Employers in a wide range of industries routinely ask employees to sign agreements requiring any work-related disputes to be resolved through arbitration rather than via litigation. They argue that arbitration is less costly, faster, and more private than going to court, thus benefiting workers and companies.
Settling even a relatively modest estate can sometimes require asking for intervention by a court. What squabbling heirs may not realize is that the first question a judge may consider is if all the parties have the legal right to participate in the dispute – what lawyers call “standing.”
While most wills and trusts are clearly worded and straightforward in expressing their intentions, it is not uncommon for some to contain phrases that are confusing or ambiguous, requiring a court to determine how the terms should be interpreted.
Companies often spend significant time and resources negotiating contracts before entering into business relationships, especially where the parties intend to have a longstanding, ongoing relationship. The expectation is that the terms negotiated in the contract will apply if any questions arise in the relationship, and courts typically enforce these terms if one business brings a claim that the other breached the agreement.
It is well understood that a lawyer can have a disqualifying conflict of interest by having conflicting duties to current clients or because of a conflict between the duties owed to a current and a former client. This is the reason that, when a prospective client contacts a lawyer about possibly representation, one of the lawyer's first steps is to conduct a “conflict check” – that is, to see if representing a potential new client would create a conflict of interest for the lawyer or the lawyer's firm because of a relationship with another current or former client.
Thousands of California families will benefit from a recent change in state law that makes the probate process simpler, quicker, and less expensive for heirs and beneficiaries of relatively modest estates. But for most families, a well-designed estate plan, with a carefully crafted trust, is still the better option.
