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Often when I meet with a new client to prepare an estate plan the client walks in the door believing that she needs a trust.  When asked why she would like a trust, the response is often to avoid probate because she has heard that probate is very expensive.  However, when the pros and

As a family law practitioner, my legal practice is centered in crisis.  Your crisis.  Professionally, I meet people during one of the worst times of their lives: their divorce.  Amicable or acrimonious, divorce is ranked among life’s most traumatic experiences.  Divorce is almost always an unhappy event, and at the very least it’s marked by disappointment

JVW continues to seek justice on behalf of adult survivors of child sexual abuse during the Indian Placement Program. Read more on this subject here.

As reported in the New York Daily news, JVW represents a brave survivor who was sexually abused as a young girl by a cult leader masquerading as Jesus Christ incarnate. JVW attorney Leander James, as quoted in this article: “We intend to uncover any ongoing cult activities in Spokane, Bellingham and the Northwest that

In social settings when the inevitable question arises “What do you do for a living?” and I respond “I am an attorney,” the conversation then usually goes one of two ways: Sometimes, although not very often, there is an awkward reaction and the conversation topic is abruptly changed, perhaps to something the other person

Our co-counsel in Hawaii, Randall Rosenberg, whom we have teamed with to successfully obtain justice for many survivors of sexual abuse, sent us this article linked below. Pope Francis has named Bishop Michael Jude Byrnes as the new leader of the Guam archdiocese. Byrnes succeeds the former Archbishop, Anthony Apuron, who currently faces a canonical

Per this article, pedophile Gillen, in approximately 1999, was caught doing disgusting things to children when he was manager of a skating rink in Colorado. Then, he was convicted in 2002 of a different sexual assault on another child.   He was sentenced to eight years in prison. After being released from prison, pedophile Gillen

Two recent articles discuss the controversial Mormon Indian Placement Program as well as the pending sexual abuse lawsuits. These lawsuits are on hold pending a ruling from a federal judge in Utah. Both articles discuss heart wrenching stories of courageous survivors of childhood sexual abuse in addition to discussing the pros and cons of this program.

Over the past fifteen years or so, our society has become painfully aware of the extensive existence of child sexual abuse, both in the United States and throughout the world. In some circumstances, children are abused by a relative or close family friend; in others, they are abused by a mentor such as a priest,