J. Michael Combs, Attorney at Law

J. Michael Combs, Attorney at Law J. Michael Combs is a certified specialist in the practice of Bankrutpcy Law.

08/25/2022

J. Michael Combs has retired from the practice of law.

08/10/2020

In all of the confusion around the Covid-19 many of you probably have forgotten about the deadline for obtaining “REAL I.D.’s”. The Real I.D Act as you will recall requires that you submit proof of citizenship in order to obtain a driver’s license. While this is not an absolute requirement it will be necessary to have such identification if you intend to fly or enter certain federal facilities.

The good news is that the deadline for obtaining Real I.D. has been extended by the federal government to October 2021. So basically everyone who has not yet obtained such an I.D. has another year to get one.

In that regard Congress is likely to amend the Real I.D. Act to allow electronic versions of state-issued I.D.’s including driver’s licenses.

I assume that you can carry such an I.D. on your phone or other mobile device as opposed to keeping a plastic I.D. in your wallet.

01/02/2020

I’ve previously written about the Bill in Congress changing various aspects of IRA’s and 401-k’s. This bill was called the SECURE ACT. That bill was signed into law on December 20 by President Trump.

Broadly speaking the SECURE ACT affects IRA’s and 401-k’s in three ways.

The first way it will affect most IRA’s and 401-k’s is contributions. Presently contributions cannot be made after age 70-1/2. That restriction has now been withdrawn. So after 2020 there will be no age limitation at all regarding contributions.

The second broad change that the SECURE ACT makes is regarding required minimum distributions (RMD’s). Previously whether you wanted to or not, you had to take a required minimum distribution from your retirement account at age 70-1/2. That age has been extended to 72. This does not apply to people who have already turned 70-1/2. It only applies to people who turn 70-1/2 in 2020 or later.

The third broad change that the SECURE ACT makes concern the post-death required minimum distributions taken by non-spouse beneficiaries. Basically a non-spouse beneficiary now has to drain the inherited IRA within ten (10) years.

Obviously this is a complicated bill and there’s a lot more in that bill than I go into here. So if you have any kind of retirement plan you should talk to the person in charge of that plan ASAP.

08/05/2019

The recent issue of Kiplinger’s Letter indicated that there is one word that describes the present housing situation in the United States: shortages.

1. Shortage of homes for sale.
2. Shortages of buildable lots for new homes.
3. Shortages of construction workers.
4. And most of all shortages of affordable homes for first-time buyers.

According to Kiplinger builders will start to embrace smaller houses.

Governments will respond primarily in two ways. First rethinking zoning laws so as to allow more units so that lots that previously required single-family homes may have multiple homes built. Secondly look for cities to allow the addition of accessory dwelling units, think mother-in-law apartments and backyard cottages.

08/01/2019

Upcoming Changes to IRA’s

Something called the SECURE Act which stands for Setting Every Community Up For Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019, passed the House of Representatives 419 to 3. In other words it is popular with both Republicans and Democrats. It has to go through the Senate of course and changes will probably be made but it is likely that this Bill will become a law shortly. So here’s what it does:

1. It repeals the cap for contributions for traditional IRA’s. Thus it repeals the age cap for traditional IRA contributions. Currently this age cap is 70-1/2. It is my understanding that the House Bill eliminates that cap altogether.
2. The Bill also increases the starting age for required minimum distributions from retirement accounts. Presently you must begin receiving contributions from your IRA at 70-1/2. That required distribution age will be raised to 72 in the House Bill.
3. As everyone knows an IRA has a beneficiary, almost like life insurance but not exactly. If you r heir on an IRA is anyone other than your spouse then the new House Bill requires that that heir must make all withdrawals from the IRA within ten (10) years.

Now this is just the House Bill and as I said it has to go to the Senate so nothing is passed yet. Still with a strong bipartisan support in the House I think some version of this Bill will pass and it will pass quickly. So please be alert.

07/15/2019

Internet Gambling in Tennessee

A little bit more on Internet gambling in Tennessee. I have not had an opportunity to research the recently passed law any further. However I did turn on my car radio the other day, I keep it tuned to sports radio, and they were interviewing someone whom I assume knew what he was talking about. I guess I must have come into the middle of the interview, but basically the man said that he did not anticipate that there would be any actual bets placed until January 2020.

Of course this is only for internet sports gambling. He indicated that the law required that the person placing the bet be 21 years of age and that the bet be placed in Tennessee. He seemed to think that that would take quite a bit of infrastructure by the companies authorized to offer internet sports gambling in Tennessee. And he didn’t think that infrastructure could be completed before January 2020.

06/28/2019

As a follow-up on my new laws to take effect on July 1st, I thought I would mention briefly the sports gambling bill.

It does take effect July 1st although I don’t know if the practical aspects, that is the actual betting, will go into effect at that time. That law sets up a way for internet gambling organizations to legally collect sports bets from Tennessee residents. I would imagine that the administrative aspects of this law will have to be established first before the actual betting can take place but I’m not absolutely sure on this. There’s been remarkably little discussion about that.

So the point I want to make here is that while the law does take effect on July 1st I would not necessarily try to place any bets at that time.

06/28/2019

As most of my fellow Tennesseans know most new laws passed by the Legislature take effect on July 1st each year. That is because July 1st is the beginning of the fiscal year for the State. There are many new laws of course but two of them will probably gather the most interest.

The first of those deals with the law prohibiting holding a cell phone in your hand while you are driving. For those of you with newer vehicles that’s no problem because you can connect your cell phone via Blue Tooth to your car sound system. However if you have an older car like I do, that’s not an option. So what do you do?

There are two options. Option number one is to have your sound system fitted with Blue Tooth. Any automobile sound shop can do that. I do not know the cost.

The other option is to obtain a Blue Tooth device to wear while you are driving which I saw in the Sprint Store the other day. It costs $125.00. Basically it fits around your neck and when your phone rings or when you make a call you can pop the ear bud which is attached into your ear or of course you can leave it there all the time. And of course the advantage is that this device is portable.

05/03/2019

Medical News

According to the most recent version of the Kiplinger Letter, we can expect a universal flu vaccine in approximately five (5) years. Perhaps slightly longer.

Also we can expect greater use of artificial intelligence in the medical industry. Specifically expect AI to be used for such things as analyzing x-rays and detecting an impending stroke. Also you can expect AI to be used to analyzing the risk of individuals committing su***de. By analyzing Social Media posts, AI will be used to predict su***des.

05/02/2019

Economic Update

According to the most recent version of the Kiplinger Letter we can expect by the end of this year (2019) that GDP will be up 2.6%. This is down from a 2.9% total growth rate in 2018.

Inflation in 2019 is at 2.2%. This is up from 1.9% at the end of 2018.

Unemployment should end 2019 at 3.6%. This is down from 3.8% currently.

04/18/2019

NFL Draft

As most of you know the NFL Draft will be held in downtown Nashville the week of April 22nd. For all practical purposes downtown Nashville will be closed. I shudder to think what a nightmare traffic will be. Security will be high and entry to downtown will be limited to certain streets and ladies, or men for that matter, can only carry clear see-through bags. There will also be about 400 police officers in the immediate area.

So if you need legal help then don’t think about seeing a lawyer downtown. My office is located at the corner of Woodmont Boulevard and Harding Road in West Nashville/Belle Meade. For those of you familiar with the area I am right behind the Shell Station on Woodmont Boulevard. I should be in all week and will be happy to see you.

Please call 615-255-7448 for an appointment.

04/18/2019

iPhone Tips

One of the big problems I have as an attorney is that when I ask clients f or copies of documents they will take pictures of them with their cell phones and send me those pictures.

This creates basically two problems. The first problem is that I cannot print out and read those documents. They essentially print out black. Not blank, but black. Furthermore I have no way of forwarding those documents to the Trustees or to the Court because I cannot convert them to PDF.

The second problem is simply focusing the camera correctly to get the entire document in the picture. So even if I don’t have to print out the document that I cannot read and frequently I cannot get essential information off the document because the picture is not centered correctly.

This is a common problem many lawyers have. I was discussing it with some in Court the other day and one indicated that if you had an iPhone you could take a picture that was immediately translated to PDF. This is done as follows:

1. Pull up the “notes” app on your iPhone.
2. Access the “pencil and paper” sign indicating that you wish to write a new note.
3. Click on the “+” sign.
4. Click on the box that says “scan documents”.
5. Take your picture and forward it. It should be in PDF.

Now if you don’t want to do this or you don’t have an iPhone there are a number of apps out there that in effect allow you to take PDF pictures. I have downloaded onto my iPhone the Adobe. I haven’t used it yet but since Adobe is the creator of PDF I assumed it works wells.

Address

102 Woodmont Boulevard Suite 200
Nashville, TN
37205

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

Telephone

(615) 255-7448

Website

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