Effective Jan. 1, 2014, pursuant to Government Code section 68086, the Court will collect a $30 fee for the services of an official court reporter, for each proceeding lasting one hour or less. The Family Law and Probate divisions will collect the $30 court reporter fee at the time any document is filed that requires …
Ventura County Probate Court Updates Effective January 22, 2013, in the Superior Court, County of Ventura all Elder Abuse cases assigned to and heard in Courtroom 21 will be Assigned to and heard in Courtroom 32 on Tuesdays at 1:30 p.m. Ex-parte requests for temporary orders will be heard daily in Courtroom 32 at 11:30 …
Probate Court Updates in Ventura County and Orange County Read More »
A “no contest” clause is an item inserted into many wills and/or trusts to reduce the likelihood that a beneficiary will mount a court challenge to the document. The California legislature modified the statute governing no contest clauses in recent years, attempting to simply the law regarding these provisions. In the process, however, the state’s …
Dealing with No Contest Clauses in California Wills, Trusts Read More »
A now-deceased man’s estate planning oversight yielded a dispute that will now be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The case of Hillman v. Maretta pits the man’s ex-wife, whom he named, and never replaced, as the death beneficiary on a life insurance policy, and the man’s current wife, who claimed that the ex-wife lost …
High Court to Review Case Awarding Insurance Proceeds to Ex-wife Read More »
A surviving spouse argued, to no avail, that his marriage to his registered domestic partner served as an automatic invalidation of the couple’s domestic partnership agreement regarding property and assets. In Konou v. Wilson, the California Court of Appeal ruled that the agreement served a similar function to a pre-nuptial agreement, and the couple’s marriage …
Imagine a scenario where a parent passes away with four children and $400,000 in assets. The parent created a will stating that each child will inherit one-fourth of his estate. That sounds simple enough, right? Unfortunately, just such a scenario often turns into a long legal fight between siblings. Even in cases of modest wealth, …
A California Will May Not Prevent an Inheritance Battle Read More »
Artist Thomas Kinkade died of an accidental drug and alcohol overdose at his home on April 6th at age 54. Since that time, a legal battle between Kinkade’s estranged wife, Nanette, and his live-in girlfriend, Amy Pinto-Walsh, over the artist’s estate has ensued. Earlier this month, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Leslie Nichols ordered …
Battle Over Thomas Kinkade’s California Estate Continues Read More »
A California appeals court ruled that a surviving spouse who was awarded a portion of a decedent’s estate pursuant to California Probate Code Section 21611, after initially being omitted from a will or other instrument, may be sued for financial elder abuse committed while the decedent was alive. In Estate of Dito, Barbara Merritt, the …
A Surviving Omitted Spouse May Be Sued for Elder Financial Abuse in California Read More »
Last month, California’s Fourth Appellate District recognized a claim for intentional interference with an expected inheritance (IIEI) in Beckwith v. Dahl. Prior to Beckwith, anyone who expected to inherit according to a California will or trust could only sue to overturn an instrument in probate court. In order to do so, however, a party must …
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