Scenario: for the Better Part of a Decade, Della Tarpinian

question 253

Multiple Choice

Scenario: For the better part of a decade, Della Tarpinian has been locked in a Kafkaesque battle with a trade association she doesn't belong to, the Kentucky Bar Association. She's been fined $5,000 and ordered to pay the costs of her investigation, for violating rules that the average non-lawyer might find maddeningly vague and hard to understand, such as: "A person is guilty of unlawful practice of law when, without a license issued by the Supreme Court, he engages in the practice of law." That one tripped up Tarpinian, 53, who runs a small document-preparation firm in Owensboro, Kentucky, specializing in uncontested divorces, wills, and other simple legal matters. After a lengthy investigation, the Kentucky Bar determined that Tarpinian's clients couldn't possibly have figured out how to fill out the paperwork they filed in court without her coaching them behind the scenes. What surprised Tarpinian-and many other document preparers around the country-is that the Bar could drag her before the state Supreme Court and have her fined for, as she sees it, competing against its members. Especially since a jury acquitted Tarpinian of similar charges in a 2004 criminal trial, after less than half an hour of deliberations. (Source: "Non-Lawyers Find It Hard Avoid Breaking Bar's Vague Rules," Forbes, July 25, 2011.)
-Refer to the scenario above.Which condition of a perfectly competitive market could most directly be hampered in the market for legal advice?

• A) Each seller produces a negligible fraction of the total market supply.
• B) Each seller produces an identical good or service.
• C) Free entry to and exit from the market.
• D) Preparation services satisfies all the condition for perfect competition.

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Definitions:

Variable Costing

A costing method that includes only variable production costs (materials, labor, and variable manufacturing overhead) in product costs, excluding fixed overhead.

Net Operating Income

The company's profit remaining after operating costs are removed, but prior to the deduction of taxes and interest.

Fixed Manufacturing Overhead

Fixed manufacturing overhead includes the costs associated with manufacturing that do not vary with the level of production, such as rent, salaries, and utility costs.

Ending Inventory

The total value of all the merchandise, raw materials, work in process, and finished goods that a company has at the end of its fiscal period.