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The following information is designed to assist you in determining if you have a claim. We have three categorized sections to assist you as follows:
More Information: Business Commercial Matters Accident / Injury Matters Family MattersJust take the time to scroll this information. We hope that you find the information beneficial. As always, you may submit your inquiry online or you may call us at the Spiegel & Utrera General Counsel Club at (800) 734-9900 to discuss your particular situation or call me directly at (800) 603-3900, ext. 219. Larry Spiegel.
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Submit Your Inquiry: Business Commercial Matter Inquiry Accident / Injury Matter Inquiry Family Matter InquiryFamily Matters- Child Support: These matters involve a parent’s ability to pay monetary support to a child and may involve income imputed from other sources, such as when an employer pays the spouse in cash “under the table” without documentation.
- Alimony: These matters involve a spouse ability to pay monetary support to an ex-spouse and may involve income imputed from other sources, such as when an employer pays the spouse in cash “under the table” without documentation.
- Divorce: These matters involve dissolution of marriage and issues such as how the marital assets are to be divided and what role a parent will have in the growth and development of their children once the divorce tales effect.
- Property Settlement: These matters involve dissolution of marriage and issues such as how the marital assets are to be divided once the divorce tales effect.
- Visitation Rights: These matters involve dissolution of marriage and issues such what role a parent will have in the growth and development of their children in furtherance of the best interests of the child once the divorce tales effect.
- Paternity: For purposes of support, visitation, and other parental rights and obligations, a mother may initiate a lawsuit to determine the identity of the father of a child born outside of marriage.
- Will Contests: Grounds for Court Contest of Last Will & Testament includes circumstances where the Last Will & Testament didn’t have the proper legal formalities, the Testator or Testatrix of the Last Will & Testament lacked mental capacity (i.e., was senile or suffering from dementia), the Testator or Testatrix of the Last Will & Testament were under undue influence of another person, self dealing, fraud or excessive compensation.
- Probate matters: Probate is where the debts and taxes of a decedent’s estate are paid before distributions are paid to heirs of the decedent. If you have a Last Will & Testament to provide guidance as to your intent, it is called testate probate. If there is no Last Will & Testament, it is administered by a statutory formula and it is called intestate probate.
- Trust Matters: In order to contest a Trust Instrument, there has to be some kind of impropriety, such as that the Trust Instrument didn’t have the proper legal formalities, like execution of the Trust Instrument without proper witnesses, notary, or other requirements, the Grantor or Settlor of the Trust Instrument lacked mental capacity (i.e., was senile or suffering from dementia), the Settlor or Grantor of the Trust Instrument were under undue influence of another person, the assets of the Trust were distributed in violation of state law, there was unclear, confusing, or ambiguous language in the Trust Instrument, there was a breach of fiduciary duty by the Trustee for failure to make proper or timely distributions, failure to make proper or timely accountings, failure to administer the Trust in the manner required by the document, self dealing, fraud or excessive compensation.
- Prenuptial and Postnuptial Matters: These disputes involve Prenuptial or Premarital Agreements regarding the distribution of personal and marital assets upon the dissolution of the marriage, insofar as such agreements that promote divorce, waive spousal support altogether or that require marriage as the contract's consideration will be held invalid for public policy reasons. One cannot contract around child support.
- Dissolution of Marriage where equity and most of assets exceed $250,000: These matters involve dissolution of marriage and issues such as how the marital assets are to be divided and what role a parent will have in the growth and development of their children once the divorce tales effect. When there are appreciated marital assets, typically extensive negotiations need to take place between the former spouses to divide such assets as described in the settlement agreement.
- Garnishment Matters: Wage garnishment disputes occur when an employer withholds the earnings of an individual for the payment of a debt as the result of a court order or other equitable procedure.
- Change of Names: Legal name change is merely the first step in the name-change process. One must officially register their new name with the appropriate authorities whether the change was made as a result of a court order, marriage, divorce, adoption, or any of the other methods described above. The process includes notifying various government agencies each of which may require a specific form, legal proof of the name change, and may or may not charge a fee. Important government agencies to be notified include the social security office[4], Passport Office, Post Office, and one’s local department of motor vehicles. Additionally the new name must be registered with other institutions such as one’s employer, bank, doctor, mortgage, insurance and credit card companies. Online services are available to assist in this process either through direct legal assistance or automated form processing.
Although state requirements differ, it is generally recommended to first register a new name with the social security office as some states’ motor-vehicle departments require an updated social security card to make the change—Arizona is one of these states.
Time can be of the essence. Most states require name changes to be registered with their department of motor vehicles within a certain time frame. For example, South Carolina[6], Washington, and Wyoming require a name change be registered with their office in a mere ten days. States like Illinois and Texas require it be registered within thirty days, while North Carolina provides its residents up to sixty days. The fees for registering a new name vary from state-to-state. The forms, along with the state-specific requirements, can generally be obtained for free.
- Adoption Law: Litigation related to this issue has shown, however, that in a number of cases, adoption agencies and independent practitioners have failed to provide prospective adoptive families with known information about a child's physical, emotional or developmental problems or with critical background information about the child's birth family and history. In these cases, adoptive families, deprived of such information, have found themselves neither emotionally nor financially prepared to care for a child whose needs require enormously expensive medical or mental health treatment. Some of these families have sought redress in the courts.
Wrongful adoption is a cause of action based on, as its name implies, a wrong. Typically, the plaintiffs -- adoptive parents -- claim that they were wronged by agencies which failed to provide them with their child's full background information; that in doing so, the agency deprived them of the opportunity to make an informed decision as to whether to proceed with the adoption; and they were harmed as a result [that is, suffered financially, physically, or emotionally].
In response to litigation initiated by adoptive families, courts have recognized a duty to disclose known material information about a child's health and social background to prospective adoptive families. In the face of a breach of this duty to disclose, courts have held agencies liable for the tort of "wrongful adoption" and awarded adoptive families monetary damages. Although the duty to disclose applies to agencies and independent practitioners alike, most of the cases to date have involved agencies. An agency's breach of the duty to disclose can take many forms and, depending on the state, liability may be imposed when agencies misrepresent a child's background, deliberately withhold information, or are negligent in providing prospective adoptive parents with information that could be material to their decision whether to adopt a particular child.
While courts have provided a legal remedy when adoptive families have been harmed by failures to disclose, state legislatures have sought, through statute, to define the disclosure obligations of adoption practitioners to reduce the incidence of "wrongful adoption" and facilitate informed decision-making by adoptive families.
- Elder Law: Elder Law is a relatively new specialized field of law that deals with the issues faced by the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population, the elderly. This area of law combines elements of Estate Planning, Wills and Trusts, Conservatorship (also called Guardianship), Health Care Planning, Medicare/Medicaid Planning, and Elder Rights.
Seniors are more active and live longer than ever before, but they have a new set of legal concerns that have rarely been addressed by earlier generations. Older people have always needed Wills and Estate Planning to pass their assets to their beneficiaries. Now that they are living longer, there are more issues about their future care that have to be included in Estate Planning, such as plans for housing, future medical care, and what to do if the person should become incapacitated. One of the most important questions that is being raised is how to provide long-term housing, with possibly increasing levels of care, as the seniors age. This, in turn, is giving rise to a whole new industry of senior living facilities and raising many legal questions about contract rights and the power of facilities to discharge residents. As continuing care becomes more and more expensive, seniors are also in need on information about long-term care insurance and government benefits.
- Marital and Family Law: Marital and family law covers all legal matters pertaining to family, including civil unions, marriages, divorces, adoption, prenuptial agreements, child custody and property settlements. Although family courts in the United States hear cases dealing with people of varied social and economic classes, they are overloaded with cases concerning those who are disadvantaged. The courts, notorious for lacking resources, have been criticized for not being beneficial to those they attempt to help, especially since the most contentious family law issues are often child custody and visitation rights.
Child custody had been traditionally awarded to mothers from the onset of the 20th century, but as the father's role in the family evolved, laws changed to allow fathers custody, and eventually, the concept of joint custody was created. In joint custody, both parents share the responsibility of taking care of the child. Court decisions do not always make both parents happy. The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA) was enacted by states in the US because it was previously possible for a parent who was unhappy with a family court ruling in one state to kidnap the child in order to receive a more favorable decision in a different state.
The Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement Support Act (URESA) is an example of how the federal government has become more aggressive in collecting custodial support, because parents who are not receiving the required support are more likely to apply for welfare support. URESA allows for a person seeking custodial support from someone living in another state to sue for payment in his or her state of residency.
- Wills Estates and Trust disputes: In order to contest a Last Will & Testament or a Trust Instrument, there has to be some kind of impropriety, such as that the Last Will & Testament or Trust Instrument didn’t have the proper legal formalities, like execution of the Last Will & Testament or Trust Instrument without proper witnesses, notary, or other requirements, the Testator or Testatrix of the Last Will & Testament or Grantor or Settlor of the Trust Instrument lacked mental capacity (i.e., was senile or suffering from dementia), the Testator or Testatrix of the Last Will & Testament or the Settlor or Grantor of the Trust Instrument were under undue influence of another person, the assets of Last Will & Testament or Trust were distributed in violation of state law, there was unclear, confusing, or ambiguous language in the Last Will & Testament or Trust Instrument, there was a breach of fiduciary duty by the Trustee, Personal Representative, Executor or Executrix for failure to make proper or timely distributions, failure to make proper or timely accountings, failure to administer the Trust or Last Will & Testament in the manner required by the document, self dealing, fraud or excessive compensation.
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