Ratner & Pinchman

A Professional Law Corporation

New Case Alert

Doolittle v. Exchange Bank Filed October 20, 2015, First District, Div. Three Cite as A143422 Susan Doolittle filed petitions to invalidate her mother’s restated trust on grounds of lack of capacity, undue influence, and financial elder abuse. The trust’s no contest clause directed the trustee to defend a contest at the expense of the trust estate. Susan and the trustee, Exchange Bank, filed competing petitions for instructions to address the trustee’s authority to use tr

SDGE Medical Baseline Allowance

Our firm periodically sends helpful information to our clients and friends. I am writing to call your attention to the San Diego Gas and Electric Medical Baseline Allowance. This allowance provides a discounted electric or gas rate to those suffering from chronic illnesses. For example, an individual who has asthma can request a discount to pay for electricity to power air conditioning. The discount can be as much as 40% each month. Click here for information on the program

Recent Case Alert Conservatorship of Kevin A.

Filed October 1, 2015, Fifth District Cite as F070914 Kevin A. appealed from an order granting the petition of the public conservator to reestablish LPS conservatorship for a one-year period, finding him gravely disabled. Although Kevin A. had previously remained in conservatorship for a number of years, a jury in 2013 found him not gravely disabled, terminating the conservatorship. Following a hearing in which Kevin A.’s apparent request to replace his attorney was denied, K

SAN DIEGO TAX LAWYER’S BUSINESS DEALS WITH ELDERLY CLIENT RESULT IN DISBARMENT RECOMMENDATION

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 8, 2015 – A San Diego tax attorney is facing disbarment for entering into $1.4 million in questionable business deals with an elderly client. The State Bar Court found John Douglass Jennings Jr., 70, of San Diego, (bar #52504), culpable of nine counts of failing to avoid interests adverse to a client and one count of failing to perform competently. Jennings will be ineligible to practice law on Oct. 10 as a result of the Bar Court’s Oct. 7 disbarment recom

No Social Security Raises Even if Medicare Soars

According to the New York Times: WASHINGTON — The 60 million people onSocial Security will not receive any cost-of-living increase in their benefits in 2016, the government said Thursday, but because of a quirk in federal law, nearly one-third ofMedicare beneficiaries could have record increases in their premiums unless Congress intervenes. Read more...

Governor Brown Signs End of Life Options

On October 5, 2015, Governor Brown signed landmark legislation - AB 15, the End of Life Options - allowing terminally ill patients to obtain lethal medications to end their lives when they choose. In an unusually personal signing message, the Governor noted: “I do not know what I would do if I were dying in prolonged and excruciating pain. I am certain, however, that it would be a comfort to be able to consider the options afforded by this bill. And I won’t deny that right to

AB 1085 Signed Into Law - Ensures the Right of All Adults to Visit with Friends and Family

Last month, the governor signed AB 1085 (Gatto) a bill in which the Legislature declared that "every adult in this state has the right to visit with, and receive mail and telephone or electronic communication from, whomever he or she so chooses, unless a court has specifically ordered otherwise." AB 1085's passage should, once and for all, end the notion that spouses, family members, agents under powers of attorney, or anyone else without a specific court order, can impair an

Recent Case Alert

Conservatorship of Moore Filed September 30, 2015, Second District, Division Six Cite as B253538 After doctors diagnosed 82-year-old Lester Moore with dementia and alerted his daughter that he could no longer manage his own affairs, his attorney William Salzwedel prepared documents in which Moore modified his trust to disinherit family members, and appointed Salzwedel as temporary trustee and agent under a durable power of attorney, replacing Moore’s daughter. Salzwedel also

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