Source: http://www.lapinlawtx.com/legal-blog1/previous/2
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 04:33:12+00:00

Document:
The Texas Real Property Transfer on Death Act, also known as SB 462, created the Texas “transfer on death (“TOD”) deed,” which provides for the automatic transfer of Texas real property upon the death of the transferor, without the need for probate.
SB 462, was enacted during the most recent session of the Texas legislature and has been codified in Chapter 114 of the Texas Estates Code.
The Texas TOD deed extends an owner’s ability to automatically transfer upon the owner’s death an interest in real property to any person; no longer is an owner’s ability to automatically transfer property by deed and upon death limited to transfers to co-owners of the property (e.g., transfers to the surviving joint tenant(s)).
Unlike joint tenants, transferees who are designated to receive title to real property by way of a TOD deed do not have any legal or equitable interest in the subject property prior to the death of the transferor.
A TOD deed may be revoked at any time before the grantor’s death; however, the method for revocation must be one which is set forth in the statute. A TOD deed may not be revoked by an ordinary Will.
For more information on Texas estate planning in general, or on Transfer on Death Deeds in particular, please contact Lapin Law Offices today.
What Can I Do about a Judgment Lien Against My Texas Homestead?
I fell on hard financial times a few years ago and was sued by the issuer of one of the credit cards I had at the time. A judgment was entered against me and now the credit card issuer has used that judgment to create a lien against my Texas homestead. What should I do?
It can be very difficult to collect a judgment against a Texas resident. Two primary reasons for this difficulty is that both homesteads are exempt from forced sale for purposes of paying debts and judgments, except in cases of purchase money loans, ad valorem taxes, home improvement loans, home equity loans, reverse mortgages, and divorce. See, Texas Constitution, Art. XVI, § 50 and the Texas Property Code. Wages are also exempt “from garnishment, attachment, execution, and other seizure.” Texas Property Code, § 42.001(b)(1).
The key to your question is that the property must be your homestead in order to be exempt.
A lien that is recorded against real property – even an invalid lien – may result in escrow companies refusing to facilitate a transfer of title to the property until the lien is released and might also result in title insurance companies refusing to issue a policy of title insurance until the lien is released.
Texas courts recognize that, even though a property is exempt under the homestead laws, a judgment lien against the property may nonetheless create a cloud on title. Tarrant Bank v. Mark B. Miller, et al., 833 S.W.2d 666 (Tex.App. – Eastland 1992).
The Texas Property Code, however, provides a remedy. Assuming that the real property qualifies as a judgment debtor’s homestead and assuming certain proper procedures are followed, the judgment debtor may file an affidavit that will effectuate a release of the lien. See, Texas Property Code § 52.0012.
Even though the lien release procedure may seem fairly straight-forward, the assistance of counsel should be utilized when using this remedy, as failure to follow proper procedure could result not only in an ineffective attempt to obtain a release, but also further litigation initiated by the judgment creditor.
Is There Any Reason One Should Not Use Legal Forms Obtained on the Internet?
Why should anyone consider using the services of a lawyer when it is so easy to find on the Internet – either free or for a very small price – just about any legal form one might need?
As recently noted by a state Supreme Court Justice, using online or other commercially available “Do-It-Yourself” legal forms to save money on attorneys fees carries with it the potential of costing many times more than what it would have cost to hire a lawyer to do the legal work in the first instance.
On April 5, 2004, Ms. [Ann] Aldrich wrote her will on an “E–Z Legal Form.” In Article III [of her Will], entitled “Bequests,” just after the form’s pre-printed language “direct[ing] that after payment of all my just debts, my property be bequeathed in the manner following,” she hand wrote instructions directing that all of the following “possessions listed” go to her sister, Mary Jane Eaton. . . .
Does this sound like a bunch of incomprehensible “legalese?” Probably. However, this is exactly the type of legalese that lawyers are paid to avoid.
After Ann died in 2009, the court case involving her case worked its way through the Florida state court system, until March 2014, when the Florida Supreme Court issued its opinion resolving the legal issues.
While I appreciate that there are many individuals in this state who might have difficulty affording a lawyer, this case does remind me of the old adage “penny-wise and pound-foolish.” Obviously, the cost of drafting a will through the use of a pre-printed form is likely substantially lower than the cost of hiring a knowledgeable lawyer. However, as illustrated by this case, the ultimate cost of utilizing such a form to draft one’s will has the potential to far surpass the cost of hiring a lawyer at the outset. . . .
I therefore take this opportunity to highlight a cautionary tale of the potential dangers of utilizing pre-printed forms and drafting a will without legal assistance. As this case illustrates, that decision can ultimately result in the frustration of the testator’s intent, in addition to the payment of extensive attorney’s fees—the precise results the testator sought to avoid in the first place.
Although Ann’s case happened to have occurred in Florida, it could just as easily have occurred in Texas or any other jurisdiction.
My spouse recently filed for divorce. Although there exist substantial marital assets, I do not have access to our bank accounts and, thus, do not have the funds to hire a lawyer to represent me. Are there any provisions in Texas law which allow courts to make attorney fee orders in divorce cases?
The issue of whether a Texas divorce court can order one spouse to pay all or part of the other spouse’s divorce-related attorney fees has somewhat of a checkered past. A relatively new statute, which became effective September 1, 2013, seeks to make the law in this area less unclear. This new law, however, appears to have created many more legal questions that it has answered.
In 1950, the Texas Supreme Court acknowledged that spouses owe each other a reciprocal duty of support. In other words, to the extent the financial ability to do so exists, combined with a corresponding need, a married person must provide his or her spouse with the “necessaries” of life. The Court held that “necessaries” consist of things like food, clothing and shelter, but not attorney fees. Carle v. Carle, 234 S.W.2nd 1002, 1005 (Tex. 1950).
In a case that supposedly “clarified” Carle, some two and a half decades after Carle was issued, an intermediate Texas appellate court explicitly stated that there exists no statutory authority for an award of attorney fees in Texas divorce cases. In re: Marriage of Jackson, 506 S.W.2d 261, 267 (Civ. App.–Amarillo 1974).
Following In re: Marriage of Jackson, in 1974, all was relatively quiet on the issue of attorney fee awards in Texas divorce cases, this was, until Tedder v. Gardner Aldrich, LLP, came along in 2012.
Tedder v. Gardner Aldrich, LLP arose in an unusual – that is, improper – procedural context. Gardner Aldrich was the law firm that represented Mrs. Tedder in her divorce. After a jury trial, Gardner Aldrich withdrew as Mrs. Tedder’s counsel. Notwithstanding that its fee contract was with Mrs. Tedder only, Gardner Aldrich then intervened in the Tedder divorce case and asked the divorce court to order Mr. Tedder to pay Mrs. Tedder’s attorney fees.
The Tedder divorce case ultimately settled, with a stipulated judgment being entered that required Mrs. Tedder, but not Mr. Tedder, to pay Garder Aldrich’s fees. Some time thereafter, Mrs. Tedder filed for bankruptcy and received a discharge of her debts, including $190,000 in attorney fees she owed to Gardner Aldrich. Gardner Adrich, obviously unhappy, then appealed the Tedder stipulated divorce judgment.
These mere two sentences of legislation all but promise to encourage more litigation. First, attorneys are now more likely to accept divorce cases when it appears that the client’s spouse can be forced by court order to pay the client’s legal fees, even though the client does not have the ability to pay.
Second, this two sentence statute is completely devoid of any guidance or standards that trial courts should use when ruling on fee requests. Ambiguous statutes have generated many, many dollars in legal fees; there is no reason for this statute to be any different.
One underutilized tool which can be used when attempting to take some of the uncertainty out of possible future family court proceedings is to use a properly negotiated, drafted, and executed premarital or marital property agreement address the issue the commonly arise in divorce litigation, including the issue of attorney fees.
Every case is different and results in legal matters can never be guaranteed; however, that does not mean that the law itself doesn’t afford clients some opportunity and ability to control their legal destinies (and expenses).

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