California Litigation Legal Questions

Are you trying to enforce the tree rules to protect your view, or are you trying to protect your trees and avoid the cost of trimming or removing them? Either way, your fastest and cheapest route is to persuade your HOA Board to support your position. HOA Boards are accorded considerable discretion. Judges are reluctant to second-guess them. In most cases, the prevailing party is entitled to recover reimbursement for its attorney fees and expenses. The HOA usually wins, and that means the homeowner ends up paying both her or his own fees AND the HOAs. How much are this view or the trees worth? If you appreciate this free advice, please remember to refer me to any friends or acquaintances who need a lawyer. Referrals are still our best source of new business. Do you have a revocable living trust to protect your heirs against probate? Probate takes forever, is expensive, and is annoying. Do your family a favor. Set up a trust, and put all your property, especially any real property, into the trust. Since it is revocable, you can change it, add to it, take property out of it, or even cancel it completely, at any time. We set up such trusts, provide a pour-over will as a back-up for any property that does not make it into the trust, provide you with blank durable powers of attorney for health care and financial decisions, in case you become incapable of making such decisions while still alive, and convey one piece of real property to the trust, usually the family home, for $1500.00. If you would like to hire me to do this, let me know, and I'll send you a list of the information I need. Dana Sack  ... Read More

If the police refused to do anything the last time, it sounds like they did not consider it an actionable assault, probably because no one made a claim he acted improperly. I doubt they will consider it now that you changed your mind. You can phone them up and see and tell them you are afraid he will again start a physical fight. Assuming he has never been asked to pay rent, in California he would be considered a guest so could be told just to leave as he has no right to be there. Why does he want to establish residency? He is not going to be a resident there. Order him out and if he will not leave give him a three day notice and threaten to take him to court.... Read More

Is there a probate proceeding pending? If so, talk to the lawyer handling. If not, is this a small estate, where probate is not necessary. I take it there is a will; who is named as executor? Lots of unanswered questions. In any event, bro is not entitled to mom's share, according to what you say. However, if he is the executor and there is a probate, he has the duty to gather (sequester) assets. Maybe that's what you are talking about.... Read More

Back when this lawsuit was filed, you really needed a lawyer. The statute of limitation is an affirmative defense. The injured party can sue you, even after the statute of limitation has expired, and it is up to you to raise the statute of limitation as an affirmative defense. When you filed and served your answer to the complaint, you were required to include in your answer any affirmative defense you wished to rely upon. If you did not do so, then each affirmative defense not alleged is deemed waived. There is a statute which requires that if you want to assert a statute of limitation, you must state in your answer the specific statute number and if the statute has subsections or paragraphs, then also the specific subsection or paragraph, or the defense is deemed waived. The court hearing the case has the power to relieve you of that waiver. After more than a year, it is going to take a strong argument to persuade a judge to cancel the waiver. The sooner you make that motion, the better. If you properly and timely alleged the affirmative defense of the applicable statute of limitation in your answer, then as soon as the plaintiff states the date on which the accident occurred, you can ask the judge to rule in your favor based on the statute of limitation. If you appreciate this free advice, please remember to refer me to any friends or acquaintances who need a lawyer. Referrals are still our best source of new business. Do you have a revocable living trust to protect your heirs against probate? Probate takes forever, is expensive, and is annoying. Do your family a favor. Set up a trust, and put all your property, especially any real property, into the trust. Since it is revocable, you can change it, add to it, take property out of it, or even cancel it completely, at any time. We set up such trusts, provide a pour-over will as a back-up for any property that does not make it into the trust, provide you with blank durable powers of attorney for health care and financial decisions, in case you become incapable of making such decisions while still alive, and convey one piece of real property to the trust, usually the family home, for $1500.00. If you would like to hire me to do this, let me know, and I'll send you a list of the information I need. Dana Sack  ... Read More

The purpose of this site is to answer questions on-line and not for documents to be sent via e-mail. Even if they acted incorrectly, unless it was because of your race, ethnic origin, gender or other protected class, you probably would not be able to recover anything more than the difference in price with a more expensive motel you had to stay at plus a little compensation for the time you had to spend. Write to the person at the corporate office who is in charge of customer complaints, sending them a detailed message with all paperwork you have and stating why you feel the the local hotel you tried to check into acted incorrectly, and ask for a dollar amount of compensation.... Read More

Generic drugs should work exactly as the name brand because they have the same active ingredients. Ask your Kaiser Dr. why the generic does not work; perhaps it is because you think it will not work. You need to check your contract with Kaiser as to what their obligation is. If you are not entitled to the name brand medication, then a lawsuit will do nothing to change their legal obligation.... Read More

HIPAA, the federal law that requires medical providers to keep your medical matter secret and confidential, provides for government imposed penalties, but does not provide a private cause of action. All you can do is file a complaint with the Department of Justice. I don't know whether there is any California law that would impose a penalty you could collect. The problem with an ordinary negligence claim for breach of your right to privacy is that what damages have you suffered? Did any of the people in the waiting room know you? The disclosure has not caused you to lose a prospective job, your current job, a promotion or a salary raise. As long as the government doesn't enforce this law, it will have no teeth. If you appreciate this free advice, please remember to refer me to your friends and acquaintances who need a lawyer. Referrals are still our best source of new business Dana Sack... Read More

Several issues arise. Why did your attorney walk out? You might want to consider filing a complaint against her attorney with the State Bar. It sounds like he abandoned a client, which is grounds for discipline. That does not compensate your wife, but it will help protect the general public against him. Do not tell your ex-attorney that you are going to file such a complaint or threaten him. That would be the crime of extortion. AFTER you have already filed such a complaint, you can negotiate with the lawyer regarding what it would take to get you to withdraw the complaint. Malpractice is very hard to prove. You must prove both that what the lawyer did was negligent, AND that but for his negligence, the client would have received a better more valuable outcome. This means your wife would need to prove her personal injuy claim and how much she would have received in that arbitration, but for her attorney walking out. In that proceeding, her own attorney will be trying to prove that she would have lost the case. He knows all the weaknesses and anything hidden about the case. The statute of limitation for malpractice is one year after the attorney stopped representing the client. After that, the client's claim is barred, cannot be asserted. When did this happen? If you appreciate this free advice, please remember to refer me to your friends and acquaintances who need a lawyer. Referrals are still our best source of new business Dana Sack  ... Read More

Possibly, depending on what information is to be released and to whom. I suggest that you contact an experienced workers' compensation attorney for a face-to-face consultation and give him/her all of the facts surrounding your situation. (S)he would then be in a better position to analyze your case and advise you of your options.... Read More

A lawyer is not qualified to help you find out the technology solution to uncovering the recipients' names. Legally, after a plaintiff sues a defendant, the next thing that happens is that both sides send each other demands for answers to written questions and demands for the production of documents. Your lawyer could start with a demand for the names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers of every person to whom the defamatory statement was sent. Defamation is very hard to prove. Opinions are not defamation. Truth, even partial or exagerated, is a complete defense. Damages are real problem. How were you injured by the statement? Did you lose a job, promotion, raise, customer, or contract? Were you upset enough to have seen a doctor or psychologist? The lack of damages is the reason defamation cases are rarely pursued by lawyers on a contingent fee basis. The cases where a celebrity sues for defamation and is awarded a dollar in damages, cost the celebrity more than $100,000.00. Such people are rich enough to be able to afford it. Dana Sack  ... Read More

You need to proof read your e-mail question before sending it out since it is not entirely clear what you are saying. The Post Office does not have to delivery to an unsafe location. If you move you have to notify them of the new address. Keep on going up the chain of command with your complaints. Yes, you could probably sue them to force better service, but such a suit will probably take several months or years and you would probably have to spend money for an attorney. You might have to also first file a government tort claim is you seek damages, but I think they are still considered a private company.... Read More

I would need to know a lot more about your case in order to give you a firm answer, and I would have to be paid for doing that, but the likely answer is probably not. Under California law, everything that is done in court is protected against any subsequent lawsuit, except malicious prosecution. In order to prove malicious prosecution, you must win the prior lawsuit. If you couldn't prove that they were lying then, how are you going to prove it now? Even assuming you had some new evidence to prove it, you would also need to prove that you could not have produced the new evidence before. You can't sue the other side or the other side's lawyers for winning the lawsuit. There are at least two sides to every dispute. Whatever the judge or jury deciding the case determined to be the truth, you are stuck with that truth, whether or not you believe it. If you failed to convince the judge or jury, there is nothing more to be done about it. I don't know what the statute of limitation is for RICO. If the lawsuit was decided in 2001, then the statute of limitation has probably expired. Try a Google search to find out how long the statute of limitation is. You can't sue over anything that happened longer ago than that. If you appreciate this free advice, please remember to refer me to any of  your friends or acquaintences who need a lawyer. Referrals are still our best source of new business. Dana Sack  ... Read More

Regardless of what such an agreement says, if there is another separation or even a divorce, the court is going to do whatever is in best interests of the child. If it's going to help your family reunite AND if you think that's in the best interests of the child, then go ahead and sign it. The court will make its own decision, if it ever goes to court. If the separation is due to physical or mental abuse of you or the child, if this demand for such a custody agreement is part of that abuse of you, then get some professional counseling before agreeing to reunite. Every decision by the court will be governed by the best interests of your daughter. Your decisions should be, too. If you appreciate this free advice, please remember to refer me to any of your friends or acquaintences who need a lawyer. Referrals are still our best source of new business. Dana Sack  ... Read More

Yes. If the IOU is dated and signed, then you can sue to collect it for four years after the due date stated in it or the date shown on it. So you have plenty of time. Most courts have clinics to show you how to fill out the forms, serve the papers on the other side, prepare and present your case, and if you win, collect on the judgment. Nolo Press in Berkeley has a good book on How To Win In Small Claims Court. It covers everything. If you appreciate this free advice, please remember to refer me to any of your friends or acquaintences who need a lawyer. Referrals are still our best source of new business. Dana Sack... Read More

Adult entertainment or sex-based entertainment is a highly regulated and very risky field. You need to have an experienced lawyer work closely with you on this starting far in advance of when you open for service and all during the time you run the business. There are many laws involved and many best practices to follow. You will need to know all the things about starting any business and hiring any employees. That is a lot to know. Add to that all the regulations regarding a sex-based business and you have a huge undertaking. Sex-based performances are highly regulated as to what the dancers can and cannot do, and where this can be done. This is far more information than you can be given in this online answer. You should budget significantly for legal help as part of your start-up costs. Expect to have several lawyers on call all during the time you run the business. Such businesses always run into legal troubles.... Read More

Are you California residents and getting divorced in California? If you are getting divorced in some other state, that state's rules could be very different. The answer is a definite maybe. The quitclaim deed is a good start in your favor, but not the end of the question. Does the quitclaim deed say anything about giving up any community property claim or other claim she might have to the house? That would help, too. If not, she can argue that the quitclaim was for convenience only, so that she would not need to sign all the documents. Where did the money come from to buy the second house? Was it your separate property, either from before the marriage or from gifts or inheritances given to you alone as separate property? If community property funds were used to buy the house, then she has a community property interest in the house, unless she has transferred that interest to you as your separate property, which might have been accomplished by the quitclaim deed, but might not have. Was there a loan to pay a portion of the purchase price? Whose money was used to make the loan payments? Even if the house was your separate property, if community property money was used to make the montly loan payments, then the community is entitled to be reimbursed for those loan payments, and one-half of that reimbursement is hers. Same for fire insurance premiums, property taxes, and any other expenses of the second house. Even if the house is your separate property, she is entitled to reimbursement for her one-half of any community property money used to pay for that house and its upkeep. If you appreciate this free advice, please remember to refer me to any of your friends and acquaintances who need a lawyer. Referrals are still our best source of new business. Do you have a revocable living trust to avoid probate? Probate is time-consuming, expensive, and annoying. Do your family a favor. Set up a revocable living trust and put all your property into the trust, especially any real estate. Revocable means you can change it or even cancel it any time. We write such trusts, along with a back-up pour-over will, and convey one piece of real property to the trust, usually the family residence, for $1500.00 Dana Sack  ... Read More

It sounds like you need to hire an attorney to sue your insurance company. The insurance company should have either worked out a compromise and settlement with the State of California or sued. The insurance can't leave you in jeopardy to this kind of unilateral seizure of your tax refund. It is possible that for less than $1000, maybe less than $500, a lawyer could review your policy, the police report, all the letters and emails, and everything else you have about this accident, and write a fierce letter to your insurance company. After that, the insurance company might hire and pay for a lawyer to represent you against the state. That is often my assignment, to persuade the insurance company to do what it agreed to do in its insurance policy. If the insurance company refuses, we would need to discuss what to do next. Lawsuits are expensive. This could easily cost more than $50,000 in attorneys fees. At some point, there will be a settlement conference or mediation, and the first thing you will be asked to compromise and give away is your claim to be reimbursed for your attorneys fees. There are lawyers who do car accident cases on a contingent fee basis. This is a little different from what they usually do, but one of them will understand the issues and the numbers. They generally take about 1/3 of whatever they collect. Maybe a little less if they can settle the case very early. More if the case goes to trial. They are easy to find in the Yellow Pages and on the internet. Dana Sack  ... Read More