These reconciliations adjust the related GAAP financial measures to exclude stock-based compensation, amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, other acquisition-related costs, a contribution expense, a legal settlement charge, and the associated tax impact of these items, where applicable.

ENGADGET: NVIDIA posts Q4 2013 earnings: $1.1 billion in revenue, $174 million in profit

Instead, the court applied the long-standing principle that it is the origin of the claim, rather than the consequences to the taxpayer from a failure to defeat the claim, that drives whether a settlement payment is a deductible business expense.

FORBES: Tax Court: Corporation's $2.3 Million Settlement Payment For Wrongful Death Of Shareholder's Girlfriend Was Not A "Business Expense"

Since then, the problems and expense of reinventing foreign-exchange settlement have often seemed greater than the putative benefits.

ECONOMIST: Foreign exchange

"Bank of America denies the allegations and is entering into this settlement to eliminate the uncertainties, burden and expense of further protracted litigation, " it said in a statement.

BBC: Bank of America pays $2.4bn to settle Merrill Lynch lawsuit

Ted Frank of the Center for Class Action Fairness has won another challenge to a settlement that would have benefited lawyers at the expense of their purported clients, investors.

FORBES: Easterbrook Strikes Again, Slamming Flimsy Derivative Suit

He said he was open to the idea of Wales raising some of the money it spends but "it must not be at the expense of a needs-based settlement which is vital for Wales".

BBC: Silk commission debate part one

Ex-miners' union president Arthur Scargill has reached an out-of-court settlement with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) over expense claims.

BBC: Arthur Scargill

In such cases, plaintiff lawyers typically swamp a company with claims, then negotiate a settlement that steers most of the bankruptcy proceeds to themselves at the expense of other creditors, including future asbestos victims.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Securities class actions have been under strong and periodically successful attack by critics who say it is a lucrative industry for plaintiff lawyers that rarely rewards individual shareholders, or does so at the expense of the current investors in a company that pays a big settlement (the cases almost never go to trial.) Last year, in Morrison vs.

FORBES: Supreme Court Rejects Tougher Rule For Securities Class Actions

Such a settlement would be tidy and would not involve the sale or forfeit of any intellectual property to other firms at the expense of shareholders.

ECONOMIST: The Microsoft case