The following articles were written by William Stolberg for the Florida Bar Journal. Please choose an article below to read online.
Extortion: What Your Client Wantsby William H. Stolberg and David L. Hirschberg
Freezing Your Assets Off: A Powerful Remedy on Thin Ice by William H. Stolberg and Jane Hawkins
Alimony for the Heiress: Imputing Income to Assets by William H. Stolberg and Jane Hawkins
Grandchild Support by William Stolberg and and Jane Hawkins
A Serious Penalty for Perjury by William H. Stolberg and Kyle D. Pence
The Mediation Privilege - An Impermeable Wall: The title of this article is a misnomer. The mediation privilege is more than a mere privilege. It is actually a statutory prohibition on the admissibility of certain evidence in judicial proceedings. The difference is more than academic, and especially so in family law cases where the distinction can set a trap for the unwary.
Tax-Effecting Marital Property - The Wild Card in Valuation: The equitable distribution process of identifying, valuing and distributing the marital assets and liabilities continues too be plagued by the problem of the tax effects that are an inherent part of the undertaking. Since our law has evolved to require equal distribution in most cases, the determinations of the asset values used in arriving at the equality can become a most hotly contested issue. Like goodwill, the tax-effecting of assets is another wild card in the valuation process. Take the simple example of a marital estate which contains $100.000 in cash and a $100,000 IRA. If one asset goes to each, then equality has not been achieved since the IRA is essentially pre-tax money while the cash is not.
Sealing the File - Closure in Dissolutions Proceedings: A divorce is an intensely personal and private life experience, and nothing is truer than the age old adage that "criminal lawyers see bad people at their best and divorce lawyers see good people at their worst." Few people want their private lives aired in the public realm, and the problem of protecting litigants (and their families) from untoward exposure takes on added dimensions if the client enjoys high public recognition. It only takes a brief jaunt through the checkout line at the supermarket to see how even the most insignificant happenings in the lives of public persons can be exploited by the highly profitable tabloid press. Even when parties are unknowns, the dissolutions action itself, because of peculiar legal issues or a human interest slant, may generate novel grist for the public mill, and subject ordinary clients to 15 highly undesirable minute of Andy Warhol fame. Public image and community reputation have value for persons at all levels; the airing of private relationships and finances can have devastating effects on clients' lives.