Imagine this: a system where every party fully discloses the facts, witnesses, and documents they have so each side can fairly evaluate their case and prepare for trial. That was the primary purpose of the Discovery Act being passed into law—to make trials more fair and evidence more transparent. Unfortunately, the reality of gathering evidence […]
Expert opinions do not come cheaply. In fact, an expert may be one of the most expensive parts of your Trust or Will lawsuit. In part, the expense is due to the fact that you are hiring a professional (either a doctor, CPA, lawyer, or financial planner) and good ones don’t come cheap. In part, […]
How do you work with an expert witness? Very carefully. There’s two types of experts in the legal world: consulting experts and testifying experts. Consulting experts are those people who look at the facts and give you advice on how best to proceed in your legal case. Consulting experts can tell you where to look […]
There are more expert witnesses than you know what to do with in most cases. In Trust and Will litigation cases, we usually focus on the most relevant experts, which comes down to mental issues, financial issues, fiduciary issues, and accounting/asset tracing issues. For mental issues we turn to physicians who are trained at examining […]
Generally, estate planning attorneys who draft California Trusts and Wills can only be sued for legal malpractice by the client who hired them. But there is a narrow exception to this general rule where an estate planning attorney’s mistake harms “intended beneficiaries” of the Trust or Will—even though the intended beneficiaries were never the attorney’s […]
What if you could file a simple motion at the outset of a lawsuit and have a court decide the case in your favor? Sounds good to me. But ending a lawsuit quickly is not as easy as you may think. In part, that’s because of our Constitutional Right to Due Process, which means each […]
A motion for summary judgment is a technical device used for asking a court to rule on your case before conducting a full-blown trial. Summary judgment can only be used to decide questions of law—not fact. For example, if everyone agrees that a joint account was titled in the name of two people, then the […]
So what is your lawsuit exit strategy? You really only have two choices: go to trial or settle. Trial is hard, settlement is easy, but you are entitled to a trial, not a settlement. Trial is the ultimate dispute resolution provider. You are entitled to trial as a matter of law and the judge or […]
If you are entering into a lawsuit in our justice system, you really need to adjust your expectations. This is not a television show or movie about the law that will get to trial and resolved (in your favor of course) in two hours or less. Real life is different. Your lawsuit is likely to […]
Lawsuits are expensive. Lawyers cost money, the court charges fees, expert witnesses are expensive, even subpoenaing bank or medical records can cost a small fortune. There are times when someone’s rights may not be protected because there simply is not enough at issue to justify the cost of litigation. It can be a shame. But […]
