Carol Ann Hunter Peters's Answers

CA estate planning laws, setting up a revocable trust

Your question is elegantly simple, but raises many subissues in multiple areas of law. And i do not understand what you mean when you say 'with the county'. Is the Public Guardian the Trustee? If so, then a Court hearing would be needed for a Substituted Judgment Petition, but this may not apply at all. First, please know that a Trustee and an individual cannot own property together as Joint Tenants, because the Trust is of perpetual existence, until it is fulfilled according to its terms...

1 person marked this answer as helpful

I was caught shoplifting today, and they gave me a ticket for petty theft and it's a misdemeanor here in CA. What can I DO?

If you are both minors, you may be able to get your record sealed upon attaining majority. However, if you are both adults, you will have future problems for ANY job that requires bonding, bondability, honesty, integrity, ~ such as working as a cashier at MacDonalds or a movie theatre, a teller at a bank, anything to do with money. Or becoming a notary. Truth and veracity are the bedrock of our legal system and our society. We need those qualities in order to trust each other, in order to...

1 person marked this answer as helpful

What Can i do to prevent my minor son moving out of state with his gaurdians?

Since you live in Pasadena, which is in LA County, you can get responsible, correct and accurate legal advice (and confidentially) from a Bet Tzedek attorney and/or staff person at the M, T, W 9-12 noon Conservatorship/Guardianship clinic at the main Courthouse at 111 North Hill Street, LA CA 90012, which is right near the Metro stop. Bet Tzedek has worked with Public Counsel to establish a program to make legal services more accessible for family matters, such as this. If his grandparents...

Is an adult adoption the only way to avoid property tax increase if I am willed the estate by my grandmother?

I confess that I do not understand your question: in California the Prop 13 real property tax base passes downstream from Parent to Child (Proposition 58) and grom Grandparent to Grandchild (see Prop 193) so that the Grantee's real property tax base stays the same as the Grantors. I think this is what you are asking about when you say you want to "lock in property taxes on her home". So if she is your grandmother, look at Proposition 193, which goes downstream ONLY, not upstream (from you to...

Can a gym refuse to refund me for unused personal training sessions?

If the paperwork you signed says that the 'sessions are not refundable', why should they be refundable? You agreed that they would not be. I don't understand "ridiculous' as a defense to a written contract. Within the 4 corners of the writing are all the duties and responsibilities they promised to you, and your promise to them, to pay money for their performance. Contracts aren'ts like gifts (which have donative intent); contracts have bilateral intent: "you do this and I'll do that"....

Can the court force my roommates to meet my ex-husband?

Your roommates have a First Amendment right of FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION, so they don't have to meet anyone they don't want to meet. But what are going to be the consequences of failing to cooperate, even when you don't have to? What is best for your children? How old are they? Where are they sleeping? Where are you sleeping? How messy do you want this to get? To answer the question you asked, YES, years ago Courts stopped overnight visitation b/c of allegations of impropriety. That...

I had my car towed for expired registration. My tags were expired, but my registration was current. Can they do that?

Do you have the tags now? How much spare time do you have? I suppose you could consider filing in Small Claims Court but if the defendant is the State of California b/c it was the DMV's fault, then this could be a federal case (citizen vs. state) with the amount in controversy exceeding $10,000 (being your car repossession fees plus whatever Inherently Valuable civil right you can find that will be (seriously) valued by the federal Court at more than $10,000 to create Subject Matter...

What action can be taken if resident is behind on their homeowners dues

Down here in LA County of this fine state of California we have the HOARDER'S TASKFORCE operated by the G.E.N.E.S.I.S. program of LA County's Dept. of Mental Health: call Danny Redmond to ask him to have his staff give you resources of equivalent help up there. What DMH does is work with the Code Enforcement people (who determine the health hazard issue) and work out a care plan so that psychologists and social workers (as well as professional organizers) would be working with your dad. Then...

What are search and seizure laws

I strongly recommend that you hire an Attorney to obtain and review the police report with you ~ because there is a new FEDERAL SUPREME COURT case that affects all of the probable cause rules, regarding whether (or not) someone in law enforcement was negligent. So the chain of what happend is really important - what happened first and then what happened next and so on. So important that I'm going to decline to shoot from the hip here, because you need to have Competent and Confidential legal...

Benefit Fraud and Working

I agree with Attorney Brian Davis' answer, although, like him, I am not licensed to practice in PA either, altough I was born there. Additionally, however, I worked for a county public benefits agency for 11 years here in California, so I am familiar with how public benefits overpayments and fraud are handled, which is why I agree with Attorney Davis strategy analysis. That is, I can vouch for the fact that the SSDI payments already made, upon discovery, would be regarded in the future as...

1 person marked this answer as helpful