Areas of Practice

Real Estate Law

Our firm represents real estate developers, businesses, individuals and lenders in all proceedings and transactions that deal with real property (land and the structures attached to it) including purchase and sale, construction, mortgages and foreclosures, commercial leases, landlord-tenant, zoning and land use, title examinations, quiet title actions, closings and management. We also issue title insurance underwritten by national title insurance companies for which we serve as agents. We represent condominium associations, homeowner associations and other real property management organizations.

Estate Planning

Our firm handles estate and financial planning matters. Our attorneys are skilled in federal estate and gift tax laws and income tax laws as they apply to gifts, estates and trusts. We are familiar with charitable giving and its effect upon estates and taxes. We can assist you in avoiding probate and minimizing taxes. Our firm prepares wills, trusts, powers of attorney, living wills, irrevocable trusts, charitable annuity and remainder trusts and other documents which are used in the estate planning process. We will insure that any document you sign is properly executed and will be lawful and enforceable. If we prepare a trust for you, we will advise you on how, when and to what extent it should be funded. We can also assist you in areas of Elder Law.

Probate & Guardianship

Our firm is skilled in probate, trust and estate administration matters. Probate is the legal process by which a person’s debts are paid and assets are distributed upon his or her death, if arrangements for alternative distribution are not made prior to death. In many cases probate can and should be avoided, but when it cannot, we will make the probate process as painless as possible. Estate administration includes the probate process as well as the non-probate transfer of the decedent’ s assets (e.g. distribution of joint property, homestead distribution and trust distribution). We prepare federal estate tax returns. We employ highly skilled paralegals to keep the cost of probate, trust and estate administration reasonable for our clients. Our firm is skilled in Florida’s guardianship law and procedures. In most situations, legal guardianships can and should be avoided. In those instances when a guardianship is necessary, we can assist in providing competent and cost effective legal representation to the guardian. We also represent the ward in incompetency proceedings.

Litigation & Appeals

Our firm represents and advises individual clients who are or who might become involved in a civil lawsuit or appeal as a result of a dispute. Typical lawsuits include contract disputes, mortgage foreclosures, association lien foreclosures, landlord-tenant and real estate disputes. We also represent clients appealing decisions from county court, circuit court, and administrative proceedings.