 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
March 30, 2012
In 1999, in the heat of the dot.com boom, I invented a court system for the internet, www.icourthouse.com. iCourthouse gave individuals and attorneys the power to post their cases online with evidence and arguments, and have hundreds or thousands of internet jurors decide their case. The legal community and popular press took notice. It turned out, however, that solving disputes needs to be a messier, more human process than the web could deliver circa 1999. Now I’m here all these years later, wiser as a lawyer, but alas, not an internet tycoon.
Here in 2012, legal disputes still abound. Humans are as emotional, irrational, and contentious as ever. People are still being ripped off, or dishonest, or greedy. Achieving justice or fair compromise is hard work that technology can help, but not eliminate.
March 15, 2012
You have probably read about the privacy perils of being too free and easy about your posts and privacy settings on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google + , etc. Let me give you another caution: legal downsides if you have legal adversaries, such as business enemies or competitors, unhappy spouses or ex-spouses, employers, or the State in criminal matters.
Several of my legal colleagues and I recently gave a Continuing Legal Education seminar on this topic to a select group of trial lawyers and judges. Our findings were stunning. Your social media contacts can be, and are, being mined for information by savvy legal opponents. Character (or anti-character) witnesses. Substance abuse. Affluent lifestyles inconsistent with cries of poverty. Active lifestyles inconsistent with pleas of disability or pain. Associations with felons or persons you’re not married to. The point is, with social media you can be creating a record that may come back to haunt you at the worst time possible. Just don’t post anything you wouldn’t want to explain under oath in a court of law.
March 9, 2012
Pick up any law journal and you will find the flavor-of-the-month mediator’s article begging counsel and clients to prepare for mediation. Flip through the pages and nod sagely—you have certainly heard it all before. So why is this theme repeated month after month? Could it be because it hasn’t really sunk in?
There are three aspects of preparation for a mediation: knowing your case, knowing your opponent’s case, and speaking frankly with your client about both of these.
We can assume that you have done your homework, know your law, and have made a completely realistic evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of both sides. (Right?) And you have told your clients to prepare for a full day, not to schedule a doctor’s appointment for one in the afternoon, and to bring snacks.
We also hope that you have told them that the other side will not agree with them, that there is no winning a mediation, and that they will have to change their position substantially in order to settle the case.
No? You didn’t tell them that last part?
March 2, 2012
Litigators often tell me how much they would love to have my job. It seems simple and stress-less—go from room to room with messages, and take no responsibility for the final result. It’s true—when you leave, your case leaves with you. But while you’re there…
Mediators use a full range of tools to help parties and their attorneys settle the cases they bring in. We evaluate the law and the facts, assess probabilities, emphasize the downsides, counsel and console, and try to persuade opponents of the rightness of your cause. Sound familiar? That’s because we all do the same thing. The difference is that the mediator does it for all sides of the case, with minimum information, in a hyper-condensed time frame, all while keeping up a running patter of conversation and maintaining a Teflon® exterior.
The next time you tell the mediator to “go tell them why they’re wrong,” think about the fantastic success you had telling “them” that, and with the luxury of your own research, analysis, and access to all the information, not just the highly filtered version you gave the mediator. Do you really wish you had my job? No worries, you already have it!
November 27, 2009
The California Legislature recently made changes to the Probate Code which greatly restrict the courts’ ability to enforce “no contest” clauses in wills and trusts that became irrevocable after January 1, 2001. Starting on January 1, 2010, the courts will only be able to enforce these clauses where an heir or beneficiary makes a challenge on grounds including forgery, lack of proper execution, lack of capacity, menace, duress, fraud, or undue influence “without probable cause”, and where a no contest clause specifically allows a challenge to the transfer of property or a creditor’s claim.
This change greatly simplifies what has been a complex and burdensome area of the law here in California. In general, it means that those who have good reason to believe that a will or trust is the result of fraud, undue influence or other misconduct will be able to bring their claims in court free of the threat of a no contest clause.
At Long Law Offices, we have seen an increase in cases of financial elder abuse and undue influence connected to wills and trusts. The new law will end up punishing and discouraging the bad guys. It is always great when the courthouse doors open a little wider for those who have been wronged. We look forward to using these sharpened tools to help our clients in the new year and beyond.
We all know that the law pervades our lives, whether you view that condition as oppressive or reassuring, restrictive or liberating. Ideally, the converse should also be true: our needs and aspirations and diverse human foibles should be recognized when law is made and always when it is applied to real people in the real world. Understanding this interplay between law and life is key to our practice at Long Law Offices. Whether our clients need help with a legal dispute or need the ounce of prevention that general legal counsel can provide, we mesh our legal experience with their unique needs and goals.
We will be using this blog to highlight some of the interesting and thought-provoking ways the worlds of law and life intersect. The topics may involve real estate, business, trusts and estates, mediation and alternative dispute resolution (ADR), or anything else currently of interest in the law and our lives. We hope you’ll come by often to see what’s new.
|
|
|
|
|