Law Offices of Rose C. Crunkleton, LLC

08/17/2025

Had the privilege of co-moderating a discussion at the annual Legal Summit for the Maryland State Bar Association held in Ocean City, MD. Lots of great information shared by our esteemed panelists!

12/30/2024

Happy to announce that Governor Moore has appointed 13 members to the Judicial Nominating Commission for Calvert and St. Mary's counties, including myself! I am looking forward to nominating extraordinary judges to serve our two counties!🤩

08/23/2024

Some interesting thoughts on how to disinherit, or whether to disinherit, a child. I would add that to include the reason for the disinheritance is hurtful in itself, and also can give fodder to the disinherited person should they decide to challenge your will.

You aren’t entitled to other people’s money, even your parents’ assets.

05/18/2024

Ladies of the Law take a quick break! Now back to work!

05/18/2023

I was honored to present college scholarships awarded by the Calvert County Bar Association to four talented Calvert County graduating high school seniors.

Congratulations to our recipients and to all the high school seniors graduating this year!

12/30/2022

Lookie what my sister gave me! She found this framed picture at an antique store. It depicts the old days, when a judge would determine how to distribute the property of a deceased male landowner to his male children, because women couldn't own land. The caption reads "Protector of the Widow and the Orphan." Ha!

To this day, our Maryland probate court, which determines how property is distributed after someone dies, is called the Orphans' Court. The name was carried over from the pre-colonial London Court for Widows and Orphans, and confuses voters every four years when they vote for the three judges of their county's Orphans' Court (except for three counties). Many voters have wondered out loud, "How many orphans can there possibly be?!"

Maybe one day Marylanders will vote to change the name of the court. In fact, there's some talk to abolish the court altogether. For now, I'll enjoy the sketch as a reminder of how far the probate laws have progressed, and how far they still need to go. :)

11/02/2022

Former Supreme Court in Rio de Janeiro, now located in Brasilia

08/25/2022

I met a client recently in the National Harbor area, and as I was heading back I caught a glimpse of this liquor store in Oxon Hill. A thousand questions flooded my brain! Why did they call it Esquire Liquors? Do lawyers shop here? Is the liquor sold here the ones that lawyers usually partake? The store is not near a courthouse or any government center. Was the owner an attorney who quit the law business to run a liquor store? Is the owner an attorney who specializes in DWI's? Why do they spell Don't with two T's? "Esquiring" minds want to know!🤣

08/20/2022

A friend posted that August is Make-A-Will month! So come on in - call me at 410-286-2600! The friend's post included a link to Free Will to make your own will for free. I was curious, so I started the process and got very nervous very fast. They ask all kinds of personal questions. I have no idea where the information is going. I stopped midway through and now they're emailing me daily reminders to complete my will. I'm sure the end product is a cookie cutter will, which is fine if that's what you want, but I of course would recommend having an attorney prepare your will. You wouldn't believe the messes we have to clean up when people write their own will. Anyway, Happy Make-A-Will month!

08/07/2022

I don't have a problem with law clerks, lawyers, or judges starting at Wikipedia, and using the cited sources to look further into a matter, but I do have a problem with legal professionals using the same language used in a Wiki article as part of their reasoning.

Judges cited cases with Wikipedia articles more frequently than they did cases without such articles, a new study found. (iStock)Listen10 minCommentGift ArticleShareWikipedia was under siege recently from a right-wing campaign focused on its article about recessions. Isn’t it convenient, these cri...

07/13/2022

Visited Portland, Oregon last week and, as is my tradition, I sought out and took pix of courthouses! My favorite was Multnomah County courthouse because they actually let us inside (the others were closed for security reasons) and we went to the 17th floor for a stunning floor to ceiling window overlook of the city!

05/27/2022

Clients often ask if they should add their adult son or daughter to the deed to their house, so if the client dies, the son/daughter is the owner and no probate is needed. I usually tell the client this is probably not a good move. The child would take at the parent's cost basis, so there can be significant capital gains when the child goes to sell. The property would be exposed to the child's creditors. The adding of the child to the deed is a gift exceeding $16k, so will need to be reported. If the client wants to sell the house, the child will need to agree. It's better to put the house in a revocable living trust if the goal is to avoid probate.