Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog

May 5, 2010

How to Defend a Foreclosure in Jacksonville

In Jacksonville a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer uses many laws that regulate the mortgage lending process to defend your Jacksonville Foreclosure. The first step is to determine what laws and issues apply to your case by doing a careful analysis of your specific circumstances.

When you talk with a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyers its important to determine your objectives from the start and make sure that if they are met, you will be able to afford the home and are just not delaying the inevitable. Do you want to keep the home, reduce penalties, clear your credit, or simply dispose of the home with as little damage to you as possible?

Its important to know whether your current loan was the original loan or a later refinance of the original loan and the date the loan was taken out. There are certain remedies that expire and before perusing a remedy it is important to know whether it will still be available.

May 3, 2010

Florida Homestead Protection and Creditors: Will your home be protected upon your death?

by David M. Goldman

When a person dies, who owned a property protected by a Florida Homestead we generally expect the property to be free from the claims of creditors.

There are certain situations when this is not true and other types of planning could prevent creditors from making claims against your Florida Homestead.

So when will your property lose homestead protection upon your death:

April 14, 2010

Jacksonville Trial Attorney

by David M. Goldman

A Jacksonville Trial Lawyer can be very helpful in the event that your dispute needs to go to trial. There are many different types of Jacksonville trial attorneys. The Law Office of David M. Goldman PLLC has Jacksonville Civil Trial lawyers as well as Jacksonville Criminal Trial Lawyers. We Deal with Family law, criminal, trust, will, estate planning, foreclosure defense, probate, guardianship, and asset protection issues. Many cases never go to trial and are settled by a Jacksonville Trial Attorney long before seeing a court room. If you would like t discuss your circumstances or what options you have to protect your rights please contact a Jacksonville Trial Attorney today.

For more information on Jacksonville or Florida Foreclosure Defense See the Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyers Blog.

April 8, 2010

Jacksonville Foreclosure Mediation Lawyer

by David M. Goldman

In Jacksonville Florida including Duval, Clay and St. Johns Counties, all new residential foreclosure lawsuits are directed to a “Mediation with the Lender”. While some who participate in these mediation feel they are getting a good deal, most do not realize what they are actually agreeing to when an agreement is reached. It is important to be represented by a Florida Foreclosure Lawyer or a Jacksonville Foreclosure Lawyer before attending one of the court ordered Foreclosure Mediations.

We have seen many cases, where the purported owner of the note tries to get the home owner to agree that they are the real party in interest and have the right to sue the homeowner. The agreements try to get the homeowners to waive all future rights to defenses and counterclaims for the improper actions of the people who are have filed the lawsuit. The agreements also cost the homeowner more than if they preformed under the existing loan and set the homeowner up for a future default and foreclosure.

Without someone who understands the terms of these agreements to represent you and negotiate, your outcome will likely be worse than the agreement you are presently in. While your payment may be lower in the short term, the reduction and past due amounts will be added on to the end. Another trick they try to pull is to let the interest rate float in 3-5 years. This will likely make your future payments much higher than they are now.

April 4, 2010

Do the heirs have a right to see a will?

by David M. Goldman

Yes, heirs have a right to see the will and to know everything about the assets and distributions. Yes, some personal effects can be distributed before the “will closes” or the probate is closed.

Florida probate laws include many protections for the beneficiaries of a probate estate. If you are a beneficiary under a Florida Will and there are assets that were required go through probate, you should have received some notifications.

You should require that the Custodian of the will deposit it with the court. If they refuse, they can be ordered to by the court and are subject to reimbursement of your legal fees.

April 3, 2010

iPad and blogging

by David M. Goldman

I was wondering if the iPad would be good enough to use for blogging when away from the office. In my first few hours of using the device it appears very fast and more than capable of doing most things one would use a notebook for. I see many of our clients able to heck copies of important documents and provide them to others in a flash.

March 17, 2010

How to deal with NFA and Non NFA Firearms in a Florida Will

by David M. Goldman

Firearms and Florida estate planning has become a hot topic. Many of us own individual firearms and would like to have a beneficiary for them. While I prefer to deal with this using a NFA Gun Trust there are times when individuals have other firearms or items subject to the NFA that they do not want to transfer into a NFA Trust. I was recently asked by a Virginia lawyer for some ideas on provisions to include in a clients will to help deal with these items properly.

While this can be a very complex issue, I will try to touch on a few of the areas of concern. First, you need to determine if you are dealing with a traditional will or a pourover will. If you are dealing with a pourover will, then you need to direct that NFA firearms go to the NFA trust and other personal property go to the other trust. The real problem is that if you are dealing with a traditional will.

Some of the sections that you should consider modifying are the areas where they talk about

March 13, 2010

Toyota Diminution of Value Lawsuits: Toyota Class Action Lawyer

by David M. Goldman

Whether you live in Florida, New York, California or any state and are the owner of a Toyota car, truck, or SUV, your Toyota Automobile may have just dropped in value. We all know there will be many Class Action Lawsuits against Toyota. Here is one class action that you may not have considered. Even if Toyota fixes the problems and no one is injured from a defect in your Toyota car, the recent bombardment of news has caused your automobile to decrease in value. You may ask, why is this on a Florida Estate Planning Lawyer’s website? What if you are the PR of an estate that owns a Toyota vehicle, a trustee of a trust that owns a vehicle, or the guardian of someone who owns a Toyota car subject to the recall? You may have a duty to investigate what claims of action you might have to avoid liability. Remember that by failing to investigate a claim or pursue one, you may be violating your fiduciary duty.

The good news that whether to pursue these types of claims is a simple one as they are almost always done on a contingency basis. If you have a potential claim you might want to contact Florida Toyota Class Action Lawyer Mike Ossi at (904) 399-0606 to talk about a claim.

March 13, 2010

2010 and Estate Planning using Alaska Community Property Trusts

by David M. Goldman

Given that there is not estate tax this year, individuals with assets that are exposed to large capital gains upon the death of the first or both spouses have begun to look at using an Alaska Community Property Trust to help reduce the tax liability that occurs when the first spouse dies. If you live in a state like Florida or one where there is not community property, you might want to contact a Jacksonville Estate Planning Lawyer or Florida Estate Planning Lawyer to discuss how using this technique could benefit you.

March 10, 2010

Commercial Property foreclosure and Certificate of Authority

by David M. Goldman

Florida Commercial Foreclosure Case Law Update
Recently a Florida Court ruled that a Certificate of Authority is not required for a borrower to foreclose of a commercial property.

Summary –Mortgage foreclosure — Commercial property — No merit to borrowers’ argument that national bank’s failure to obtain and hold a “certificate of authority” from Florida Department of State precluded bank from transacting business in Florida, including securing, collecting, and enforcing debts, mortgages, and security interests — State cannot require a national bank to register or file as a “foreign corporation” in order to maintain a lawsuit in a state court — Statute prohibiting foreign corporation from transacting business in state until it obtains certificate of authority is expressly preempted as applied to all national banking associations — Borrowers’ contention that factual issues exist as to amounts owed is without merit where borrowers at no time offered a contrary calculation of monies owed, but merely contended, by way of affidavit in opposition to bank’s motion for summary judgment, that they do not owe the amounts alleged by the bank — Order entering final summary judgment against each mortgagor and against guarantor was appropriate.

35 Fla. L. Weekly D557a
For more information on Jacksonville or Florida Foreclosure Defense See the Florida Foreclosure Defense Lawyers Blog.
Continue reading