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Caronavirus Attorney

Handling a Legal Case In the Middle of a Pandemic

By | Collections, Contractor Law, Family Law, Liens, Mechanic's Lien, Personal Injury, Probate, Real Estate Law, Wills | No Comments

Corona Virus

…and your legal cases

As of March 16, 2020, it is clear America is in the fight of its life against an invisible foe known as Covid-19 aka the coronavirus. This foreign invader grows faster than compound interest. It is a true monster with exponential superpowers. In the course of 55 days (the number of days since the first American was confirmed to have this virus to now), this virus caused one of the strongest bull markets in stock market history to lose three years of gains and send a thriving economy into a recession.

With no cure or vaccine to fight it, self-imposed quarantining is the only way to slow its spread. Scientists do not even talk in terms of “stopping it”, their best hope is to merely slow it down while an under prepared healthcare system struggles to catch up. This is what has been described as flattening the curve. While older citizens with chronic health problems are believed to be the most vulnerable, young healthy people can spread the virus and that makes this a battle that everyone must join. It requires nearly complete cooperation.

The businesses most immediately impacted by this pandemic are those that rely on crowds to gather in their restaurants, gyms, and theaters, or at their stadiums, convention halls, or theme parks. If not now, sometime soon, even businesses who don’t depend upon crowds will feel the pressure of this pandemic as they depend on other businesses or those businesses employees to sustain their cash flow.

Some businesses will continue to operate as their employees work from home or work in isolation zones within the business itself. In the end, everyone will be negatively impacted. “What should we do”, you ask? There are certainly some very fundamental things all Americans must do now.

1. Get informed and stay informed. Listen to credible sources of news and information. Avoid unreliable sources. Currently, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is deemed a reliable source.

2. Honor the Federal, State, and local governments mandates on travel restrictions, business closures, and self-quarantine.

3. Be prepared, if necessary, to reinvent yourself. It may turn out that unemployed workers, such as waitresses and bar tenders or even out-of-work lawyers (for example), will need to be trained to work in special coronavirus wards to help fight this pandemic.

4. Prioritize your spending, if you have limited resources.

5. Be part of the solution by thinking of ways you can help keep businesses moving while protecting patrons. (I have a vision of a movie theater full of movie goers in hazmat suits).

6. Help those who need help. Give of yourself.

BUT WHAT ABOUT MY CASE?

Caronavirus AttorneyYes, indeed, you have legal issues and you may be wondering what all this means for your particular case. Most law offices are prepared with a continuity plan for emergencies like this. Lawyers can do much of what they do from home. They can continue to work on your case, generally, without the need to meet with you in person or to leave home, as long as they have a computer and a link to the internet.

For cases that are transactional in nature, such as preparing a Will or a Trust or a contract or forming a new business, lawyers are will suited to accomplish this work from their couch or home office. If your case is a matter pending before a court of law, then some work can be done outside of court by your lawyer working from home, but where hearings or trial are concerned, courts around the country are continuing trials and postponing everything on their calendars for the foreseeable future. This may be good, if you are a reluctant participant desiring to postpone the inevitable, but it may be bad, if you want your day in court so justice can prevail.

Some legal disputes avoid court all together where the parties agree to submit their dispute to an arbitrator or arbitration panel. These arrangements are typically worked out in advance by inserting these agreements into a contract. However, sometimes litigants make the decision to have an arbitrator decide their case after the dispute arises. This might be the case where they desire to have the matter decided quickly and avoid the long delays often forced upon traditional litigants in the trial courts.

The pandemic is changing the dynamics of everyday life in so many ways it is difficult to anticipate everything that will impact us. However, it is reasonable to expect many litigants who desire a quick resolution to their dispute to agree to submit their case to an arbitrator and therefore the demand for arbitration services is very likely to explode over the next few weeks and months.
Where litigants are cash starved, they may actually benefit from these delays as it will permit them to modulate their cash flow with the circumstances impacting the court’s calendar. Being cash starved may also compel those who are desperate for cash to settle for less than they might otherwise accept under normal circumstances.

All litigants must take care to at least file their claims timely in order to avoid statutes of limitation and for that reason, even where cash or the lack of it is a concern, talking this point through with an attorney could enable them to anchor their claim now while delaying the progression of the procedural process. Some things just can’t wait.

If you are not impacted by cash flow and you have the means to bring or defend a case, you should know that most every lawyer in practice today will be able to assist you, provided they can work from home and have access to the internet. Hopefully, the coronavirus will not alter that in the future.

Attorneys at Indy Advocate

Attorney John Schiff

Inexpensive Options To Probate

By | Probate, Wills | No Comments

You have probably seen ads in the newspaper for living trusts. One of the reasons given is they avoid the need for probate and thus save the attorney fees and costs of probate. The fact is there are other, less costly, alternatives available to you in Indiana.

Options To Probate

Inexpensive Options To Probate

Some of you do not know what probate is, and to understand the alternatives we must start there. Probate is the opening of an estate to collect the deceased person’s assets, pay that person’s bills and to divide the remainder among the heirs. It involves the preparation and filing of a petition and other papers with the appropriate court. If there is a Will, it is submitted with the petition. A person is appointed by the court to administer the estate in accordance with the directions of the Will that dictate who the beneficiaries are and what they are to receive. If there is no Will, the beneficiaries are identified by the intestate succession laws, which first provide for a surviving spouse and children. If none exist, others such as parents and siblings are next in line. Estates rarely include all of the assets. The estate only includes the assets that do not pass to someone else upon your death by reason of a beneficiary designation, title/ownership, or another means.

Many of you have life insurance. Unless you name your estate as the policy beneficiary, the life insurance is not an asset of your estate. The benefits will pass to the persons that you designate as the beneficiaries and in the amounts designated. Your beneficiaries after your death submit a claim with the life insurance company and are paid the proceeds of the policy. Beneficiary designations are also used on retirement accounts and annuities.

The manner in which you title some assets also determines if those assets are part of your estate. If you are married and own a home or other real estate that property is usually titled in both names as husband and wife. Upon your death, your spouse becomes the sole owner by recording an Affidavit of Survivorship. The property is not an estate asset. No probate is required. Cars, boats, bank accounts are other items that are usually titled. If that title has another person listed with you as the owner, the survivor is entitled to the asset and may claim it without probate. To do so, the survivor may need to file an affidavit, or complete forms at the bank. These assets are not part of your probate estate.

For many years Indiana has also authorized TOD (Transfer on Death) or similar designations that allow you during your lifetime to identify who you want to get the asset upon your death. That person has no ownership or right to the asset until your death. These designations are easily changed if you have a change of mind and they do not affect your right to sell the asset or use the asset during your lifetime. Assets with a TOD or similar designation are not probate assets.

In 2009 Indiana enacted laws that expanded your ability to designate who gets what upon your death without the costs of probate. You can now use a Transfer on Death Deed (TODD) for any real estate you may own. A TODD is a deed in which you state that upon your death the person or persons you name are to receive the property. It must satisfy the usual requirements of a deed and it must be properly recorded during your lifetime to be effective upon your death. You retain sole ownership while alive. You can sell the property, lease it or mortgage it without interference from those who are named in the TODD. You can also change who the recipients are by recording another, superceding TODD, if you change your mind. Like TOD designations, the TODD avoids the need for probate proceedings. The recipients only need to record an Affidavit of Survivorship to establish ownership after your death.

In 2009 the Indiana legislature also enacted a companion to the TODD that applies to all other tangible personal property. It requires a deed of gift, bill of sale or other writing intended to transfer the asset to a beneficiary upon your death. The document must clearly state the transfer to the beneficiary is to be upon your death. It must satisfy the legal requirements for transferring the asset during your life, it must be signed by you, and it must be notarized. Basically you can use this to cover all of your other assets and thereby avoid probate altogether.

These alternatives to probate proceedings are not suited for everyone. About 1% of the population have assets worth in excess of five million dollars and may be subject to federal estate taxes (Indiana has no inheritance tax). This fortunate group will usually benefit by complicated and expensive tax avoidance planning.

Some of you may have children who are still minors or have special needs and may benefit from using trusts and other more complicated alternatives to name someone to manage your assets to provide funds for those children. However, most of you can use the alternatives to probate that are mentioned in this article.

You will save money and maintain all of your rights to the assets during your lifetime. If you do so you should still have a Will that should cover anything that might fall through a crack. This provides you with a safety net that only involves probate proceedings if the crack is too large because there is still one other probate avoidance tool. If those assets have a value of less than $50,000, they can be collected by your heirs by using an affidavit. So, who needs probate? Only a few do if you utilize the tools that are mentioned in this article.

For more information on options to probate,  give our Indianapolis law firm a call and we can help you with your situation

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