Some Thoughts About Contested Probate Cases

June 13, 2016

Family law was never my thing. Alas, we don’t often know how life will turn out. About 15 years ago my practice focus shifted much more heavily into probate and estate planning. And probate, it turns out, is family law without the divorces, mostly.

Most probate matters—no good stats, but far more than 90% is my best estimate—get processed easily, quickly, and for a few thousand dollars. Then there are the outliers, which almost always have in common: (a) a dysfunctional family; and (b) deceased or demented parents. Sometimes, there’s lots of money or complicated assets, but in plenty of cases an inverse relationship exists between value and the intensity of the battle.

The battle may arise in a conservatorship

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Die on a Mountain

April 30, 2016

Several years ago I was sitting in an interminable board meeting. (I used to do that. Often!) An agenda item involved significant religious issues. An “aye” vote would have revved up many local Rabbis. I found myself in the thick of the discussion, taking an unexpected position. Then, a very wise man* who I’ve known since I was a young teenager piped up: “My dear, suffering wife,” he said, “will ask me on something like this, David, are you going to die on a mountain over this?” The topic was tabled within about 60 seconds, and never raised again.

I thought about Dying on the Mountain Moments when I saw a post on FB which claimed Hillary Clinton and Bernie

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The Wednesday Curator – 2/18/2016

February 17, 2016

Garry Wills is a quiet giant among writers. He has written extensively about the Catholic Church and about American politics. Pedigree aside, his piece for the National Review of Books, The Next Justice? It’s Not Up to Us, is exemplary for its scholarly takedown of the hucksters and fraudsters who, within an hour of the reporting that Justice Antonin Scalia had passed, were shamelessly ignoring the plain language of the U.S. Constitution they so revere. Best two sentences:

And Senator Ted Cruz, the presidential candidate, Senate Judiciary Committee member, and self-styled guardian of the Constitution, wrote on Twitter, “We owe it to him, [Scalia] & the Nation, for the Senate to ensure that the next President names his replacement.”

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Cry, the Beloved Country

January 9, 2016

Cry, the Beloved Country came into my mind earlier this morning, less because of the story it tells about pre-apartheid South Africa, and far more because it so aptly describes my country.

To say we live in interesting times does an extraordinary injustice to the phrase “interesting times.” “End times” fits the bill far better. I have been sentient for 14 presidential campaigns—Goldwater – Johnson in 1964 through the present embarrassment, and I’ve never seen a campaign come close to disgracing our nation as badly as this one has.

The leading candidate in the Republican Party held a rally in Vermont. Leave aside for a moment the utter vacuousness of the words coming out the man’s mouth, and the fact

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Mark Rubin

August 29, 2015
Eating sushi with Cate Rubin in Midtown West, New York City, circa May 2014.

Eating sushi with Cate Rubin in Midtown West, New York City, circa May 2014

I have been practicing law in Tucson for almost 37 years. I do:

  • Business and Real Estate Litigation, Transactions, and Counseling
  • Estate Planning, Probate, and Fiduciary Services
  • Legal Malpractice, Ethics, and State Bar Discipline and Admissions proceedings

I am also a Licensed Fiduciary (License No. 20546), which allows me to serve as a guardian/ conservator, personal representative (executor), or trustee. My fiduciary practice focuses on cases involving difficult family situations or complex business and real estate assets.

I am also General Counsel for Pima Medical Institute. PMI, in business for more than 40 years, provides post-graduate vocational training in the allied health sector. I have

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Mark Rubin, Tucson Attorney

June 13, 2015

I thought I had a post which explained what I do as a Tucson attorney. Using an Attorney Effectively and Working (Mark Rubin) don’t quite nail the issue, and About Mark Rubin doesn’t either.

My practices falls within three broad areas. They are: (a) probate and fiduciary matters, and estate planning; (b) business and real estate, including advising, documenting transactions, and handling lawsuits; and (c) ethics, professionalism, and discipline.

In the probate and fiduciary world, there’s lots of paper and process. Probate involves the affairs of people who have died, as well as young people with money or no parents, or both, and older people who need help because of mental or physical infirmities. There’s paper and process because we

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From the Court: Zivotofsky v. Kerry

June 8, 2015

The U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision today in Zivotofsky v. Kerry, No. 13-628. I mentioned this case in Welcome Back, Justices! last October. It is one of the big deal cases of the term, and it’s likely that the politics will eclipse the legal principles.

The decision was 6-3. Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion. The Chief Justice and Justices Alito and Scalia dissented, and Justice Thomas concurring in the judgment but dissenting in part. The opinions total 93 pages, so you’re getting a “down and dirty” for today.

Court opinions usually have a syllabus. Here, the syllabus provides a good summary of the facts and the legal issue:

Petitioner Zivotofsky was born to United States citizens living

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Legal Terms

June 2, 2015

When I go to the doctor I wonder why medicine uses so many terms I don’t understand. Then, I look in the mirror, as many legal terms have no evident meaning for lay people. Herewith, some terms and their meanings.

Fiduciary is an adjective and a noun, used to describe a relationship a special trust. In certain circumstances the law establishes a fiduciary duty. For example, trustees owe to trust beneficiaries a fiduciary duty, attorneys have a fiduciary relationship with their clients, and partners owe to one another a fiduciary duty. Board members also owe to nonprofits a fiduciary duty. Translation? The terms of the duty vary, depending on the relationship, but they include duties of loyalty, care, and honesty.

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Same-Sex Marriage Oral Argument Report*

April 29, 2015

Obergefell v. Hodges, No. 14-556 is now at issue, which means the Court has before it all of the written and oral arguments it will read and see. There’s a lots of post-argument writing out there. Here’s some of what I read which resonated.

Amy Howe blogs In Plain English for SCOTUSblog. Her piece, No Clear Answers on Same Sex Marriage, written within hours of the oral argument, lays out the issues and alignments very well. Also from SCOTUSblog is A view from the Courtroom, Same-Sex Marriage Edition by Mark Walsh. Mr. Walsh writes in the present tense, from soon before the oral argument until Chief Justice Roberts states: “The case is submitted.” Not a ton of

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Licensed Fiduciaries

March 23, 2014

Licensed Fiduciaries—I’m one—are individuals and business entities who hold a license, issued by a division of the Arizona Supreme Court. (My law firm is also a Licensed Fiduciary, and I am the responsible party under its license.) We provide services to people in need of assistance with personal and financial matters, and administer estates.

Courts appoint guardians, conservators, and personal representatives. A court will appoint as a guardian a person named in a will, and will also appoint as a personal representative someone named in a will. These individuals can charge a fee for their services, so long as they have been identified in the will. So, nothing about having Licensed Fiduciaries interferes with an individual’s wishes, most of the

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