Geoff R Casavant, PC

04/01/2020

The good news is, while the courthouse is closed to the public a lot of cases are still able to proceed via remote tele-meetings. I just finished one a few moments ago, and with a bit of patience and grace we all got through it just fine.

The bad news is, this will not apply to the probate of wills, because probating a will necessarily requires a person to be physically present in the courtroom to identify the filed document as the original will.

This is going to inconvenience a lot of people. Folks may wish to explore various non-testamentary transfer options to get around this temporary hiccup.

10/18/2017

It occurred to me earlier this month that in the past year I have dealt with three cases involving informal or "common law" marriage. Once, representing the surviving common law spouse; once, representing relatives seeking to disprove the claimed common law marriage; and once as a mediator, seeking to resolve a dispute between such parties.

Common law marriage is an archaic part of Texas jurisprudence that nevertheless survives to the present day. And naturally, the existence of a common law marriage has a profound effect on the probate and administration of a person's estate after death. It will be worthwhile to examine this more closely.

05/11/2017

I really enjoyed my time as a speaker at the monthly meeting of the HAR 290 Networking Group yesterday. I gave a presentation on probate issues in the sale of real estate, followed by a question and answer session.

I am available to give talks on probate and estate issues for any organization, just drop me a line.

05/08/2017

One of the hardest parts of being a mediator is remembering to be neutral. I am mediating a case next week, and as is my practice I am reviewing the pleadings in the case, and researching other documents. And perhaps realizing one side really has no leg to stand on, unless maybe they have done some extra work, and debating if I am allowed to ask them if they have done this work, and finally concluding I have to bite my tongue and let the process work itself.

05/01/2017

I don't believe I would be boasting to say I have had many clients who were satisfied with my representation. But it is a first for me to have a client who wanted to commemorate the representation in a photo. Thanks to Austin Smith for permission to share.

03/27/2017

An interesting case was just argued before the United States Supreme Court. Although it deals with divorce, not probate or estate planning, I still find it of interest because of its connection to the military.

The case is Howell v. Howell, and the basic facts are these. Mr. and Mrs. Howell were married during the time Mr. Howell served a full career in the military. Under the law, that meant Mrs. Howell was entitled to a portion of Mr. Howell's military retirement pension, and the court that heard their divorce proceeding divided the pension on a percentage basis, so that as Mr. Howell's pension increased due to cost of living adjustments, Mrs. Howell would receive a similar increased amount.

A few years after the divorce was finalized, Mr. Howell received the option to convert a portion of his retirement pay to disability pay. This practice has become popular because unlike retirement pay, disability pay is non-taxable. For Mr. Howell, moreover, there was an added benefit -- disability pay is defined as the separate property of the disabled spouse, and is not subject to division in a divorce. So, with respect to the disability pay, Mr. Howell not only got to keep the share that would formerly have gone to his ex-wife, but got to keep the share that would otherwise have gone to the government.

Mrs. Howell, as could be expected, sued to force Mr. Howell to pay her the amounts that she would have received but for the reclassification of the benefits. As is the case with most cases that make it to the Supreme Court, there are good arguments to be made on both sides.

Regardless of how the Court rules, however, it is clear that future divorce agreement seeking to divide a military pension, or any other benefit that might be subject to re-classification in the future, should specifically discuss what should happen to the division in the event such a re-classification is made.

05/06/2016

Most of us have heard of the tragic and untimely death of music superstar Prince. This promises to be a case to watch in the future, and an object lesson of the need to have a will in place. Surveys have shown that nearly two-thirds of Americans do not have a will.

So far there has been no trace of a will among Prince's effects. If he ever consulted an attorney to prepare a will, that attorney has yet to come forward. That means Prince's estate will pass according to the laws of intestacy in his home state of Minnesota. If he owned real property in a different state, or another country, however, the inheritance laws of that state or country will apply to that particular property.

Publicly, Prince was unmarried at the time of his death, with no children. His parents are dead. His estate will therefore pass to his siblings. It is known he has a sister, along with five half-siblings (who share one parent with Prince, but not both). A trust company has been appointed as a temporary administrator of the estate until the heirship issue can be resolved.

What promises to make this case interesting for those of us in the probate world, is that Prince toured world-wide for a period of decades, and was notorious for his sexual freedom (and presumably an appetite to match). The existence of a single child, even one that was unknown to Prince himself, would instantly wipe out any claim his siblings would have to his estate in the absence of a will, and his child (or children as the case may be) would instantly inherit everything.

Similarly, there would also be the possibility of a previously unknown marriage. A man visiting so many states and countries could not possibly be aware of the marriage laws of all of them, especially in those jurisdictions that still recognize common-law marriage.

Assuming Minnesota's probate laws are of the usual variety, the court overseeing the estate will appoint an attorney, known as an attorney ad litem, whose task it will be to represent any unknown heirs of the pop superstar. Part of the attorney ad litem's duties will be to actively search records and interview witnesses, to locate any children that may exist.

Ponder that for a moment -- an attorney's job will be to fly around the country and the world, tracing the steps of a man whose travels span decades, interviewing hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of women whom this man may have slept with, comparing birth records, and testing claims. This one case could easily provide a career's worth of billable hours for years. The due diligence required of the attorney ad litem could easily exceed even that of the case of Howard Hughes, the Texas billionaire who died intestate in 1976.

Ponder as well, all the cranks who are all but guaranteed to come out of the woodwork in the months and years to come, each claiming to be a long-lost unknown child. Modern science, in the form of DNA testing, should be able to rule most of them out easily. But oh, those who cannot be excluded so easily . . . .

This is an interesting time to be a probate attorney in Minnesota.

07/30/2015

Here is an interesting article on the woes (and suspected abuses) people encounter in the Harris County Probate Courts in guardianship proceedings.

Full disclosure: I know all the Harris County Probate Court judges mentioned in this article professionally, though not personally; one or two recognize me when I appear before them. I have never been anything less than impressed by their ability and professionalism, even when I am on the losing side.

I know only one of the attorneys mentioned in the article. She is not an attorney accused of any wrongdoing.

I also handle guardianship matters on behalf of applicants, and will soon renew my certification to receive court appointments in guardianship proceedings, in accordance with the new laws taking effect on September 1.

The reader will notice a recurring theme in the cases mentioned -- the family members do not get along. Intra-family battles and greed are, in my opinion, the single greatest cause of unnecessary expense and stress in guardianship and probate proceedings.

And, if I may say so, the next greatest is the lack of properly prepared estate planning documents. It is always best to think matters through well ahead of time, discuss your options with a qualified estate planning attorney (including strategies to avoid the necessity of a guardianship in the first place), and get your preferences in writing, done right the first time.

As always, feel free to comment on and share this post.

In October 2007, Willie Jo Mills of Houston suffered a stroke that paralyzed the right side of her body. A widow with two daughters and a son, the 80-year-old woman was prescribed a variety of pain medications, but doctors couldn’t find the right cocktail. Six months later, Mills’s son Larry...

02/18/2015

This is an important development in same-sex rights. For the first time -- anywhere, as far as I know -- a court has ruled that same-sex couples have the same right to common law marriage as different-sex couples.

I expect if this ruling stands -- and even if the Supreme Court rules, as it is expected to due in June, that state bans of same-sex marriages are unconstitutional, the common law aspects might still need some shaking out and may encounter significant pushback -- then same-sex people living together will need to take extra care to clarify precisely what relationship they want between themselves, and act accordingly, including any documentation of such an agreement.

As always, feel free to share this post among your friends. You never know who might need it.

A Texas probate judge ruled Tuesday that the state's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. The ruling, by Travis County Probate Judge Guy Herman, was part of an estate battle, according to the Austin-American Statesman. An Austin woman so...

07/04/2014

Wishing all of my friends, colleagues, and clients a happy and safe Independence Day weekend. Please do not drink and drive -- given the choice, there are some clients I prefer not to have,

06/04/2014

I have a client who needed to break her lease early so she could return home on short notice to aid her ailing grandmother. I negotiated an early termination to the lease, on fairly generous terms.

My client has already left town, dropping off her keys and the payment to the landlord with me. The landlord's manager sent me an email saying after consulting with their "corporate attorney," (a) she would not perform a walk-through until the end of the 60-day notice next month; and (b) while she would be courteous and my client could be present at the walk-through, I could not.

It is almost as though the manager sat and thought to herself, "what course of action could I take that would be as deliberately inconvenient to the tenant as possible?"

I sent her a reply email, helpfully pointing out that if the landlord accepted possession now, they could probably have a new tenant in by the end of the month, and they would still get to keep my client's prepaid rent for July. Perhaps pure greed will work where compassion fails.

04/29/2014

I had a meeting yesterday with a new client, who brought her daughter along. I will not discuss the details of the case here, except to say that her disabled son is turning eighteen in a few months, so she is seeking a guardianship so she might direct his continuing medical care.

But what truly impressed me was her daughter, who has been helping with her younger brother's care all his life. When I asked the daughter for her email address, she said "Doctor" followed by 4 digits, then the domain name. When I inquired further, she said that was the year she would be completely finished with medical school and residency, and finally be an M.D.

That, my friends, is what believing in yourself truly looks like.