Ask Standard Legal: Law Questions & Answers for FREE

The State of California has costly and complex registration requirements for each COUNTY in that state. The registration requires legal document preparation companies to become what the state of California calls “legal document assistants”. [ Read More… →]

Corporations are owned by shareholders. Shares of stock can have “par value” or “no par value” — that is, a predetermined value of one share as set by the issuer at the time of incorporation.

Most corporations and shareholders opt for shares with “no par value”, and they do so for a variety of reasons. [ Read More… →]

If your debts are significant enough that you are planning to file bankruptcy, it may be best to simply inform your creditors that you are filing a bankruptcy petition in the near future and that the calling creditor’s debt will be listed as a part of that filing.

Such a statement typically stops collection calls. [ Read More… →]

Standard Legal offers completed, “ready-for signature” forms through its legal document preparation services. These forms are created by asking specific questions of its customers through easy-to-follow questionnaires, then taking those highly specific responses and inserting the provided information into the required legal forms. [ Read More… →]

While a misspelled middle name would not automatically invalidate the document, Standard Legal strongly suggests that the document be corrected so that no issues might arise in the future.  [ Read More… →]

Student loans are NOT usually discharged in a bankruptcy case. However, in some circumstances, these debts can be discharged if the bankruptcy debtor can show that payment of the debt “will impose an undue hardship on you and your dependents.” [ Read More… →]

A lease is a contract between the landlord and the tenant, and typically requires little in the way of “legal interpretation”. Simply read the lease agreement carefully to ascertain your rights and the rights of the landlord for nearly any situation that might arise. [ Read More… →]

Certainly by the nature of the legal topics involved, much of the content is similar between the consumer version of Standard Legal’s self-help legal forms and the Professional Version of the software. But while the content is similar, the price is not.

This significant difference in price is for the granting of a license for the commercial use of our work product. [ Read More… →]

The “presumption does not arise” is a statement indicating that a debtor’s income is not such that he or she would be disqualified from filing a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy case.

In a Chapter 7 case, the debtor must prepare Form 22A, the “Means Test” form.  On that form, the debtor lists his or her gross income. If this annualized gross income is less than the amount of the annual “median income” assigned to individuals for the state in which the debtor lives, the ‘presumption of abuse’ does not arise and it is presumed that the debtor is eligible to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. [ Read More… →]

Sometimes, people begin a pro se (do it yourself) Bankruptcy filing with clear intentions. Sometimes, they initiate the process but do not follow it through to completion. Sometimes, those same people find themselves in the exact same financial situation just a few years later and are in even greater need to file for Bankruptcy.

Typically, Bankruptcy law requires an eight year time span before a person can refile for personal Bankruptcy again. But this time restriction is not always set in stone. [ Read More… →]

A “deed in lieu of foreclosure” is not a customized or language-specific legal document; it is the phrase given to the process of transferring title to a mortgage holder (by deed) in lieu of the mortgage holder going through with a foreclosure lawsuit.   [ Read More… →]

Generally, there is no requirement that Will or Living Will documents must be re-drawn when a person moves from one state to another, provided that the original document meets even the basic requirements of each state’s laws.

If there is any doubt regarding the validity of your documents, we suggest you create new ones, given that doing so is so very affordable using Standard Legal’s do-it-yourself legal forms software.

An LLC provides liability protection for any and all debts or obligations incurred in the name of the LLC.  If the members personally guarantee any LLC obligation, the entity structure will not protect the members from such obligation.

Also, if the members have not operated the LLC properly (i.e. did not maintain a separate bank account, did not enter contracts in the name of the LLC, did not keep accurate or sufficient company records, etc.), then creditors may have the opportunity to “pierce the veil” of the LLC entity and pursue the members personally for any LLC obligations.    [ Read More… →]

A Bankruptcy debtor cannot file another Chapter 7 for a period of eight years from the date of the previous Chapter 7 filing.

A debtor filing bankruptcy can certainly list real estate taxes as part of the debt that will be discharged, assuming that the debtor is abandoning the home.

However, if it is the debtor’s intention to retain the home, the real estate taxes cannot be discharged in usual situations, and they must be paid by the debtor.

Complete details on Standard Legal’s Bankruptcy legal forms software here.

Most states do not permit a spouse to “disinherit” the other spouse, by law.

Most states permit a “disinherited” spouse to “Elect Against a Will” if the deceased spouse has attempted to disinherit him or her by naming other beneficiaries to the exclusion of the spouse.   [ Read More… →]

When a person has no children, often times he or she wishes to provide a home or the content of their estate to a brother or sister.

But what is the best way to handle such a designation?

Typically, there are two ways you can handle a desire to add your brother or sister’s name to the deed to your home. [ Read More… →]

As long as deeds to real estate or property are listed in the name of a Trust, the property is owned by the Trust and will be administered per the terms of the Trust. To make this structure legal for each state will require filing each property’s deed in the appropriate county records office under the Trust’s name, most likely using a Quitclaim Deed.

A reaffirmation agreement is a document used in conjunction with a personal Bankruptcy filing that “restates” or puts the terms of a contract with a creditor back into place, as if the bankruptcy had not been filed with respect to that creditor and that debt/loan. [ Read More… →]

An individual can be a shareholder in more than one corporation (think of an individual owning shares of both Ford and General Motors), and as long as the corporations retain a completely separate existence (i.e. keep separate books and records, maintain separate bank accounts, etc.), merely owning shares in separate companies should not cause financial liability to flow between any of the entities.