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Patten, Faith & Sandford's Legal
Practice
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Corporate and Business Formation:
There are many ways to organize a business including sole proprietorships,
general and limited
partnerships, C corporations, S corporations, limited
liability entities, and joint ventures. The particular
business type that is best for any particular company depends upon a number of
factors and issues including liability protection, taxation, investor protection, and
management and control. We work closely with our clients and their financial
advisors and accountants to make certain that the business organizations we
recommend are appropriate under the circumstances.
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| Real Property Law: This
area of the law is vast and includes the drafting of sale and purchase
agreements; conveyance of real property by grant deed, quitclaim deed,
trustee's deeds upon sale, reconveyance, and deeds in lieu of
foreclosure, promissory estoppel, and executed oral agreements, to name but a few methods of conveyance; partition actions;
quiet title actions; specific performance actions; quasi-specific
performance actions; easements; reservation of rights; construction
defects; fraud; boundary disputes; drafting and enforcement of commercial lease
agreements; commercial lease litigation; and negotiation and resolution
of land use disputes with municipalities and other government agencies
including eminent domain actions.
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Family Law: This area of the law
includes not only marital relationships, but non-marital Registered Domestic
Partner and Marvin
relationships as well. In both marital and non-marital relationships, the
issues of support, child custody and visitation, use and management of real and
personal property, separate and community property, division of real and personal property, counseling, and the
prevention of violence can arise. Family law also includes private
adoptions and step-parent adoptions.
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| Wills, Trusts, Estate Planning, and Probate:
This area of the law includes drafting wills, drafting trusts including
revocable living trusts,
irrevocable trusts and life insurance and special needs trusts, and the probate
of estates. Probating an estate is a court proceeding for
transferring real and personal property to heirs or beneficiaries.
When a person who dies leaves a will, the probate court will supervise
the payments to the decedent's creditors and the distribution of the
remaining estate to those named in the will. When a person dies
without having left a will, the probate court will supervise the
payments to the decedent's creditors and the distribution of the
remaining estate to those persons entitled to receive the estate in
accordance with California statutory law. When a person in another
state dies while owning real property in California, that property is
probated in what is called an ancillary proceeding. In the area of estate
planning are considerations of asset preservation, gifting, and minimizing estate taxes for heirs. This area of law
also includes conservatorships, guardianships of minors, elder law, and health care
directives and
general powers of attorney.
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| Personal Injury
(Other Than On-the-Job Injuries): Personal injury practice includes all injuries a
person could sustain (other than on-the-job injuries) as a result of the
negligence of another person or a company. Personal injury damages
include medical and hospital bills, drug costs, emergency transportation
costs, loss of wages, loss of use, loss of consortium, pain and
suffering, and a number of other losses depending upon the
injuries sustained. These cases include automobile accidents,
slips and falls on public and private property, medical, dental,
and pharmaceutical malpractice, public transportation accidents,
railway and air line accidents, and injuries sustained because of
environmental pollution or contamination, to name but a few.
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Employment Law: Employment
law includes defending the rights of employees and employers. We help
employers design policies and procedures manuals that protect both the employer
and the employee and comply with state and federal laws. There is a
constant tension between employers and employees as employers do whatever they
can to keep down costs and maximize profits and employees demand wages and
benefits that will provide them with an income that will enable them to provide
a comfortable and secure life for them and their families. Since we
represent both employers and employees, our firm has greater insight into the
problems facing our clients, and we try to find creative and practical solutions
to solve those problems.
Click here for an overview of wage and hour
law,
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| Litigation: Broadly,
litigation means to prosecute or defend a case that has been filed until
the case is over. Just about any kind of case can end up in
litigation. During the course of the litigation, parties and
witnesses are questioned in depositions, parties and witnesses produce
documents and other information relevant to the issues raised by the
case, experts are consulted and their depositions taken, motions are
made, opposed and ruled upon by the court, and settlement offers and
counteroffers are negotiated. Most cases never go to trial.
Many things can happen to the case to prevent it from actually going to
trial. Statistically, most cases are settled which avoids the
necessity of a trial. Some cases are dismissed for a number of
reasons before they get to trial. Some cases are decided by the
court by a process called summary judgment and some are resolved at
mediation or arbitration. Litigation is
time-consuming, very expensive, and emotionally exhausting for the
parties involved. Certainly there are many cases in which
litigation is unavoidable. For instance, most personal injury
cases must be filed because it is the attitude of most businesses and
insurance companies to refuse to settle even the most obvious and
reasonable of cases. Their battle cry of "Millions for
defense but not one dime for tribute" is both destructive and
indefensible. However, to the extent possible, it is our
philosophy to settle cases so long as the settlement is fair to our
clients and is feasible. In the long run, settlement provides our
clients with a result that is certain rather than the uncertainty of
trial, is substantially less expensive, and puts an end to the
distraction litigation presents in the lives of those involved in it.
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| Appellate Law: Very
few judgments are appealed, and of those judgments that are appealed,
almost all are affirmed at the Court of Appeal level and denied further
review by the California Supreme Court. Appeals are expensive
and time-consuming and prolong the parties' involvement in
litigation that is disruptive to their lives. But if there is much
at stake and the judge or jury made serious and material mistakes in
reaching a verdict and entering a judgment, an appeal is
necessary. Appeals are much different than trial work.
Generally, Courts of Appeal review only the evidence that led to the
judgment and do not hear testimony from witnesses or consider facts or
documents that were not offered into evidence during the trial.
Once a Court of Appeal renders its decision, a dissatisfied appellant
can request review by the California Supreme Court. The California
Supreme Court accepts very few cases for review and hears only appeals
that present significant issues for resolution. Once the
California Supreme Court renders its opinion in a case, all of the
California trial courts and Courts of Appeal must conform their
decisions to the Supreme Court opinion. Cases which present
significant federal constitutional questions may be appealed to the
United States Supreme Court. This is extremely rare.
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