The area of civil litigation includes bringing and defending clients in lawsuits in the civil court system in New York only. This includes business-related lawsuits (e.g., collections), personal lawsuits (e.g., partition), guardianship proceedings, challenges to wills, and a variety of other types of lawsuits.
The areas of corporate and commercial law include assisting our clients in their businesses, from sole proprietorships to medium-sized corporations. Our legal assistance includes providing advice on day-to-day issues associated with running a business, drafting business or employment contracts, preparing the business for family succession in the client's overall estate plan, and defending or representing the business in litigation.
The areas of real estate and real estate litigation include assisting our clients with the purchase and sale of residential and commercial properties, transferring property as part of an overall estate plan, removing oneself from co-ownership of property (e.g., partition) and other problems associated with real estate ownership.
After law school, Joanne associated with Ferrero & Middlebrooks, P.A., a boutique plaintiff's personal injury and media law firm in Fort Lauderdale, from 1988 through 1994. There she handled high-stakes litigation cases and all aspects of newspaper representation. Her first jury trial resulted in a $3 million verdict for the firm's client in a motorcycle products liability case and made case law in Mississippi. She also made case law for the newspaper client in the areas of First Amendment law and public records law. (See "Reported cases" page.)
Medicaid Planning
Specifically, we assist clients with wills, trusts, Medicaid planning and application, powers of attorney, health care proxies, living wills, administration of estates testate (with a will) or intestate (without a will), Veterans Administration claims, real estate transactions, business matters, and civil litigation (litigation in New York courts only). All of these areas of the law interconnect to provide our clients with the type of legal assistance most people need on a day-to-day basis.
The areas of probate and estate administration include ensuring a decedent's property and estate assets are transferred to those whom they designate if they have a valid will, or to those whom the law says it should be distributed if they do not have a will. We do this in New York and throughout the State of Florida.
Wills
Joanne was quoted in an elder law-oriented blog, RetireLife, in an article on advanced directives (health care proxies, living wills and do-not-resuscitate orders, or DNRs) in New York and Florida. You can read it at: http://www.retirelife.net/blog/discussing-end-of-life-care-part-2/
Trusts
"Should You Trust the Living Trust?" by Joanne Fanizza, can be found at the following link: http://EzineArticles.com/?id=2679945
Power of Attorney
The Florida Legislature amended its Power of Attorney Law in early 2016 to add new requirements to authorize specific types of powers. New York passed its most recent changes to the durable power of attorney law in 2020, which becomes effective in June 2021. Both New York and Florida also recently passed "Digital Assets" laws that address the ability of agents under powers of attorney and personal representatives/executors to have access to the principal's online accounts and social media.
In 2010 Congress passed landmark legislation that helps consumers in many ways. Congress passed laws providing for credit card reform and help with other consumer debt (including foreclosure help), education reform (making student loans more accessible and affordable), wage parity for women, and a host of other areas that lend strong protection to average Americans. The most powerful law passed -- and the most controversial -- was the health care reform bill, or the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. We are quite frankly surprised at the amount of misinformation being circulated about health care reform, especially since it will greatly benefit our clientele across the board. In a recent Continuing Legal Education class that focused on "Obamacare", the first comment by the lawyer-instructor was that the law was an excellent consumer protection law, and he didn't understand why it has gotten such a bad rap. In an effort to educate our clients on how the Affordable Care Act will benefit them, we offer the following information, with pertinent links. Since our practice focuses on elder law issues, we look at those areas first, then briefly mention other aspects of health care reform that will benefit our non-senior clients.