Tredway, Lumsdaine and Doyle LLP

Our lead attorney for the probate, probate litigation and trust litigation team, Joseph A. Lumsdaine, was honored as both a Super Lawyer 2009 and recently a Super Lawyer 2010  by Southern California Lawyers and as Lawyer of the Year by the Southeast District Bar Association.

Joe has tremendous experience in these areas and is lead counsel on all complex matters involving probates, probate litigation and trust litigation which has earned him this well deserved recognition.

Congratulations Joe! It is a great pleasure and honor to work with you every day.

The dream of every American is to own real estate.  Taking ownership of real property should be a time of joy and pride.  To achieve this goal, often times, people own property jointly or as tenants in common.  Others leave a single piece of property to several children, e.g., the family home to the two brothers. What happens then, if a person owns property with another person, and one wants to sell it but the other wants to keep it?  What happens if co-owners no longer agree on ownership matters, such as investing in remodeling, or fixing the roof?

The ideal resolution would be that one co-owner purchases the other co-owner’s share of the property.  The parties agree on a price, and one buys the other out.  This way, both parties are happy: one has received the value of the property in monetary compensation, the other continues to keep the property and enjoy the benefits of ownership and rising value.

Unfortunately, the setting of the price usually can not be agreed upon.  Or, one party may not be able to obtain financing.  Whatever the complications, turning to the legal system is often necessary to split up or sell the property.   The court will make orders dealing with ownership.  This is called a partition action.

There are three methods of partition:  (1) a physical division of the property; (2) a sale of the property and a division of the proceeds; and (3) a partition by appraisal whereby one cotenant acquires the interests of the other cotenant based on a court ordered and supervised appraisal.  (Cal. Civ. Proc. § 873.210-980.)

Because of the costs associated with partition actions, owners of property should hire an attorney who has handled such actions in the past.  TLD attorneys are well-versed in real estate matters, especially partition actions, and can serve land owners expeditiously and economically.

Certain contract provisions are essential to every contract, such as attorney’s fees and interest terms. Unfortunately, in this down-turned economy, breach of contract actions are on the rise and the terms of the contract generally govern the parties’ agreement. A party generally will not be allowed to recover attorney’s fees unless their contract so states, or the dispute is over what is called an “open book account.”

I frequently receive questions regarding the tax treatment of employment damage awards. At Tredway, Lumsdaine & Doyle, LLP we are ready to handle both the questions posed by employers as to how best to resolve disputes with current and past employees as well as advise these employers on the tax consequences of the actions they take. We stay current on both employment law issues and business tax issues to thoroughly advise our clients.