MKD LAW

Its March Madness folks, and I think this week we’ll go with a sports theme.  I feel that it is only appropriate to start off with a little knowledge from the NBA Players Association: roughly 60% of players go bankrupt within 5 years of retirement. 

Keep in mind that the MINIMUM salary for a first year player this year is over 450k!

One might wonder how individuals so wealthy end up filing for bankruptcy.

Jason Caffey, a two time NBA champion with the Chicago Bulls, went bankrupt by fathering ten children with eight women and not paying child support.  This seems to be common problem among many NBA players, who appear to be among the most cavalier and reckless when it comes to fathering bastard children.  Frankly, it’s nothing less than shocking.  They are an embarrassment to themselves, their families, and their sport.

Latrell Sprewell did it by turning down a $21 million dollar contract with the words “I’ve got to feed my family,” right before having one of his worst seasons ever.  Keep in mind that this is the player that was suspended for 82 games for choking his own coach and threatening a teammate with a 2×4.

All joking aside, the truth is, some people spend three to six years in school to get a degree in Accounting and Financial Management!  Sometimes talented people make bad decisions, like the ones above, and sometimes people just get unlucky. Either way, navigating a Washington bankruptcy is difficult work, and I would never go at it alone.

In today’s economy, many of our friends and neighbors here in Washington State are having trouble paying their bills and staying current on their mortgage.  Given the current state of our economy and the local housing market, this isn’t a big surprise since most of us don’t make anything close to what NBA players make every year.

If you or someone you know is struggling every month just to pay their monthly bills, and seem to be getting further and further behind, no matter how hard they try, it might be time to consider a fresh start.  If you are considering such an option, might we recommend Washington bankruptcy lawyer David M. Lux.  David is an experienced WA State bankruptcy attorney and can assist you in understanding your legal rights and options.

Many Washington drunk driving arrests occur in a similar way, as a result of someone calling the police.  A “lady” down in Bunnell, Florida went to the Flagler County jail and demanded to have a conjugal visit with a certain inmate.  She was told conjugal visits were not permitted at that jail and she could not visit that inmate as well because she was late to her visitation reservation. 

At some point, the guards become suspicious that the woman had been drinking.  They call the State patrol which ends up finding the woman in her vehicle.  After failing field sobriety tests, she ends up blowing .256 percent – which is over 3 times the legal limit! 

Aside from not drinking and driving, the moral of the story is people will call the cops on you if they think you have been drinking.  Whether it be a ferry worker, a fast food drive in, or a jail guard, chances are they will report you. 

In our experience, thousands of Washington DUI arrests are made every year based on someone calling 9-1-1.  If you have been arrested on a charge of drunk driving in WA State, you need to understand that the potential consequences of a DUI conviction are harsh.  These consequences will include mandatory jail and a mandatory license suspension.  You will also be required to complete any recommended alcohol treatment.

If you or someone you know has been arrested for drunk driving, it’s important to retain an experienced and knowledgeable Washington DUI attorney as soon as possible.  A good drunk driving attorney should be able to attack your WA State DUI charge in several ways.  These include challenging your initial stop, the officer’s probable cause for arrest, your alleged performance on any field sobriety tests taken, as well as the admissibility of your breath test.

Howard Stern is threatening to leave Sirius Inc. This threat probably seems less daunting to Sirius now that it once would have. The company and Stern are getting set to enter into contract talks in 2010.

Sirius Radio Inc. formerly wanted Stern much and so they gave him the most lucrative radio contract ever. The contract was started in 2006 which was a five-year deal and paid him $500 million in cash and stock.

Stern does not have many places left to go, if he wants another huge payday. Now a days free radio stations are struggling with high debts and drops in advertising. As a result, they will probably not able to pay top dollar to get Stern back to the medium where he began.

Sirius closely avoided needing bankruptcy protection by getting $530 million in financing from Liberty Media corp. Now the question for Sirius is how much less they can pay to Stern to still keep him.

Citadel broadcasting Corp., one of the largest radio broadcasting companies, filled for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday to restructure its hefty debt load. The company continues to face declining advertising revenue.

Citadel has 224 radio stations in all major markets that produce news and talk radio programming for 4,000 station affiliates and 8,500 program affiliates.

Turn around specialist Alvarez & Marsal North America was retained by Citadel to help them restructure their hefty debt load.

Under the terms of its bankruptcy reorganization, secured creditors of Citadel will get a share of the new loan and 90 percent of the new common stock in the reorganized company. Citadel board approved the bankruptcy protection filing on Dec. 18.

West valley city Utah – Susan Powell was mysteriously disappeared Dec. 7. She is a 28 year-old mother of two young children. She was last seen a day earlier.

Her husband claims to have gone camping with the couple’s boys, ages 2 and 4 in the middle of the night on Dec. 7. The 4-year-old boy was interviewed by West Valley city police after his mother was reported missing. According to Powell’s husband, the camping trip simply coincided with her disappearance.

The family had filed for bankruptcy in 2007. For the most part, their marriage seems to have been characterized as normal, with the usual ups and downs.

Susan Powell’s family members held a news conference in Washington State where her parents live. In this conference eight members of Susan Powell’s family were present.

More than 500 people across Washington State and throughout the Pacific Northwest have filed claims against Jesuits. These claims vary in severity, and span both decades and wide Claims have been made by Native Alaskan village children to students at Gonzaga Prep. In cases there is some allegation of Jesuits sexually abusing children.

The federal judge imposed a deadline to file allegations by November 30, 2009 while overseeing the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of the Oregon province of the Society of Jesus.

The Jesuits have successfully settled approximately 200 additional sex-abuse claims. Of these, there were 110 claims from Alaska Natives, who settled for $50 million last year.

Washington – The month of October appears to be further evidence that manufacturing sector is beginning to recover.  Orders for many US factories rose in the month of October. This will help support the whole economy.

According the Department of Commerce, orders to US factories rose to 0.6 percent.  Several factors led to this jump, including demand for commercial aircraft and petroleum products.

Nondurable goods rose 1.6 percent as growth in demand for petroleum, plastic, and food products led the way

Although cautious, economists are hoping that the badly hit manufacturing sector is finally beginning to show signs of a recovery after this bruising recession. The second bit of good news is that the Labor Department reported the smallest monthly increase in the unemployment rate since the recession began in December 2007.