Basic Counsel & Advice
Getting involved with a new idea, or facing a new problem, can cause apprehension and fear. You remember the first time you drove a car in traffic? Do you remember signing your first apartment lease? Do you remember buying your first home?
Have you ever contemplated leaving your job and starting your own business? Are you worried about something that one of your children is getting into? You might even have a concern for yourself, or a friend or relative, as to what you should be doing if a marriage is not going well.
What if you don't like the spouse of one of your children and you are wondering what to do about a gift of money or property that you want to give to your child? You want to see your gift protected from claims of your child's spouse. Can you make a gift, perhaps as part of your estate planning, in a way that it will not be subject to being taken by the spouse you do not particularly like in the event of a divorce?
If your brother-in-law asks you to become a silent partner in a business he wants to start, and all you have to do is agree to sign some paperwork, how do you approach that situation? If a friend or relative asks you to cosign a car loan what are your risks?
There are so many times that we are faced with questions that we have never faced before. Wouldn't it be good to talk to someone who has had experience with these situations, whether that experience is directly or through helping someone else? And wouldn't it be good if the person was a professional who understood what the legal impact might be on you, your family, and your life generally? And wouldn’t it be good to be able to have a discussion on a confidential basis with a trusted advisor?
From time to time on this website, and in a blog and I'm starting, I will try to provide some examples of where people have made missteps because they have not had the proper advice or an experienced person in their corner.
We will talk about the woman who borrowed money and in addition to signing a note gave a right of first refusal to her private lender on a valuable property as an added incentive that he give her the loan.
We'll talk about the three young people who together leased an apartment, and what happened when two of them moved out. What should the lease have said from the view of the landlord and what agreement should their have been among the three tenants?
We'll talk about the purchase of the home that depended on its water supply from the well in the neighbors yard.
What happened in the case where a man bought a house and soon after he moved in he received a notice that the deck, a major feature of the home in his backyard, had been built without proper permits.
We'll talk a little bit about the man who had a falling out with his daughter and decided he would rather give his estate to neighbors who had been kind to him during a long period of time when his daughter ignored him. How was that gift protected so that it would not be set aside.
When their son was told that his girlfriend was pregnant and he didn't want to marry her what, if any, were his responsibilities? Did he have to marry this girl? Did his parent have any responsibility toward the girl or her family? Could he insist that she have the child or not have the child?
A young man driving from his home to college was stopped for speeding and found to have more than a minimal amount of marijuana in the trunk of his car. What would the impact be on his possible career if he and his family planned that he was to take over his father's professional practice?
These are all areas and examples we can talk about in more detail but they are certainly examples where educated, experienced, advice and help would not only be valuable, but in many cases priceless. We are happy to sit with our clients and provide advice, as we have done in these situations, on a confidential basis, for reasonably minimal cost in relation to the situations.