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It’s not uncommon for an attorney to hear from someone who claims to have been disinherited by a decedent because of undue influence exerted by a family member. As compelling as these cases may seem at first, a closer examination of the facts – especially how the will or trust was prepared – often fails to support a claim of undue influence.

When James Madison drafted the First Amendment, he wasn’t thinking about a squabble between neighbors about the value of a home in Bel Air. But that venerated clause in our nation’s Constitution was a key issue when that disagreement ended up before the California Court of Appeal.

What happens when members of a partnership make careful plans for what will happen when one of the partners dies – but later, when one of them does pass away, they don’t like the outcome? A likely result is that the matter will end up in court, and one such case was recently the subject of a ruling by the California Court of Appeal (Han v. Hallberg.)

Should a truck driver be expected to understand that, by applying for a job in San Francisco, he agreed to give up protections provided by the California Labor Code and to settle any disputes with his employer through arbitration conducted under New York law?

If you go to court seeking to have the terms of a trust enforced, you’d better understand what the trust really says.

A line in “Two Tickets to Paradise,” one of singer Eddie Money’s best-known songs, is “Won’t you pack your bags.” In 2015 that was what the rocker told his longtime drummer Glenn Symmonds, firing him and others in his band. Was Symmonds the victim of age discrimination, or was Money exercising his rights, protected by the First Amendment, to decide who would perform with him?