as the right-wing mouthpiece for the McCarthy fringe and in a New York newspaper as the courtroom apologist for left-wing groups. I was bewildered. Up to that time I had tried twenty-three criminal homicide cases and no one had ever asked me if I believed in murder." Williams died today, August 13, in 1988.

Who do you want to mind your affairs if you are laid up for an extended period? Who do you want making medical decisions for you when you can't? Who do you want to handle your estate and distribute your possessions? Or are you willing to just walk away and leave it for your family to figure it all out on their own? "A study conducted by Health Affairs in 2017 discovered that roughly 33% of people in the U.S. have advance directives. A more recent survey conducted by Ca...ring.com revealed that nearly the same (low) percentage have a will (32%)." Has anything happened in the last few months to suggest that having no plan in place is not a good plan? You need to have that conversation with yourself. Start here with this article: https://broomall-humes.blogspot.com//estate-planning-havin

Yippeee! My notary "business" - which I generally do for friends and clients for free, can once again re-open, and I can do so in my office. Who sez? The Governor! Or his staff: "Can a notary working in a law office now notarize documents such as wills and powers of attorney in person? ... the new directives on legal services permit lawyers and staff to prepare these documents and, presumably, meet with clients to execute them. They need to be notarized and law offices t...ypically have staff who are notaries." Reply from XXX Deputy Secretary of Legislative Affairs Office of the Governor "Yes but again, (social distancing) guidance must be followed." So, those of us who do estate planning are once again able to offer not just the beginning and middle steps but those all important endings steps as well - signing the documents in front of a notary. The notary news is not huge - but it is like a crocus in Spring - the first living thing to pop out of the barren ground. It's a step towards the new "normal". That's the right direction.