Complex Legal Challenges
Some people are of the notion that if they're injured in a slip or trip and fall at a business, the business is automatically liable for their injuries. The fact of the matter is that in Florida the owner of property can be held liable if someone falls so long as the...
The motto of the United States Coast Guard is "Semper Paratus" which is Latin for "always ready" or "always prepared." When it comes to being prepared for life's challenges, including illness, incapacity, and death, it is wise to be "always prepared." Unfortunately,...
What happens when an item gifted under a Will or Trust is no longer owned at the time of death? Sometimes when estates are being probated or a Trust is being administered, a problem arises because a beneficiary is supposed to receive a specific item of property but...
As an estate planning lawyer, I'm often asked by clients where they should keep their original estate planning documents. Do they need to keep them in a bank safe-deposit box? Generally speaking, my advice is to keep them somewhere safe and accessible but a...
Many times, the term "residue" will be used in a person's Will or Trust. So what is the residue of an estate and what is covered by the term? In the administration of a Will or Trust after a person dies, there are certain things that are paid out or...
As an estate planning lawyer, one of my principal objectives in drafting a client's Will or Trust is to name the beneficiaries which the client wants to receive their estate. Often this will be a spouse or children and in some cases, other family members. What happens...
As an estate planning lawyer, I always recommend that clients have both a Power of Attorney for Healthcare and a Durable Power of Attorney for non-medical matters. In each of those documents, the client is authorizing a person or persons to make decisions and act on...
If you are the parent of a minor child, there are two crucial decisions which you should make and incorporate into your estate plan in order to protect your child. The first involves who will raise your child if you die and the second is who will be in charge of the...
As an estate planning attorney, it is common to see new clients come in to our office that have some old estate documents in place. It is equally common that those documents are often grossly out of date and would cause problems if there were a death or other...
When people are injured in an accident, they often want to reach a settlement of their claim as soon as possible. From a human standpoint, this makes a lot of sense. However, from a legal standpoint, an injured person should normally not settle until they reach "MMI"...