Stupid Law Stuff
- Defeasible Interests
- Fee Tail
- In Kansas, they allow first party negligent entrustment actions. So if you loan your car to someone who you know has had his license suspended and he gets in an accident, the driver entrustee can sue you for negligently loaning your car to him.
- The three types of patents are utility patents, covering functional things; design patents, covering hybrid functional and ornamental designs; and plant patents, covering plants that reproduce asexually. Plants that reproduce sexually are covered by the Plant Variety Protection Act, not patent.
- The Illinois state estate tax, instead of having a progressive formula, has 22 separate trial calculations based on a 1958 federal law which was done away with in the 2001 Tax Act. This makes it extremely difficult to calculate, so everyone just has to rely on the attorney general's calculator. Good luck estimating what someone might owe in your head. Then there's no tax until $4 million, when the first ~$1 million taxable is suddenly taxed at a huge rate, which then drops precipitously, making it a very regressive tax. Then it gradually increases jaggedly like someone was asked to make a slightly-increasing tax but he never heard of exponents. Unlike federally, it's not portable, making planning a pointless pain; and there's no gift tax, so you can largely just give it all away right before you die and pay no tax.