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On November 3, Californians approved Proposition 19, a constitutional amendment which had important impacts on property taxes as well as estate planning.

It’s one thing to be disappointed that your father is rewriting his estate plan to give more to his new wife. It’s another to stand in the doorway and physically block your father’s lawyer from entering, to prevent dad from signing the revised papers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put unprecedented strain on virtually all businesses. Restaurants and retailers have few patrons, and many office buildings are nearly empty as their former occupants work from home. Meanwhile, rent payments on these properties continue to come due each month.

If you sign a contract that requires arbitration of disputes, and then decide you don’t like the terms of the deal you’ve made, don’t expect the courts to let you bypass that arbitration.

California businesses are required to make reasonable accommodations to the needs of customers with disabilities. But what happens when a Californian who is blind is unable to shop on the website of a company based in another state?

It is common for California married couples who buy a home or other real estate to take title as joint tenants (usually to avoid probate if one spouse dies), but to regard it as community property. What happens when one of the spouses declares bankruptcy? Can the bankruptcy trustee seize the jointly owned property to satisfy the bankrupt spouse’s debts, or can the trustee only reach the debtor spouse’s 50 percent share?