California Form Interrogatory 15.1 (an “interrogatory” is just a question) is the most important interrogatory to serve on your opposing party in a lawsuit. And the law requires they answer it fully and completely. Yet, so many attorneys refuse to answer the question properly.
A typical use of 15.1 follows:
You file a Trust Contest
Several weeks ago we announced we were offering to draft California Wills for free to members of our community. We were worried that we would be inundated with requests for the free Wills. But we were wrong. We only received one e-mail accepting our offer to draft a free California Will.
So, we’ve decided to
Fifty years ago, most assets passed from an individual who died to his or her family by way of Probate (by Will or Intestacy both of which require Probate). Probate is a strict, expensive and time-consuming Court process that must be completed before assets can ultimately being transferred to family members.
But today, we own
Access to legal information does not always require an expensive subscription to services like Westlaw and LexisNexis. You can obtain legal information for free at the following sites:
Albertson & Davidson’s Top Free Legal Links:
We plan to have guest posts from time to time on our blog. Our first guest post, by Richard D. Cleary and Thomas E. McCurnin, can be viewed by clicking here. Messrs. Cleary and McCurnin surmise that a recent case decided by the Court of Appeal, Donahue v. Donahue, may have far-reaching
Here’s a situation we see often: Sally dutifully creates a California Trust, and at the same time signs a “general property assignment” to the Trust, which states in effect, “I, Sally, hereby assign, transfer and convey to myself as trustee of my trust, all my right, title and interest in all property owned by me
The concept of “undue influence” can be used to invalidate a Will or Trust. What is undue influence? According to the California legislature “undue influence” is the taking of an unfair advantage of another’s weakness of mind. In a word: coercion. For example, a caretaker befriends an elderly person and takes over the elder’s financial
Here are my top 10 books every trial attorney should read once a year:
1. Rules of the Road, Second Edition, by Rick Friedman & Patrick Malone
This is likely the most influential book I’ve come across in my time as a lawyer. Read it, and then read it again. I use the
As a follow-up to yesterday’s blog post, the House of Representatives passed a package extending the Bush-era tax cuts for two more years and substantially revising the estate tax.
Writing for the Non Profit Times, Mark Hrywna reports that had Congress not acted, the estate tax would have returned to its 2001 rates beginning
How does the estate tax affect you? Likely, it does not affect a majority of us in the last few days of 2010. But it may begin to impact more of us, beginning January 1, 2011, if Congress does not pass the current tax-cut extension package recently negotiated by President Obama and the Republicans.
Writing