Orange County Litigation Law Blog

A severance agreement is normally part of an employment agreement. However, it can also be a stand-alone document an employer wants a departing employee to sign.

If certain elements are missing, the document will not stand up in court. The drafting of an enforceable severance agreement begins by using plain, understandable language.

Buffington Law Firm's trust and elder law litigation team has decades of experience dealing with cases in which undue influence is alleged.  The fact patterns for these cases are depressingly similar in many instances.  Typically a younger friend, relative, or adult child or grandchild will pressure an elderly or infirm person to change their estate plan, or convey property, in favor of the younger person.  For undue influence to occur it is not necessary that the victim lacks mental capacity.  That there is such a requirement is a common misconception.

Buffington Law Firm's elder law and trust litigation attorneys have frequently dealt with situations where two persons (not spouses) are co-owners of bank accounts.  This often occurs, for example, when a relative is placed on an elderly person's bank account as co-owner so that such person can help pay bills and so forth.  In many situations the person who contributes most or all of the funds to the bank account does not intend to make a gift to the new account "co-owner."  Many people do not read the forms that they sign when they place another person on the account and banks are notoriously poor at explaining the legal ramifications of the forms that they give the people to sign.

Financial Elder Abuse is a serious problem in California.  Elderly folk sometimes lack mental vigor and sharpness, and this can sometimes cause them to be excessively trusting, particularly of relatives and their own offspring. California law provides that any California resident age 65 or older is an "Elder" for the purposes of the statute.  Buffington Law Firm's elder law attorneys have frequently dealt with court cases involving allegations of financial elder abuse.  In this brief Blog article we will discuss the basic nature of financial elder abuse in California.