With the passage of a new law, AB 149, homeowners now have the right to seek mediation of a mortgage loan once a Notice of Default is recorded. The new law only affects owner-occupied housing and will apply only to foreclosures where the Notice of Default is recorded after July 1, 2009.

Mediation is not a formal court process. In a mediation, the homeowner and the lender sit down with a trained mediator to try to reach a mutually agreeable resolution.

Homeowners will be required to prepare financial statements, including stating exactly what they can afford to pay on a mortgage, and lenders must release appraisals showing the current worth of the home on which they seek to foreclose together with estimates of what the home would sell for in a short sale. With the required information from the lender and the homeowner, the mediator can determine if the two sides can agree to a loan modification that would keep the homeowner in the property. Lenders, however, are not required to agree to a loan modification.

Mediation at which homeowners and lenders will meet with a mediator and try to work out solutions are expected to begin in August 2009. If you have questions regarding mediation, loan modification, or foreclosure, contact John Peter Lee, Ltd., at (702) 382-4044 to schedule an appointment to meet with an attorney.

Heers Family and County Settle Airspace Takings Claims After 15 Years of Litigation for $15 Million

This week, the owners of the old Vacation Village Hotel and Casino finally reached a settlement agreement with Clark County for the taking of their airspace. CEH Properties, Ltd., owned by the Heers Family in Las Vegas, agreed with the County to accept a final payment reaching a total settlement of more than $15 million.

The Heers Family filed their claim in 1993 for a taking of their airspace. The County denied liability until the federal district court ruled that the Heers were entitled to just compensation for the taking of their property in 2005. The County appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which upheld the Nevada district court in 2007. The County unsuccessfully sought review by the Supreme Court of the United States, which sought briefing by the Solicitor General as a friend of the court for the Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration. The High Court followed the Solicitor General’s recommendation and denied the County review of the case.

"The Heers Family has waited a long time to receive their just compensation," says their attorney Paul C. Ray, Esq. of the law firm of John Peter Lee, Ltd. "In this case, we think the court’s award of CEH’s attorney’s fees helped the County to see that settling was better than litigating. Unfortunately, the Heers lost their property because they could not refinance in the 1990's because its value fell after the taking of the runway expansion, but they are glad to be ending the litigation"

After the second trial, Federal District Judge Robert Clive Jones awarded CEH just compensation and attorney’s fees totaling more than $15 million. Judge Jones’ first award was $10 million before the County appealed to the Ninth Circuit.

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If you would like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Paul C. Ray, please call Diane Powell at 382-4044 or email Diane at info@johnpeterlee.com.

Filing for bankruptcy is a difficult, stressful process, but it is helpful to have all your information ready when you come in to meet with an attorney. Your attorney must provide all the information below to the court in order for the court to make the best determination to address your financial issues. If you have this information ready ahead of time, it makes things much easier for your attorney and, in return, for you. (Please note that if you and your spouse will be filing a joint petition, the debts incurred by your spouse must be listed, too.)

Yvette R. Freedman is the attorney at John Peter Lee, Ltd., who handles our bankruptcy matters, and she would be happy to meet with you to advise you as to how to proceed. Please call (702) 382-4044 to speak with Sandra, Ms. Freedman’s assistant, who will set up an appointment for you to meet with Ms. Freedman at a time that is most convenient for you.

To help you get prepared for your meeting, below is the information we seek to begin the bankruptcy filing process:

( Read more... )

Paralegal Ashleigh Bautista and Legal Administrator Lori Kivatisky recently graduated from the University of Arizona's paralegal certificate program. Mrs. Kivatisky will also be starting her advanced paralegal training through the University of Arizona in 2009. Congratulations to both women are certainly warranted, as the programs are very rigorous and challenging.

Law clerk John C. Courtney received a passing score on the Nevada Bar exam. Congratulations, John! For a list of all other admissions to the Nevada Bar, go to the Nevada State Bar Web site, or click here for the results of the July 2008 exam.

Disclaimer: This material is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. This information is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. Internet users and online readers should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. Do not send us confidential information until you speak with one of our attorneys and get authorization to send that information to us.

Chapter 7 bankruptcy is the most popular form of bankruptcy because it allows the debtor to wipe out their debts. Chapter 7 is generally used by debtors who do not have enough income to pay their debts after paying for their basic living expenses. Chapter 7 is available to individuals, couples, corporations and partnerships.

Upon filing of the Petition for Bankruptcy, the court imposes an “automatic stay”. The automatic stay is a court order prohibiting creditors from taking any adverse action against the debtor. For example, if creditors are suing you in court, that lawsuit is frozen and cannot continue until the creditors go to the bankruptcy court and obtain relief from the automatic stay.

Obtaining relief from an automatic stay is not guaranteed and may take a couple of months for a creditor to obtain. Therefore, if you are facing immediate adverse action from creditors, filing for bankruptcy may provide you immediate protection. Filing for bankruptcy also prevents creditors from calling you demanding payment. Once the petition for bankruptcy is filed, all communications from creditors must be directed to the trustee.

When the petition for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 is filed, the bankruptcy court will appoint a trustee to your case and create a bankruptcy estate. The trustee is generally a local attorney who oversees the discharge of debts and the distribution of any assets.

Once the petition for bankruptcy is filed, the court sets a date for the Meeting of Creditors. This is a meeting with the debtor and his attorney, the trustee, and any creditors who wish to attend. During the Meeting of Creditors, the trustee will ask the debtor questions as to whether the papers filed accurately detail all of the income, assets and debts. Then the creditors have an opportunity to briefly question the debtor to determine whether the debtor has any money to pay the debts.

After the Meeting of Creditors, if all the lists of income, assets and debts are accurate and go unchallenged by creditors, the trustee will recommend a discharge of the debts. Discharge means that the debts are wiped out.

A non-dischargeable debt is an obligation which the debtor will continue to be responsible for even after the bankruptcy is over. There are certain debts that are not dischargeable, for example:
-Alimony and child support
-Taxes, penalties and interest under 3 years old
-Student loans and loans from 401ks
-Recently made luxury purchases.
Before considering Chapter 7 bankruptcy you should take an inventory of the types of debt owed. If most of your debt is non-dischargeable, then filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy will not be helpful.

If you are considering filing for bankruptcy, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy will be appropriate if:
1. You have not filed bankruptcy in the last two (2) years;
2. Your dischargeable debts outweigh your income and assets such that you will likely never be able to fully repay your debts;
3. Your income is not likely to increase substantially in the next five (5) years;
4. There is court action, foreclosure proceedings, or other collections efforts are threatened by your creditors.
If you are considering filing for bankruptcy, but a Chapter 7 bankruptcy is not appropriate, you may file a Chapter 11 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy instead.

If you are considering filing for bankruptcy, call John Peter Lee, Ltd., at (702) 382-4044 and make an appointment to meet with our bankruptcy attorney, Yvette R. Freedman. If you are meeting with Ms. Freedman, please gather your credit card statements, tax returns, and other documents relating to your income, assets and debts.

Law clerk John C. Courtney received a passing grade on the MPRE section of the Nevada Bar Exam. Congratulations, John!

Mr. Courtney is awaiting the results of the rest of his Bar exam, which will be released October 14, 2008.

Yesterday evening, several staff members of John Peter Lee, Ltd., went to a meet-and-greet event for Frank Sullivan, a candidate for Family Court's Department O, at Dona Maria's Restaurant (Charleston and Las Vegas Boulevard). Sullivan has been a hearing master in Family Court for the past eight years; his opponent, Ron Israel, has been a Nevada attorney for 25 years.

For more information on all candidates running in the 2008 election, or to register to vote, please visit Clark County's Election Department Web site. Election Day is Tuesday, November 4.

Over the next few months, John Peter Lee, Ltd., will be collecting non-perishable food items to donate to the Las Vegas Rescue Mission for Thanksgiving. Next time you're in the neighborhood, drop off a can of cranberry sauce or box of stuffing mix. Additionally, some of the staff of John Peter Lee, Ltd., will be distributing coats, sweaters, blankets, socks, hats, and gloves to the homeless on Thanksgiving day, so if you have any of the above-listed items that you would like to donate please drop them off at our office at 830 Las Vegas Boulevard South any time between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. between now and the day before Thanksgiving.

Thank you for helping us to help our community. We appreciate your donations, now and throughout the year.

Trevor J. Hatfield, Esq., is now the family law attorney for our firm. If you are in need of a skilled and enthusiastic attorney for your family law matter, please call Mr. Hatfield or his assistant, Tim, at (702) 382-4044, and we will be happy to set up an appointment for you.

Law clerk Jack Galardi will be taking the Nevada Bar exam in January 2009. We wish him the best of luck!

Legal Administrator Lori Kivatisky and paralegal Ashleigh Bautista recently graduated from Legal Studies' Legal Secretary Certificate program. Secretaries Tim Miskey and Sandra Young are in the midst of completing the same program. Mrs. Kivatisky and Ms. Bautista are now working on Legal Studies' Paralegal Certificate program. Best of luck to all students involved!

Also, the firm has added a new law clerk to its ranks: John C. Courtney. Mr. Courtney is a graduate of the William S. Boyd School of Law and is awaiting the results of his Nevada State Bar exam. He was a judicial extern for Judge E. Gonzalez in 2006, a Public Defender extern in 2007, and a U.S. Army Infantry Sergeant from 1989 to 1993. He also graduated summa cum laude from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in 2005. Welcome to the firm, John!

On August 21, 2008, Paul C. Ray, Esq., and Yvette R. Freedman, Esq., will be speaking at a seminar in Las Vegas, NV. The seminar is entitled "Judgment Enforcement in Nevada" and will cover topics such as finding debtor assets, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and obtaining an enforceable judgment.

The seminar is being held at the Golden Nugget and will run from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. To register, you can visit the Lorman Education Services' Web site at www.lorman.com and register with the seminar ID (379667), or you can call (866) 352-9539.

If you have any additional questions about the seminar's contents, or if you have a judgment enforcement issue you would like to discuss with an attorney, please contact Mr. Ray or Ms. Freedman at (702) 382-4044 or info@johnpeterlee.com.

John Peter Lee, Ltd., is gathering donations for the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

If you would like to donate, the following items are appreciated:
( Wish List )

If you would like to donate, please deliver your items to our office by Tuesday, August 5, by noon. You can also donate directly to the NSPCA; please see their Web site, www.nvspca.org, for hours and their address.

Click here to read the Las Vegas Review-Journal article, "U.S. high court refuses to hear appeal on casino: Heers family may be closer to payment", which originally ran on Saturday, June 28, 2008.

John Peter Lee, Ltd., would like to extend a heartfelt "thank you" to the Regional Justice Center and Attorney's Process, who dropped off their donations of non-perishable food items at our office this morning and last week, respectively.

If you would like to participate in John Peter Lee, Ltd.'s food drive, please drop off your non-perishable food items at our office at 830 Las Vegas Boulevard South (between Charleston and Gass) on or before Friday, July 11. If you like, we'd be more than happy to pick up the items from your office.

McCarran Must Pay Just Compensation for Property Taking at the Old Vacation Village Site

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear McCarran International Airport's appeal of a decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals of McCarran's takings liability to the Heers family in Las Vegas. In the early 1990s, McCarran took the Heers family's property from part of the old Vacation Village Hotel and Casino location on the South Las Vegas Strip without compensating the Heers, according to the July 2007 Ninth Circuit decision.

The Heers had to sue the Airport for just compensation in 1993 because the Airport took the property without following the eminent domain laws of Nevada. The Heers lost the rest of the property in 2001 when they could not refinance the remaining part of the site not taken by McCarran.

The Ninth Circuit decision upheld U.S. District Court Judge Clive Jones' June 2005 finding of McCarran Airport's taking of the property. In September 2007, McCarran asked the Supreme Court to hear an appeal seeking to reverse the decision.

"The Heers family is gratified that the highest court in the land has affirmed that they are right and McCarran is wrong," said their attorney, Paul C. Ray, Esq., of the law firm of John Peter Lee, Ltd. "As we've seen here in recent years, the Airport has a problem in managing its real estate practices. While some media accounts have described overpayments by McCarran for windfall profits, here the Airport denied the Heers even their just compensation for the property taken."

The Heers tried, but failed, to get County approval for full use of the taken property in 1990. At that time, the County Commission authorized funding of appraisals to acquire the property by eminent domain, but the County never paid the Heers family for the property. The Heers family argued that federal and state precedents required payment of just compensation to landowners for property taken.

McCarran argued to the High Court that the Nevada Constitution conflicts with federal law. The High Court requested a brief by the United States as a friend of the Court.

Writing for the Federal Aviation Administration, Solicitor General Paul D. Clement, who represents the United States on all matters before the Supreme Court, stated that, to protect safety interests, federal airport development "grant recipients are authorized to use federal funds to acquire land or airspace interests." Clement said that federal law does not preempt Nevada law from requiring McCarran to pay just compensation for property taken from local landowners.

The rulings by the district court, the court of appeals, and the Supreme Court require McCarran to pay the Heers just compensation. The Heers family second general can receive vindication only now for McCarran's 1990 taking of property from the business of their parents, Carol and Evelyn Heers, who died in the late 1990s.

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If you would like more information about this topic or to schedule an interview with Paul C. Ray, Esq., please call Diane Powell at (702) 382-4044 or e-mail Diane at info@johnpeterlee.com.

John Peter Lee, Ltd., is collecting non-perishable food items to donate to Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services. If you'd like to participate, we can pick up your food items at your office if you're in the Henderson/Las Vegas area. Other companies and entities participating are Legal Document Solutions; Attorney's Process; Grove, Inc.; and the Regional Justice Center.

The deadline for donating through John Peter Lee, Ltd., is Friday, July 11, 2008.

The Las Vegas Review Journal's biennial survey, Judging the Judges, was released last month. Out of the 4,237 lawyers who gave Clark County business addresses when registering with the Nevada State Bar, 799 completed surveys (roughly 19 percent). You can download the PDF files for the various judiciaries and see what Las Vegas attorneys really think. The associated articles are also worth reviewing if you're interested in getting a focused overview of specific topics within the polls.

Welcome to the blog for John Peter Lee, Ltd.  This blog is our way of staying in touch with you, the Las Vegas community.  We'll be posting legal resources and articles, news items of interest, and news regarding our firm.  Feel free to comment to any entry should you wish to be added as a friend so you can stay in the loop regarding the goings-on at JPL, Ltd.

Have a legal question?  Need the services of a skilled, experienced attorney?  Call us at (702) 382-4044, or e-mail us at info@johnpeterlee.com, and one of our attorneys would be happy to meet with you.  Note that we cannot answer any legal queries on the Web or in this blog; you must come in for a consultation to discuss the specific issues of your case.