I was elected as an attorney alternate to the Judicial Nominating Committee, Supreme Court, Fourth District. I just completed a term as a regular attorney member on another Supreme Court Nominating Committee.
Attorneys apply for judgeships. The committee then interviews and passes onto the Governor qualified candidates. This is a good thing as some unqualified attorneys have applied for judgeships in the past and their names weren't advanced to the Governor. We don't elect judges in Nebraska (thank goodness!), but judges do stand for retention elections.
Being a judge is a tough job and our state deserves the best and brightest in that ...
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A Cautionary Tale for the Unmarried
A woman who worked in my building died of Covid-19 this week. She was 52 and, as far as I knew, was healthy. It was a total shock to learn of this.
I had met with her about a month ago for an hour. She was a real firecracker; full of life.
From our meeting I thought she was married and had three children. It turns out that she wasn't married and had no children.
If she didn't have a will, the man she considered her partner and his children will get no part of her estate. You see, the State of Nebraska has a plan for your estate even if you don't have a will or revocable living trust. And that plan doesn't include giving property to a ...
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A trap for the unwary: Adding children to a deed.
It is so easy to add a child as an owner of real estate. Just get a deed online and file it with the Register of Deeds. People think that this is a good thing, but all sorts of unintended bad things can happen. 1. If the pre-existing owner is admitted into a nursing home within five years of the transfer, the conveyance can be used to delay Medicaid eligibility. The gift is without consideration and DHHS doesn't look kindly on that. The really bad part of this is that a person's home is exempt when applying for Medicaid. 2. The child is now an owner and that asset is subject to the claims of the child's creditors. All sorts of bad things can ...
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