In January 2018, a judge in a trade secrets case brought by Perceptron granted the defendants’ motions for recovery of their attorney fees (see Note 17, of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, “Commitments and Contingencies” for further discussion relating to this matter). A charge in the amount of $675,000 was recorded as a liability in the second quarter of fiscal 2018. The Company appealed this court decision. In January 2019, the Company settled with the defendants and ended our appeal in return for a net payment due to them in the amount of $66,000. As a result, the accrual was eliminated in the second quarter of fiscal 2019.

In the second quarter of fiscal 2020, the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer resigned and the Company had a reduction in force in the U.S. The resignation and the action to reduce workforce resulted in an accrual of $471,000 of severance expense in the quarter ended December 31, 2019. In February 2020, the Company committed to a financial improvement plan that reduced global headcount by approximately 7%. The plan was implemented to re-align the Company’s fixed costs and its near-to-mid-term expectations for the Company’s business. As a result, in the third quarter of fiscal 2020, the Company recorded a charge for severance and related costs of $590,000. At June 30, 2020, the remaining balance of the accruals was $148,000.

See Note 6 and Note 7, “Goodwill” and “Intangible Assets”, respectively, for a discussion of a triggering event caused by the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions occurring during fiscal 2020.

The charges recorded as Severance, Impairment and Other Charges are as follows (in thousands):

	Fiscal Years Ended June 30,
	2020		2019
Severance and Related Costs	$	1,061	$	135
Court Award / Settlement		-		(609	)
Impairments of Goodwill and Intangible Assets		2,246		7,404
Total	$	3,307	$	6,930

Severance expense for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020 was associated with headcount reductions at our U.S. (expense of $733,000), Italy (expense of $235,000) and Germany (expense of $93,000) locations.

Severance expense for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2019 was associated with headcount reductions at our U.S. (expense of $125,000) and Germany (expense of $10,000) locations.

The following table reconciles the activity for the Reserve for Restructuring and Other Charges (in thousands):

	2020			2019
Balance at beginning of year	$	44		$	675
Accruals - Severance Related		1,061			135
Accruals / Adjustments - Court Award / Settlement		-			(609	)
Payments		(957	)		(157	)
Balance at end of year	$	148		$	44