- Quickdraw McLaw
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If you haven’t read all the comments from yesterday, there is some information about the Supreme Court and its caseload. Speaking of which, they will issue some new opinions today that will be available here.
Judah Zakalik has a piece in the Las Vegas Sun about what happens when you die without a will. It got us wondering, do you have a will? If no, why not? Those of you who do–did you draft it yourself or hire someone? Any recommendations on how to do it? Is LegalZoom a good option? Should we be looking at trusts? Do you have plans in place for your firm when you die? Who will take care of your files, etc? Any other advice?
I understand the arguments that the Supremes have duties other than issuing Decisions. However they are issuing 6 Advanced Opinions today. They also issued 5 Unpublished Decisions; however the Unpublisheds are all Orders of Dismissal by the Clerk for failure to pay the filing fee. That averages out to less than 1 substantive decision per Justice for the entire week. Since the 8 weeks since August 3rd, the Court will have issued 15 Advanced Opinions, which averages out to 2 opinions per Justice in 8 weeks. Can you imagine the public outcry if we found out that District Court judges were doing motion calendars and trying cases and issuing one (1) ruling per week? Someone suggested yesterday going to the oral arguments at Boyd and pressing the Justices on what the Court is doing to address its abominable work product and interminable delays.
Just looking at the numbers (from the 2016 annual report, Table 2):
In 2014 the appellate courts had 1,985 pending cases.
In 2015 it was 1,740.
In 2016 it was 1,629.
So backlog is decreasing, but probably not as much as anticipated or represented.
Opinions have remained relatively stable from 2012-16, averaging about 90 opinions per year.
It appears the Nevada Supreme Court is on track to issue about 85 opinions. They probably should be averaging more about 140 if you assume about 10% of cases are opinion-worthy and 1,000 cases are supposed to be assigned to the Court of Appeals this year. That's about 1.5 opinions per justice per month.
But then again, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics…
Think about that. 1.5 Opinions per month as a workload. Unless you are determined to write a treatise every time ala Tao, no offense– that is pathetic.
Also, I think most of the justices never bother to write separately about anything. Very few other courts have such passivity. Why not just have 3 of them if they just cosign.
@9:49 – I disagree. Justices aren't just scriveners; their job is to read the arguments, consider the law, do additional research, and then write a well-written opinion that we can all use in the future. Good writing takes time.
In addition to other duties.
1.5 opinions a month is certainly fine. The US Supreme Court issues less with more justices.
The missing piece here is the influx of new cases. If the number of new cases being appealed has remained steady, then yes, the number of pending cases should be decreasing. But if the number of new cases has increased over the past few years, then it would make sense that the backlog is still pretty high. I don't know if it has.
My impression, and I could be wrong, is that the number of writ petitions is up. In my experience these were relatively rare, and now some firms (mostly defense) seem to file them every time a pre-trial interlocutory order doesn't go their way. Most are still denied, but this has to increase the workload to some degree.
If he/she is serious, at 9;59 ,there is a clear misunderstanding of how such court operates. Staff includes research attorneys, drafting attorneys, skilled law clerks, etc. Certainly, in cases of real import and significant policy, justices will be more directly involved than usual. But I believe in many cases a judge's primary involvement is discussing the case with the staff attorneys and law clerks, indicating the direction they wish to go in, and then directing that the research and drafting subsequently occur. Or in case where a judge is not sure what direction to lean toward in order to guide the research and drafting, the judge will postpone such decision until the research and preliminary drafting is completed. I assume some justices, more than others, will be heavily involved with reading and revising draft opinions submitted to them.
I do think in general the justices are a lot more directly involved and engaged in the process than when I started practicing in the 80's.Back then it was an all-male court, and it seemed virtually all of them were in their 70's,very often upper 70's and even 80's, and some had serious health issues. Back then we suspected that a few of these justices did little more than merely sign their name to decisions(or perhaps not even that. We suspected a couple of them used auto-pen to sign).
This current court, IMO, is a million times better than it was back in the 80's.
Not related to this topic but just something I noticed… Parraguirre recuses ALOT. I understand why Pickering is disqualified with her connection with Steve Morris but why is Parraguirre so often recusing/disqualified?
I just woke up from a four year coma, but we know the issue here. The Supreme Court just needs an appellate court to take over some of the caseload. This will allow the Supreme Court to issue more published opinions, which will in turn give attorneys more law to utilize in our individual practices. Now, if you'll excuse me, I am going to check up on the state of U.S. politics.
…
[Hits self in head with lead pipe. Goes back into coma.]
I nominate this for comment of the year
As an estate litigator, I recommend you use LegalZoom, which will help continue to feed my kids. Honestly, I have had so much work as a result of chaos from LZ documents. In all seriousness, though, this is one of those times in life when it's worth a little extra money to have a qualified human being do the work for you.
Who would you recommend to do a will or trust if you are someone who is not independently wealthy but would want to avoid the probate hassle?
8:53 AM. I would recommend the planners in my firm, obviously!
In all seriousness, there are a number of firms in town that would do a good job. Here is what to look for: a firm that does nothing but probate/trust administration and litigation. Get quotes. Most estate plans can be done on a flat fee. Watch out for upselling. Most people only really need a pour-over will, trust and POA docs. Don't use someone who does estate planning AND P.I. AND DUI's AND BK.
Rob Graham. I hear he's good.
Why not the author of the article. The difference is black and white!
What would it cost for sufficient estate planning? I have a wife and kid. I know it's important to do estate planning, especially now that I have a kid, but I quite frankly can't afford any of my colleagues' billable rates.
Legalzoom will charge you $20. Bargain-bin estate planners range from $600 – $1500. Non-bargain-bin folks might go up as high as $3000-$4000.
A copy of a NOLO book, Leimberg's The Tools & Techniques of Estate Planning, and some general forms will run you around $250. A trial copy of Fore! Trust software, including RLT packages (good for 14 days, or long enough to draft your own stuff if you're familiar with the concepts), is free.
Or, you could hire a "licensed Document Preparer" for peanuts off the back pages of Craigslist, and watch as they flagrantly (and poorly) practice law without a license.
I used to do a whole estate plan for people for $500 flat. That was POAs, wills, a trust, a binder, and a pen. I got flak from other attorneys for the low price. I got flak from my staff because just the signing takes like an hour. Just don't go to a mill. There are good solo estate planning folks out there.
At least do a holographic will and fill out an advanced directive. Bare minimum and a good idea.
To append to 9:31 – don't pay for an advanced directive or POA. It's literally a statutory form that you can get from NRS 162A. And once you get the Health Care POA, register that sucker with the Secretary of State. Also free.
Mike Cahill. Highly recommend.
Many of you are so dumb. You actually believe that the cheap attorneys are the ones to go to for trusts. Do you even get that this affects your family? So, so dumb. Maybe you go to McDonald's for dinner or Walmart to but a shirt, but this is your family.
"buy"
9:31, the going rate for the damn binder is $20, more if you want it embossed. So once you deduct the staff time, your time, and the binder, you lost money on that transaction.
And holographic wills are a great way to make sure your family hates you for forcing a will contest on them.
@9:11 p.m.– Yes I get that it involves my family but I also get that it involves me living for another 40 years and just needing a simple inter vivos vehicle to keep assets separate. No I don't want to pay you $5000 for you to autofill your "SuperTrust" for me. The dispositions are not complicated.
Here you go:
The 8:56am Trust
I declare a trust under Nevada law.
I will now give things to it like my car.
My beneficiaries are _______.
My successor trustee is ____.
Signed
Dated
Notarized
Witnessed
+ Pour over will
That will be $5000 because you know, I can pull on your heartstrings and tell you that its your family that is involved.
Reading an environmental law blog this morning and this just popped up. Anyone know anything about this? My firm handles environmental issues and wondering if we will be getting a piece of what appears to be a problem… http://pvtimes.com/news/investigation-launched-potential-gas-exposure-nevada-solar-plant#sthash.LqOWsph6.dpbs
Bonkers. Crazy story. That place probably cleaned up the air in Nye County. Smells like pigs and dead fish.
Doing criminal or plaintiff work? Don't think you're immune:
https://lawyerist.com/lawyers-utilization-rate-clio-legal-trends-2017/
I want 2 minutes of my life back Sam.
Am I correct in reading the Adelson/fair report privilege opinion as a loss for Adelson? I love it when he loses.
You are correct.
Where is the Review Journal story about Adelson's loss. I must have missed it somehow. 🙂
Lippis has resigned. Does Leavitt get the appointment?
https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/courts/las-vegas-judge-resigns-after-25-years-on-bench/
If he has the most juice on account that he is a University Regent(or whatever position it is he holds). But if the juice he has is not sufficient, then it will be someone with more juice–not someone necessarily more qualified, but someone with more juice.
Qualifications don't have much to do with judicial appointments. It's largely political. Yet opponents of judicial elections want to convert to a pure appointment system in order to "remove politics from the process." Yeah, sure. Judicial appointments are as political as elections, albeit a somewhat different type of politics.
1:48–Well said, well said. Appointments are also very EEO or identity membership biased. Why would Lippis resign like that? Health reasons? Family? Other issues like pending complaints?? Anybody know.
1:48 and 2:25 PM-The newspaper says Judge Lippis has 25 years on the bench and 10 years at the PD and DA's office. That would give her a total of 35 years of service. Probably the maximum or close to maximum. She could also get 10 year PERS pension and 25 years Judicial PERS. Not too shabby. Six figures plus.
Heard Paul Raby died.
Yeah, he's been sick and not doing any work for quite a while.