Recent Blog Posts

When someone dies and you are somehow responsible, tax issues you will deal with can be complicated but, hopefully, this when get you started in the right direction. A. Income Tax - This one should be obvious. If the person who died had been filing tax returns, it's an indication that they may h...

A new law for domestic partners in Maryland came into effect on October 1, 2023. A “domestic partner” is age 18 or over; a sole domestic partner for another; not married; and in a committed relationship with the other. This is a significant change that affects inheritance tax  and benefits if the...

This is for all the unmarried couples out there living together. As an attorney handling estate matters for the past 50 years, one of the most difficult situations I have to deal with is a phone call from a significant other about the death of his/her partner and there is no Last Will & Testament...

Are Non-Competition Agreements Going to Become a Thing of the Past? On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to prohibit employers from imposing noncompete clauses on workers. Here's a sample of part of the proposed Rule: § 910.2 Unfair methods of...

The Maryland SAFE Act (Statute Against Financial Exploitation) In October of 2021, a Maryland law was put into place to address the financial exploitation of susceptible adults and older adults. The statute has “teeth”. An “older adult” is defined as someone at least 68 years old. The definition ...

On 2/4/2022, the case of Cador v. YES Organic Market Hyattsville Inc. was filed in the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. This is the link https://mdcourts.gov/data/opinions/cosa/2022/0898s20.pdf The author of the opinion is retired Judge Charles E. Moylan who is still going strong at age 91. He'...

On 12/6/2021, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals filed an unreported decision on an issue not important to this post. Reading through the facts, I was struck by the gruesome detail of what a first responder went through in his 10 years on the job. It's not just police, fire and medical personn...

Why Do Lawyers Charge So Much to Do a Simple Will? Since this is coming from a lawyer, I think you should know my background and biases. My office is in Prince Frederick. In June, I started my 49th year of law practice. I do some estate planning but most of my work is dealing with estates and tru...

Maryland Law Says Your Cherished Pet is Worth $10,000 – That's It! Maryland law includes this provision wich does not apply to livestock. “A person who tortiously causes an injury to or death of a pet while acting individually or through an animal under the person's ownership, direction, or contr...

USA v. Corrine Brown Corrine Brown, a Florida Democrat who served more than two years in prison after being found guilty of running a sham charity, was granted a new trial by a federal appeals court. https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/201715470.enb.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1PktVCOx-99dU5mOJ...

I was an electronic engineer working for Westinghouse and an expert on the weapons control system known as AWG-10 that was in the nose of the F4-J Phantom aircraft. That before I decided to go to law school. In my engineering world, virtually everything was yes or no, 0 or 1, on or off. I come fr...

Whenever I prepare a Will for a client, I go over with them the options for where the original Will should be kept. Most of the time I recommend that it be delivered to the Register of Wills for safekeeping in their fire protected vault. Recently, I spoke with a client who had prepared their own ...

One of the questions that comes up frequently when someone dies is who owns the remaining burial plots. A typical question is: Grandpa gave the deeds to our family burial plots to my Aunt. After my Aunt passed away, my older sister had the deeds in her possession. When my Uncle passed away, they ...

The Maryland Court of Appeals (Maryland's highest court) on August 28, 2020, delivered a major decision that was many years in the making.  The opening pages of the opinion are clear and succinct and are below: Nearly a century ago, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ...

Revocation of a Will You live in Maryland. You had a lawyer prepare and you signed your Will in 2016 leaving your estate to only 2 of your 3 children. You know you have the original somewhere but you haven't been able to find it. You are divorced with 3 adult children. You know that if you die wi...

So, you've completed your estate planning documents. You carefully reviewed them. They were duly signed and witnessed and you've got them in a safe place. But then you and your spouse were talking and you've decided that one of the gifts you put into your Will is now a bad choice. You had given a...

BREACH OF FIDUCIARY DUTY This has been a troublesome concept in Maryland law until today when the Court of Appeals filed its opinion in Plank v. Cherneski https://mdcourts.gov/data/opinions/coa/2020/3a19m.pdf The Court's explanation of the trouble over the years is set out in the first paragraph ...

Probate is a process supervised by the County Register of Wills and Orphans' Court. If you take on the role of Personal Representative (just another term for Executor or Administrator) you need to be careful about your obligations and duties. Here are important things to consider and know: 1. Thi...

FORCE MAJEURE We've been hearing a lot about force majeure clauses potentially providing a basis for avoiding a contract. I've not found any Maryland appellate case decision based upon a force majeure clause but I did come across a Supreme Court case – Viterbo v. Friedlander,120 U.S. 7077 (1887)....

SBA has released two new PPP Loan Forgiveness forms: 3508EZ and 3508. Here are links to the two forms https://www.sba.gov/document/sba-form–paycheck-protection-program-loan-forgiveness-application-instructions-borrowers-6-16-2020 https://www.sba.gov/document/sba-form-paycheck-protection-program-e...

As parents, we know that children are expensive to raise and care for, however, only a few specific expenses are included in determining the calculation of child support in Maryland. After we determine each parent's income, we include the expenses of childcare, health insurance coverage, and extr...

Statement on Equal Justice under Law June 9, 2020 The protests of the last several weeks have coalesced into a truth that cannot be ignored: people of color are being denied their rightful equality.  Frustration and grief have poured out in response to the recent events that so horribly have il...

While my practice is in Maryland, I am also a member of the Kentucky bar because I maintain a remote office in Lexington, KY. This afternoon a statement came through from the president of KBA. It is so well put and just as applicable to MD lawyers that I thought it worthy of being posted here. Co...

For the first 20 years of my law practice, a significant part of it involved contested divorce and custody work. Frequently, at the core of the disputes was information provided by a child to the parents. Generally, issues arose for three reasons: (1) the child was not old enough to appreciate th...

Maryland is a fairly unique state for divorce. Unlike most states, Maryland allows you to file for a Limited Divorce or an Absolute Divorce. The process for both is similar, but the outcome is very different. A limited divorce does not result in a legal divorce. A couple that goes through a limit...