Debt Collection: Being held liable for another’s debt

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Debt Collection: Being held liable for another’s debt
A spouse can be held liable for the other’s medical bills if the following factors apply:
1) the patient spouse is unable to pay
2) the non-patient spouse is able to pay
If the above factors are shown, the non-patient spouse may be held liable for the patient spouse’s medical bills unless the non-patient spouse has been abandoned by the other spouse without cause.
I usually get asked about this subject in an estate planning context.  Once one spouse passes away,  it is rare for the creditor to collect and here is why:  In Ohio, the creditor’s claim must be made against the decedent’s estate within 6 months of the death.  If the creditor does not assert its claim within 6 months, the creditor’s claim is barred.  Once the claim is barred, the above rule applies.
If you are a surviving spouse finding yourself in the above situation, you should speak to an attorney.  You have a few options.  1) You can claim that you cannot pay, especially now that you have to pay for the cost of burying your spouse.  2) You could also claim that the patient spouse abandoned you without cause.  To determine if either of these arguments might work for you, you should seek the help of counsel to build your case.
Even with the above caviat, it is safe to tell clients that as a general rule, they will not be held liable for the debt’s of their spouse.  It is always important to seek the advice of an attorney if you find yourself in a situation where people are claiming that you are liable for another’s debt.  Creditors (and others) like to tell family members that they will be held liable, in an effort to collect.  Just because a creditor tells you this, it does not make it true.  Always seek the advice of a local attorney to address your specific situation.

Creativity within the Legal Profession

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Creativity within the Legal Profession:
A seasoned attorney once told me that there is no place for creativity within the legal profession.  This view may explain why many attorneys, even younger ones, embrace the traditional approach to the profession.  You can see traces of the traditional mindset in the attorney’s office furniture, marketing, and the way they approach legal representation of their clients.   Their office furniture looks like it is from the 19th century, they are still advertising in the yellow pages, and they talk to their clients in such legal-ease that their clients cannot possibly understand what the attorney is saying.
 
On the one hand, it is easy to understand the importance of tradition within the profession; our entire legal system is based on tradition and precedence.  On the other hand, attorneys are so concerned about preserving tradition that attorneys now believe that creativity has no place within the profession.  This is a scary thought, especially considering that some of the best representation starts with the most creative ideas.  
 
I for one, do not believe creativity is dead in the legal profession.  There is room for both tradition and creativity in the court room, in fact, this is how the legal profession has evolved with our changing attitude about morality and justice.  Creativity is why our clients hire us.  It is our job to come up with creative solutions to legal problems.  Sometimes these ideas are “rule-bending” and sometimes these solutions are complicated triangle deals that will solve our client’s business and personal problems.
 
I consider myself a progressive attorney.  I maintain a balance of tradition and modern that I consider to be ideal.  Although it is has become acceptable for female attorneys to wear non-traditional clothing to court, I tend to wear a traditional suit to court; however, my office furniture is minimal and modern (we have standing desks!), I do not advertise in the yellow pages, and I try to explain legal concepts in everyday English.  Our firm has integrated videos into our marketing plan and will continue to work with new media platforms that our clients also use in their business and personal lives.  I am also not willing to give up my creativity in my personal life.  If you find us on Facebook or Instagram (@ladiesoflaw), you learn something about our personal lives.  This may be off-putting to some, but I urge clients to accept and expect creativity in the legal profession.  Attorneys can only be as creative as our clients allow us to be.
 
For more examples of how Tibbs Law Office, LLC is leading the march to modern, check out http://www.TibbsLawOffice.com, in addition, you can subscribe to my youtube channel at www.youtube.com/TibbsLawOffice and www.youtube.com/tibbslawofficeKentucky.

“Unintentional Landlord”

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The economy is doing better and that means that people are buying and selling homes.  The inventory is at a low point, but that does not seem to be deterring people from buying.  If you find yourself in a situation where you have listed your home for sale and have already purchased your new home, you may find that this balancing act is lasting longer than expected and the only way to stay afloat is to acquire a tenant.

If you find yourself in this situation, you should speak to an attorney early on to make sure you understand the process and your rights and obligations as a landlord. You should have an attorney review your lease and make sure it is sufficient under the circumstances. You should also speak to the attorney about evictions and you should do this before you need to evict a tenant. No one likes evicting but the odds are very great that you will have to evict a tenant at some point.

Many attorneys will do evictions for a flat fee and this usually includes preparing the 3-day notice. Sometimes attorneys will offer a discount if a landlord owns multiple properties (doing more than one eviction at a time is more efficient). The attorney will likely require the flat fee be paid up front along with all filing fees.

The 3-day notice is a very important document and it has to be completed exactly according to the statute or the landlord may have to start the process all over and lose precious time (and time is money). When I am retained for an eviction, I like to prepare the three day notice for my clients so that I can be sure that it is done correctly. If you find yourself delaying hiring an attorney due to cost considerations, this is understandable; however, keep in mind that every day a non-paying tenant stays in your house, you are losing money. It is much more cost efficient to have the eviction done correctly so you can obtain a paying tenant.

If you found this article helpful, please subscribe to my YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/tibbslawoffice and www.youtube.com/tibbslawofficeKentucky. You can also find additional information on the firm website: http://www.tibbslawoffice.com.

TIBBS LAW OFFICE, LLC

1329 E. Kemper Rd. #4230

Cincinnati, OH 45246

(513) 793-7544

tibbslawoffice.com

Planning for long term care continued…

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Planning for long term care continued…

There are many tools that can be used to prepare for long term care: trusts, insurance, TODs, and gift transfers during a lifetime; however, you must choose the right tools for your specific situation and you must make sure those tools are prepared correctly or you may find yourself paying criminal consequences.  Currently, the medicare lookback period is 5 years; however, it is likely the government will extend it to 7 or 8 years in the near future.
From my experience, financial planners tend to encourage clients to create trusts to avoid medicare rules.  This can be great advice in certain situations; however, the client must keep in mind that if s/he would like to create a trust to avoid medicare, it must be an irrevocable trust and the trustee must be someone that is not a relative.  Essentially, the government requires that the client give up all control over his/her assets.  Many people, (especially those with significant assets) will not give up all control over the estate they spent their entire life building.  In some cases, they can’t afford to give up all control because they need to have access to the assets in the event that something happens.
Insurance is a decent option.  There does exist a particular type of insurance that will protect your assets in the event that you go into a nursing home.  For instance, if you purchase the coverage for $200,000, the plan will allow you to keep $200,000 in assets (meaning that you have to spend down any assets above that) and then it will cover all other costs of long term care.  This is a great option if you want to be able to maintain control over your assets.  Obviously, the cost will be the monthly premium.  If this is an option you are interested in exploring, please speak to your financial advisor.  If you don’t have one, I would be happy to refer you to one.
Another great way to reduce assets for long term care planning is to give away assets.  If you have family members that you trust, you can deed real estate to them, open bank accounts in their names, and make gifts of up to $13,000 per year (without tax conseqneces).  I am always hesitant to recommend that my clients do this.  If you give something away, you must realize that you are doing just that: giving it away.  Once you give away an asset, you must expect that the person will treat it as their own.  If they comply with your wishes then that is great but you should always expect that they won’t follow your wishes because legally, they don’t have to.  People have a difficult time controlling themselves when money is involved.
No matter which tools you decide to use in order to adequately plan for long term care, you must make sure that your financial advisor and your attorney communicate and work well together.  Neither will be able to adequately advise you if each is not aware of what the other is doing.

Keeping Appropriate Business Records

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 As many accountants, financial advisers, and attorneys will tell you, it is really important to keep good records throughout the year.  However, even if you keep good records throughout the year, it is important to have a book keeper, accountant or tax adviser review your records at the end of the year to make sure every thing is in order.  I can’t tell you how many clients I have had that came to me with tax issues that occurred as a result of bad book keeping, or poor oversight of the accountant or book keeper.
If you are taking deductions for travel, meals, or office supplies, it is important to keep the receipts for those items and to make a note on your receipt regarding who you were with and why.  For more information about the specifics of the tax law changes, please visit our Youtube channel, as we have a whole series coming out in 2018 on all the changes and how they will affect business owners and individuals.
If you intend on taking deductions for mileage, it is important to keep a log in which you write down the date, where you went and how many miles it was.  This process is much easier now that we can map out our travel on Google Maps or some other similar program.  You should keep this log readily available to ensure that you add all travel. 
For more information regarding this and related subjects, please check out www.tibbslawoffice.com.  For answers to common legal questions, check out the firm youtube channel at: www.youtube.com/tibbslawoffice and www.youtube.com/tibbslawofficeKentucky.
TIBBS LAW OFFICE, LLC
8845 Governors Hill Dr., Ste 450
Cincinnati, OH 45249
(513) 793-7544
tibbslawoffice.com

Planning for long term care

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Planning for long term care
As the baby boomer generation gets older, there is going to be an increased need for attorneys that specifically work in the area of estate planning for long term care.  If you or a loved one is getting to the age of 55 or older, it is time to start seriously considering an exit strategy. There are several questions you need to ask yourself:

1) Are you prepared in the event you need long term care?

2) Are you prepared in the event your spouse needs long term care? (Keeping in mind that medical facilities and nursing homes can come after you for the medical bills of your spouse- see blog posting from September 2, 2011.)

3) Do you have a succession plan for your business?

4) Will members of your family have the ability to pay off the family owned business if something were to happen to you?

5) If you don’t have a spouse, children, parents, siblings, or grandparents that are still alive, do you have a will in place that specifies who will be the executor and beneficiary of your estate?

6) Even if you do have the above family members, do you wish your estate to pass in a way different from the laws of intestacy? If so, do you have a will?

If you are unsure about the answers to any of these questions, or if you answered “no” to any of the above questions, I would be happy to discuss your specific needs in a free consultation.

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Top 10 Videos of 2017, #6: Are Retirement Benefits Considered Marital Property In Kentucky?

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Top 10 Videos of 2017, #6: Are Retirement Benefits Considered Marital Property In Kentucky?

Daryle C. Tibbs, owner of Tibbs Law Office, continues a new series reviewing the top ten videos of 2017.

For more online sources on this and similar topics, please visit our firm youtube channel at:

www.youtube.com/tibbslawoffice

www.youtube.com/tibbslawofficeKentucky

Tibbs Law Office, LLC
8845 Governors Hill Dr., Ste 450
Cincinnati, OH 45249
(513) 793-7544
www.tibbslawoffice.com

Getting a second divorce, from the same person

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Getting divorced for the second time…from the same person

As you might imagine this isn’t a very common problem.  Not many people get married to the same person twice.  Pamela Anderson married and divorced Rick Salomon twice.  Elizabeth Taylor married and divorced Richard Burton twice.  Richard Pryor married two of his wives two times.   For those facing this situation, there is very little information on this topic.  So I decided to provide some information.

Someone in this situation is going to have several questions, here are the (Ohio) answers to some of the questions we are asked:
1) Are the children, which were born during the first marriage, considered children of the second marriage?  Generally, yes.  Another example of this is where a couple is unmarried, has a child, then gets married, then gets divorced.  Even though the child was born before the marriage, the child is still considered “issue of the marriage.”

2) Will child support and custody be re-litigated?  Generally, yes.  At the conclusion of the first divorce, the court issued an order regarding custody and support.  When the parties remarried, that support (and custody) entry ceased being effective either because the court terminated the original order (the obligor does not have to continue to pay child support if the parties remarry) or because the court issued a new order after the remarriage.  In the second divorce, the court will issue a new child support order that will be based on the current status of the parties’ employment.  The court will also issue a new custody order that is likely to be the same as the order issued in the first divorce but may be different.

3) Will the parties re-litigate the division of property?  Generally, no; however, one of the factors that will impact this is how much time occurred between the first and second divorce.  Generally, the division of property that took place in the original divorce will still stand.  For example, if the court granted the martial residence to one of the parties, that party still gets to keep the home and that decision will not be revisited by the court.  The court will, however, divide any newly acquired property, if the parties have any.

Hopefully, this answers many of the questions you have about this topic.