FINRA Awards California Elder Financial Abuse Victim $1.6 Million in Fraud Case

Earlier this year, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel awarded a senior investor $1.6 million in an elder financial fraud case involving a California company.

The company, Stock Cross Financial Services Inc. had been accused of financial misconduct. The senior citizen alleged that the company recommended unsuitable and highly risky investment opportunities. Besides, Stock Cross encouraged the plaintiff to leverage the equity in his home and invest the capital.

The fraud was continuous, and left the citizens with almost nothing left to defraud. Stock Cross and its officers managed to relieve the senior of almost all his assets, including his emergency and medical cash reserves, the equity in his home, and even the money received by the insurer to replace his car.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel has awarded the senior citizen $320,000 in compensatory damages. He has also been awarded $960,000 in elder abuse damages, $234,000 in legal fees, as well as other costs.

San Francisco elder financial fraud lawyers find that senior citizens are often victims of all kinds of fraudulent schemes. Most often these schemes involve fraudulent sales of securities. Very often, such fraud involves unsuitable recommendations or fraudulent advice made to the senior citizen, over trading, misrepresentation, and failure to diversify investments. Besides, brokers may give poor advice about employee stock options. Senior citizens may also be at risk of financial abuse through the sale of unsuitable variable and other deferred annuities. They may also be susceptible to pension fund fraud, mismanagement of funds, negligent supervision and brokerage malpractice.

In order to prevent abuse, it's important that senior citizens keep themselves updated on the state of their finances and their portfolio regularly. Keep a lookout especially closely for any loss of income or savings, or any poor investments.

California Criminal Justice Team Recommends Women's Prison Reform

It’s not a secret to San Diego criminal defense attorneys that the criminal justice system in our state is seriously flawed. As a result, we have the largest prison system in the world, and are now under pressure to reduce the size of our prison population. A big part of dealing with prison reform in California has to do with rethinking our approach to the incarceration of women. According to California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris’ transition team, not only is our current approach to the incarceration of women financially ruinous, but it also has serious social consequences because of the fact that there are women and families involved.

The transition team comprises of law enforcement and social justice leaders in California. According to the proposals that they have put forward, widespread and unnecessary incarceration of women in California's prisons has contributed to a troubling social structure. Incarcerated women who have no contact with their children are more likely to become repeat offenders. It's a vicious cycle, because the children of such women often end up becoming offenders themselves. Approximately 75% of the 9,500 women in California's prisons are mothers. Besides, the state has the dubious position of having the largest number of female prisoners in the country.

This focus on extensive and widespread incarceration has been financially devastating for the state. The state of California spends about $52,000 to keep one woman in prison for a period of one year. Besides, social services costs for children of female inmates amount to approximately $56 million annually.

For too long, the criminal justice system in California has promoted the extensive and widespread incarceration of women, even for low-level offenses. Most of the women who are currently in California's prisons were convicted of lower-level and nonviolent offenses. In fact, there are studies to indicate that these women are more often the victims of crimes, than the perpetrators of it. Four out of every 10 women in prison in California have been the victims of physical or sexual abuse.

How Do Courts in California Calculate Child Support?

Under California's laws, both parents have an obligation to support children. However in the case of a divorce or legal separation, one parent can request the other party for child support payments.

Typically, child support will be calculated based on the following factors:

• It will include the number of children who are involved. Children will include minor children, and child support payments will cover the children until they turn 18 and graduate from high school, or 19 if they are still in high school.
• It will also depend on the amount of time that each parent takes responsibility for the child.
• Obviously, it also depends on the gross income of the parent. Gross income will include not just salaries, but also commissions, royalties, bonuses, rent, wages, pensions, and annuities. If one of the parents has been awarded workers’ compensation benefits, Social Security benefits or disability insurance benefits, then child support payments will include these factors too.
• The parents’ tax liabilities, including the number of dependents, exclusions, deductions and credits are factored in.
• California's child support laws also take into consideration FICA, mandated retirement benefits, health insurance, child support that was paid out by the parent before the court order, and other child support or spousal support payments.
• Besides, parents must also provide additional child support in cases where they will be expected to provide training for employment skills, to cover the special needs of the child, to cover travel costs for visitation or to cover the cost of uninsured healthcare.
• The parent’s financial situation, including medical expenses, catastrophic financial losses, as well as the living expenses of children with another spouse who live with the parent, must also be considered.

However, in order to fully understand how these laws could impact the payments you receive, it's important to speak with an experienced Pasadena child support lawyer.