The Law Offices of Samuel S. Reidy Blog

One common estate planning question that homeowners and soon-to-be-homeowners in Massachusetts ask is what is the best way to hold title to their real estate.  In Massachusetts, co-owners who purchase real estate have three choices as to how they take title in the deed: (1) tenants in common; (2) joint tenants; and (3) tenants by the entirety.  Each has its own criteria, and pros and cons that are important when deciding how to purchase your property.

The first way of holding title to real estate in Massachusetts is the default form of title for non-married persons: tenants in common.  If a deed does not specify how the property is held, Massachusetts law automatically holds that it is held as tenants in common.
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Online and digital profiles and currency have only increased in popularity over the past decade and will likely do so for the foreseeable future.  Cash is being replaced by PayPal, Venmo, and BitCoins; the phone book has been replaced by Yelp, Facebook, and TripAdvisor; and bank and financial institutions send bills and statements through e-mail as opposed to regular mail.  While all of these technological innovations have their benefits, there is still the lingering question of what happens to your digital estate after you have passed away.  A recent Massachusetts case has analyzed a personal representative's authority to obtain access to the contents of a decedent's email and digital assets without express instructions from the decedent.

On August 10, 2006, John Ajemian passed away unexpectedly leaving no will.
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Today, the Supreme Judicial Court announced that it will increase the procedural amount for civil actions in Boston Municipal and District Courts from $25,000 to $50,000,  thus increasing the minimum procedural amount required for cases filed in the Superior Court to $50,000.  This change will go in to effect on January 1, 2020. 

The reason for this procedural change is to try and reduce delays that are common with the disposition of civil cases.  This will also have a far reaching effect with the filing of cases that had damages which hovered around the $25,000 cut-off, including personal injury cases and contract disputes.

The Order Regarding Amount-in-Controversy Requirement under Massachusetts General Laws chapter 218, § 19 and chapter 212, §3 states:

"Under G.
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In order to qualify for Mass Health, individuals must have no more than $2,000 in assets.  Oftentimes this leads to people panicking and trying to spend or hide all of their money and assets.  Irrevocable trusts are a great tool to protect assets for Mass Health eligibility, however Mass Health has a very strict five year look back period, meaning any transfer of assets must have occurred more than five years prior to eligibility.  Unfortunately, many people do not plan far enough in advance (or there is an unexpected injury or illness at a young age) and the five year period is devastating on the healthy spouse's financial future.  There is a strategy that can avoid heartache in the future.
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While it is true that Irrevocable Trusts provide more complete and far reaching protection for your assets, there are benefits to utilizing Revocable Trusts as well.  Many clients are spooked by the idea of an irrevocable trust, which takes away both your ownership and control over your assets in exchange for protection if you have to go into a nursing home.  Revocable trusts do not offer protection from nursing homes, but there are still benefits to utilizing them.

First and foremost, if your assets are held in a revocable trust, this avoids the probate process which will save your loved ones significant money when you pass away.  A properly drafted revocable trust promotes greater efficiency and a smooth transition of assets in the manner in which you would like your assets to transfer.
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One of the most debatable employment law issues in Massachusetts over the past decade or so has been changes to Massachusetts' laws regarding non-competition agreements.  Historically, employers loved them and employees (at best) tolerated them.  On August 10, 2018, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed new legislation in the form of Massachusetts General Laws chapter 149, § 24K into law.

Prior to the changes in the law, to be enforceable a non-competition agreement only needed to be supported by consideration, as non-competition agreements were believed to be necessary to protect an employer's legitimate business interests (such as confidential information or trade secrets).  Non-competition agreements needed to be reasonable in scope, in both duration and geographic area.

Massachusetts voted to legalize medical marijuana in 2012 and voted to legalize recreational pot in 2016.  In November of 2018, the first recreational marijuana store opened in Massachusetts.  But what does the legalization of marijuana in the Commonwealth mean in terms of your employment?  Basically, just because marijuana is legal, that does not mean you cannot lose your job if you use it.

The legislation connecting legalized marijuana and employment law is still evolving, but it is becoming a more and more predominate legal question, both from the employer side and the employee side. 

Recreational Marijuana

As is almost always the case with everything in the law, there are exceptions, but in general, using recreational marijuana can cost an employee his or her job in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
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One question that comes up quite a lot in the employment law world is whether or not an employee can be fired while they are out on short-term disability or workers comp.  In Massachusetts, the answer is that employees can, in fact, lose their job while out on short-term disability or workers comp - in most cases.

In most states, such as Massachusetts, employees are not entitled to job-protected workers compensation leave.  The same thing is true if an employee is out on short-term disability.  Massachusetts is an “employment-at-will” state.
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For individuals interested in estate planning, there seems to be a lot of interest in Trusts, but also a lot of misinformation.  There are certain situations where Trusts are the best estate planning tool to meet an individual's goals, and other situations where Trusts would unnecessarily complicate an otherwise straightforward situation.  There is also a lot of situations that exist in between those two points.  Some background information on Trusts may be helpful.    

Generally speaking, there are two types of Trusts: a testamentary trust and an inter vivos trust.
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Every year, millions of people make their "New Year's Resolutions."  These resolutions can include accomplishing a personal goal or making a change to improve a person's everyday life.  In 2019, one such New Year's Resolution could be to work on your own estate planning goals and objectives.  To kick off 2019 correctly, I am offering three complimentary and useful estate planning tips.

1.
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When one thinks of medical malpractice, it is easy to just think about surgical errors or lawsuits involving unfortunate outcomes.  In June of 2018, Rhode Island Hospital entered into a consent agreement with the State Department of Health after reporting four patient errors in four consecutive weeks.  These preventable errors included  performing the wrong tests on the wrong patient and performing a spinal procedure on the wrong part of the spine.  These are the stereotypical types of claims that are associated with physicians being sued, but there are three  more common areas where physicians often find themselves embattled with litigation

1.  Failure to obtain informed consent.
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