prime gods

My sister Anne received a huge shipping box this morning from her friend in Canada via Fed-ex. She was literally jumping up and down with joy, that is, until the Fed-ex guy informed her she has to pay a huge amount of fee to get the package. Yep, ladies and gentlemen – tax.

Since the package contents cost a lot, the tax, of course is significant as well. Anne wasn’t prepared to shed out that huge sum, so she ended up borrowing money from my parents just so she could already claim the package. Tsk tsk… We already warned her that there’s going to be tax but she just didn’t listen. We also told her that the actual cost of the package should not be declared when sending it to avoid getting taxed a huge amount.

Oh well, after this incident which pretty much emptied what’s left of her meager savings, I’m sure she’ll be more careful next time.

That’s one of the most catchy lines I picked up from the hit TV series, How I Met Your Mother. It’s such an epic series, it never fails to amuse me.

  Mesothelioma lawyers sure have a heckload of responsibility. If you’re wondering what Mesothelioma is, it’s a kind of disease. It’s actually necessary to start legal proceedings to protect the rights of those who are concerned, so yeah. I’ve heard of these kind of lawyears and I salute them for choosing to help the sick ones.

A friend of mine who works for Microsoft went to Seattle last month for a technical training. He stayed in one of the hotels downtown. The training was supposed to start the day after he arrives in Seattle but due to some issues, he was asked to wait a day more. It was his first time in Seattle. He knew nothing about the place, just that it was the populated city in Washington. Since he had nothing to do for the day (canceled training) he went strolling around the city, amusing himself with the beautiful sites to see. As he was on his way to the hotel, he was mugged and hit in the head by two strangers that he was not able to identify.

As I’ve learned about this story from his colleague, I contacted him to know if he’s alright. Fortunately, he was fine. He already reported the incident to the police and it turned out that the muggers we’re identified by a saleslady in a nearby shop. A Seattle injury lawyer is already onto the case.

I was watching the news last night and encountered the phrase “structured settlement”. With the word “settlement”, I immediately associated it with “divorce”. However, I wasn’t satisfied with this mere assumption, so I decided to do research about it. Here’s what I found out:

• Structured Settlement is defined in Wikipedia as “a financial or insurance arrangement, including periodic payments, that a claimant accepts to resolve a personal injury tort claim or to compromise a statutory periodic payment obligation.”
• This is the usual structured settlement procedure: First, an injured party (the claimant) settles a tort suit with the defendant (or its insurance carrier) pursuant to a settlement agreement. This agreement provides that, in exchange for the claimant’s securing the dismissal of the lawsuit, the defendant (or generally its insurer) agrees to make a series of periodic payments over time.
• A structured settlement, according to ExpertLaw, “can provide for payment in pretty much any schedule the parties choose.” That is, settlement may be paid in annual installments over a number of years, or it may be paid in periodic lump sums every few years.
• One of the reasons why a lot of people opt for structured settlement is because of tax avoidance. A structured settlement, with the correct set-up, may significantly reduce the plaintiff’s tax obligations as a result of the settlement. In some cases, it may even be tax-free!