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    Estate Planning, Wills, and Trusts:

  • What Is An Estate Plan? Why Is It Important?What Is An Estate Plan? Why Is It Important?
    What Is An Estate Plan?  Why Is It Important?

    When we say estate plan, it's your will. Your will is the one that says I want my husband to collect all of my assets, and I want my assets distributed to my husband and children. It's his job to make sure that's accomplished. But we also do the other documents; we have your Power of Attorney, Statutory Durable Power of Attorney, which is your Power of Attorney for your finances. What that says is that if you're incapacitated for any reason or if you're not able to make your own decisions, who do you want to step into your shoes to make those decisions. If you do not have that document in place, it's a judge who decides who makes those decisions on your behalf. We also have a Power of Attorney for Health Care. Again, if you're unable to make your own decisions, who do you want to make your medical decisions on your behalf? If you need surgery, if you need medication, and you cannot make those decisions for yourself, you want to be the one to control who makes those decisions for you. You don't want the judge to make that determination. We also have the Directive to Physicians, also known as the Living Will. That's the document that states whether or not you want to be hooked up to any life support or what life sustaining measures or treatments you want to maintain your life. We also have HIPAA Authorization. We all have our right to privacy of our medical records, and I completely agree with that. But there are some instances where you may not be able to give that consent to the doctor or to the hospital to release your medical records. With this document, it's called a HIPAA Authorization, you're letting the doctor and the hospital know who the people are that can get to those medical records.
  • What Does My Estate Consist Of?What Does My Estate Consist Of?
    What Does My Estate Consist Of?

    People don't understand what their estates consist of. A lot of times, someone comes in here and says, ‘You know what, I really don't have a lot of money. I have a house; I have a savings account, a checking account. That's really all I have.' Well, my question is, ‘Do you have a life insurance policy?' ‘Well, yeah I have a life insurance policy, but it's not mine, I don't get to benefit from it, it's for my husband, my wife, my kids when I die.' People need to really understand what their estates consist of. It consists of any life insurance policy that you may have, any 401k, any IRA, any business interests that you may have, no matter how small. Your house, any vacation homes, your savings accounts, checking accounts, stocks, bonds. When someone really sits down and writes a list of all of those things and how much they have, people are surprised at what their estate truly consists of and how much money there is.

  • How Often Should I Review My Will?How Often Should I Review My Will?
    How Often Should I Review My Will?

    One of the things that we are putting together are these brochures, informational, educational brochures. One of them is entitled, ‘Am I Hosed If I Don't Have A Will?' And primarily, you are. You want to have a will if you live in the state of Texas. But one of the things that's very important is that you should review your wills annually. And the reason for that is, there are different things that may happen in your life: you may have started a family, you now have kids that need to be addressed, you may have come into some additional assets that you want to be distributed a little bit differently, you may have some family members that have fallen off the wagon, so to speak, you may have interlopers, which is when you now deal with kids or family members who get married to people who the rest of the family may not like. So you do want to review your will and your estate planning documents at least annually to make sure your affairs are in order, and to make sure that your wishes are in writing and signed off on legally. 

    • Probate:

  • My Relative Just Passed Away, What Is My First Step?My Relative Just Passed Away, What Is My First Step?
    My Relative Just Passed Away, What Is My First Step?

    When someone passes away, the first thing you need to do is at least contact a funeral home. My advice to clients when I meet with them is to make sure that they have all those arrangements made, or to make sure that they've talked to their children or their spouse, husband or wife, so that they know what funeral home, where they want to be buried, if they want to be cremated, do they want a coffin, exactly what's going on. But the first thing you want to do is contact a funeral home to start making those arrangements. It's a very difficult time, you're very vulnerable at that time, but it's the funeral home that's going to kind of direct you and guide you where you need to be. A lot of times people will call me shortly after someone has died and say, my mother or father has died, I have this will, I need to go through probate now. What I explain to them is that's not needed right now. Right now you have to work on taking care of your family, taking care of mom and dad, making sure that the arrangements are met, and once you've had time to digest everything, take a look around the house. If you find a will, let us know. A lot of times, affairs aren't exactly in order as they should be, so it may take a few weeks, it may take a few months. We have full years to probate a will in Texas and sometimes it may take that long.
  • I'm Afraid Of How Difficult The Probate Process Will BeI'm Afraid Of How Difficult The Probate Process Will Be
    I'm Afraid Of How Difficult the Probate Process Will Be.

    There are a lot of myths out there that it costs a lot of money and takes years to probate. It doesn't. The probate code makes it as painless as possible. If all your affairs are in order, you may be in front of a judge for maybe five to ten minutes at the most, and then everything is finished. So it's very... it's easy, it's an easy process in Texas. In other states, it's not, and you want to avoid it at all costs, but in Texas you don't need to. We file an application with the court, we make sure that all of the documents are in order, we have our client, we appear in front of the judge once, and a lot of times, that's all that's necessary.

    • Family Law:

  • What Is Mediation? Why Am I Being Ordered To It?What Is Mediation? Why Am I Being Ordered To It?
    What Is Mediation? Why Am I Being Ordered to It?

    In family law, once you file your petition for divorce, during that sixty days, if you are not able to agree on a settlement or come to a settlement, whether it's property, whether it's child support, whether it's dividing the debts, who gets the house, then what's going to happen is, in most instances, the court is going to order you a mediation. A mediation is a process by which both parties, along with their attorneys, sit down with a neutral third party, who oftentimes is a lawyer, and in some instances can be a former judge, who will then mediate the case. That person will kind of go back and forth between the parties and their attorneys, and see if they can't work out some of the disputes that have occurred with regards to property settlements, with regards to child support, with regards to custody of the kids, et cetera. That's just a vehicle the court system has put in place to try and resolve cases outside of the courts. As you know, the courts are inundated with cases constantly, and there are backlogs because there are so many divorce cases and so many litigation cases. So they send you to this mediation process to help you resolve your disputes. In most instances, those disputes are resolved. Very seldom will you have a divorce case that will go to trial; I think it may be between the numbers of maybe five to ten percent of all divorce cases become full-blown trials. So it gets resolved during this mediation process which is very cost-effective, because if you go to trial and you take a case, a divorce case and start a litigation process through discovery, depositions, et cetera, your case can be fifty, sixty thousand dollars and in some instances, well over a hundred thousand dollars, just to get a divorce.

     

    • Traffic Accidents:

  • Why Do I Need A Lawyer When Working With An Insurance Company?Why Do I Need A Lawyer When Working With An Insurance Company?
    Why Do I Need A Lawyer When Working With An Insurance Company?

    My opinion is that insurance companies are not always looking out for the consumer. Insurance companies are looking at the bottom line, they're looking at the premium payments, and they're looking at trying to settle claims, sometimes 20, sometimes 30 cents on the dollar, which is not what you should do. That's when the attorney comes in and they're going to work for your rights and get you as much as they can from the insurance company that you deserve. You have to look out for yourself, and you don't want to worry about upsetting your insurance company. If they drop you, you go get another insurance company. There are three or four major insurance companies that would be happy for you to sign up with them and would be happy to get you as a client or consumer, to pay them your premium, and to get whatever coverage you want. So that's one of the reasons that you need to hire a lawyer or at least get a lawyer involved if you believe you've been in an accident and the insurance company's not cooperating with you or working with you and perceiving the amount of money that you believe you deserve.
  • I Disagree With My Insurance Settlement, What Do I Do?I Disagree With My Insurance Settlement, What Do I Do?
    I Disagree With My Insurance Settlement, What Do I Do?

    Any time you don't agree with what the insurance company is telling you and what they're offering you to settle your claim, whether it's your property claim or your medical claim, you need to consult an attorney. Because that's at the point where the insurance company is going to be taking advantage of you, and you can make sure that they don't take advantage of you by getting at least an attorney involved to help you negotiate that settlement. If they offer you x amount, and you're happy with that settlement amount, then obviously take it, and you don't need to get any attorney involved. But if it's something you're not happy with, you want to hire a lawyer or at least get a lawyer involved to help negotiate that settlement to ensure that you get the best bang for your buck. If you have a hurt back and they want to offer you, you know, twenty five hundred dollars or three thousand dollars, and it turns out you've got two slipped discs and a messed up vertebrae, you may be entitled to a twenty thousand dollar settlement. So it's those kinds of things, and again, it's strictly case by case, in order to determine whether or not an insurance company is trying to take advantage of you.

    • General Civil Litigation:

  • Facebook posting creates nightmare for Dallas manFacebook posting creates nightmare for Dallas man
    A Dallas man says a Facebook posting gives the appearance that he may have abducted a woman who was last seen with him. But the woman was sitting in jail on drunk driving charges.
  • DPD Social Media Policy Lands Officer On Administrative LeaveDPD Social Media Policy Lands Officer On Administrative Leave
    Not All North Texas Police Departments Have Policies for Facebook, MySpace and Twiiter
  • Local Lawyers Say Michigan Could Set PrecedentLocal Lawyers Say Michigan Could Set Precedent
    Checking your spouse's email could it land you in jail? Well, a Detroit man could be the first to find out. The Michigan man has been charged with felony computer misuse.
  • Owners of Gloria's accuse former manager of stealing recipesOwners of Gloria's accuse former manager of stealing recipes
    The owners of a popular Latin restaurant chain are accusing a former manager of stealing their recipes for bean dip, ceviche and margaritas.

    • General:

  • How Is Working With Your Family?How Is Working With Your Family?
    How Is Working With Your Family?

    People always ask what it's like to work with my dad and my brother. We're a family firm, we have six attorneys total, three of us are the family and we have three non-family members, and it's great. We have a very close family and so not only do we work together, but after work, we're together on weekends, we're together in the evenings, and what Dad has always taught us is that when you're at work, you're at work, that's what you're there to do. But as soon as you walk out of the back door, leave work at work. Go home and be with your family, be with your kids. And he's really done a great job teaching us that. Now, we have our arguments, we have our ups, we have our downs, but the great thing about is that I can go into my brother's office and we can yell and we can scream, and we can have, you know, hot debates, but after five, ten minutes of yelling and screaming, we come out and we're going to lunch together. And it's been a great privilege and I've thoroughly enjoyed it.
  • What Type Of Lawyer Do I Need?What Type Of Lawyer Do I Need?
    What Type Of Lawyer Do I Need?

    Well the first thing you want to do before you hire a lawyer, is you want to sit down and determine what kind of lawyer you're looking for. If it's a divorce case, obviously a family lawyer, if it's a car accident, you want a personal injury lawyer, if someone's died with or without a will, you want a probate lawyer. So the first thing you need to look for is, does that attorney practice in that area of law that you need to hire to help you accomplish your goal. The second thing you need to do, is you need to write down questions that you want to ask that lawyer. What are their fee arrangements? How do they bill? How do you communicate with them? Or you need to write down, you know, what your availability is to be able to pay that lawyer, to be able to work with that lawyer, and get along with that lawyer. The third thing I think I ask all my potential clients is they have to hire their lawyer as they would hire their own family doctor. You're gonna have to like the way they look, you have to like the way they talk, you have to like the surroundings around them, you have to like the offices, because that's somebody you are now going to journey down this road with, this political road, or this legal road, whether it's in a court room or whether it's settled out of court, but you need to have somebody that's supporting you along the way to get accomplished what it is you're there to do, whether it's a settlement on a car accident, or a PI case, like I say, whether it's getting divorced, whether it's going in front of a probate court. I encourage all of my potential clients to interview other lawyers, you want to talk to other lawyers to get a feel for who you're hiring and the job they're going to be doing for you.

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  • The Ashmore Law Firm, P.C.
  • 3636 Maple Avenue
    Dallas, TX 75219
  • Phone: 214-559-7202
  • Fax: 214-520-1550
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