About Doug Mentes, Esq.
Douglas Mentes is an alum of Drake University with a degree in journalism, who has covered news in Washington, D.C., Minneapolis and Salt Lake City. He has a law degree from William Mitchell College of Law and ran his own law firm for more than 10 years in St. Paul, Minnesota, earning designation as a Super Lawyers Rising Star. He practiced in the areas of family law, real estate and probate, handling several successful appeals. He currently covers bankruptcy law for Thomson Reuters.
Articles written by Doug Mentes, Esq.
What to Do If You Suspect Housing Discrimination
Housing discrimination can be very hard to judge, as a landlord might have a valid reason for denying a tenant’s application to rent or enforcing a lease provision. Many times, this conduct is not discrimination. But often, there is no way to be sure. Thus, rental applicants, tenants, and homebuyers are forced to act on their suspicions to enforce the law. If you have a suspicion your application was wrongfully denied or that lease terms are being enforced differently on you compared to other …
How To Respond to a Rent Escrow Action
There may be nothing more important for rental property owners who lease to residential tenants than maintaining their property and quickly responding to tenant repair concerns. This is in part because Minnesota landlord-tenant law protects tenants from sub-standard housing by allowing tenants to bring a rent escrow action. A rent escrow is a simple, low-cost court process for tenants to get needed repairs completed when a landlord refuses. Landlords will want to avoid situations in which a …
How Can I Legally Smoke Marijuana in California?
As of January 2018, it’s legal to smoke marijuana or cannabis products for recreational use in the state of California. This is good news for the many residents and potential tourists to the state. However, there are still many cannabis laws in place that restrict the use of THC in California. Residents and tourists must understand the marijuana laws or they put themselves at risk of not only a bad trip, but arrest. Who Can Smoke Recreational Marijuana? Under current California …
Who Does ERISA Apply To?
What happens if an employer denies benefits to an employee? Or, what if an employee feels their benefits plan is not being managed properly? Often the first line of defense for employees is the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), a 1974 law meant to protect plan participants with benefits. ERISA sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established employee pension, retirement plan and health plans to provide protection for individuals in these plans. ERISA applies to …
Must Investment Brokers Disclose Conflicts of Interest?
In April 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed new rules for securities brokers, which it subsequently adopted in June 2019 and went into effect in June 2020. Most notable among the new rules is Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI), which would apply to brokers when giving investment advice to retail investors. The regulation proposes that broker-dealers “act in the best interest of their retail customers” and not place the broker’s interests ahead of the retail …
Brokers and Advisors Have Different Standards of Care
Individuals and businesses often require advice when they wish to make investments in securities, and finding the right source for that advice is important. Regardless of the source’s job title, it’s important investors understand first and foremost that there are two different levels of care of investment advisers and brokers must provide. These levels are tied to the function of the financial professional — generally, either a broker or advisor. A registered investment advisor (RIA) is …
Can a PAC Accept Contributions From Foreign Citizens?
It’s clear from a quick review of federal election campaign legislation that foreign money is generally prohibited in federal and local elections. The Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) prohibits organizations from knowingly soliciting, accepting, or receiving contributions or donations from foreign nationals for campaign finance. Despite that apparent clarity, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) states that many of the questions it receives involve the rules governing foreign …
How To Form a Super PAC
For any individual or organization that doesn’t want to be hamstrung by federal laws on campaign contribution limits, a super PAC (Political Action Committee) is the answer. What Is a Super PAC? Super PACs resulted from the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decisions in SpeechNow.org v. FEC and Citizens United v. FEC. Their impact on federal campaign spending has exploded since, contributing billions of dollars each election year. Federal law limits the amount of political campaign contributions that …
PACs Can Solicit Campaign Contributions from Employees
Many businesses take part in financing campaigns. In recent years, businesses have formed their own PACs (Political Action Committees) to fund the business’s campaign activities. Those corporate PACs are called Separate Segregated Funds (SSFs). They were created to get around the prohibition of corporate campaign contributions, and are a business’s only direct way to contribute to a campaign. Under certain circumstances, federal election law allows these corporations and their connected …
Tax-Exempt Hurdles: Common Reasons Why Applicants Withdraw
Nonprofit organizations that apply to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for tax-exempt status are not guaranteed approval. Gene Takagi, a California attorney who has spent many years advising and representing nonprofit organizations, says the “IRS does reject applications, but not a huge percentage. A larger percentage are never completed because the IRS has some questions or thinks changes need to be made, and the applicant decides to drop the application instead.” Based on some “rough …
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