Author Archives: jeshuatlauka

Tough day for JP Morgan Chase.  The Office of Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) today assessed several penalties by virtue of consent order, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties.   One such consent order imposed a $60 million penalty against JP Morgan Chase and ordered the Bank to make restitution to millions ofContinue reading “OCC Assesses $60 Million Penalty Against JP Morgan Chase, Orders Bank to Reimburse Consumers for Unfair Billing Practices”

Churches are not perfect.  Disputes happen – either within the congregation or within the denomination.  A lot of these issues boil down to church polity – the laws of the church or denomination. There is typically no place for Courts in issues of church polity. Sticky issues may result when a church wants to leaveContinue reading “Messy Real Estate Issues: Delving Into the Mire that is “Church Property Law””

Last week I posted about Construction Liens and if a Court determines that a lien was filed in bad faith, or “vexatiously” the Court may award sanctions against the lien claimant.   I received a comment to the effect that it seemed like the legislature was making it harder and harder to recover under aContinue reading “Construction Liens: Part 2”

I had good news today – a client of mine that I recorded a construction lien for told me that it was enough leverage to get the property owner to pay the amount owed.  Good news, and now I will discharge the lien. Conversely, I had a client who recently retained a renovation company toContinue reading ““If you don’t pay me, I will file a Lien!” Construction Liens: When is filing a lien “Vexatious”?”

Today I received a spam email from someone from a foreign country asking me to assist in collecting a $2.5 Million Debt. These scams are unfortunately very common. Maybe more so in the legal profession than any other profession – probably these  con-artists  are playing on the  presumed “greed” of lawyers 🙂 The way thatContinue reading “Alert: Latest Banking Scam Reported By The OCC – Fake Checks Issued By Meridian Bank”

I have written posts in the past about lawsuits – how they usually do not get resolved when they should when the parties take the matter personally. Never is this more evident than when fights erupt over a deceased loved one’s wishes about “who gets what” – so to speak. Estate Litigation cases are veryContinue reading “Avoiding Estate Litigation – And Why a Corporate Trustee Could be a good idea.”

No one likes to be wronged. But there are plenty of good reasons to avoid acting on that gut response of suing for everything you feel you are entitled to.   There is a reason why closely held companies can sometimes result in some of the most bitter lawsuits – the relationships between business partnersContinue reading “Business Disputes In Closely Held Companies: A Warning Why Business Partners Should Not be Quick to File Lawsuits”

I was recently in Probate Court over the settlement of an Estate Litigation Case. The facts were a classic case of a family dispute that inevitably bubbles up into a lawsuit – I. FACTS Elderly Dad is a widower, lives by himself. His 6 kids are grown and living their own lives out of town. Dad,Continue reading “Lesson From Court: Unresolved Family Issues Can Be Costly”

I just met with a client (lets call him “Mr. Martin”) who was “added to the deed” of some real estate owned by “Mr. Smith”. The parties’ relationship has since then deteriorated; with that questions naturally arise: what to do with the property? Who owns what? What are each parties’ rights? In coming to aContinue reading “Real Estate Disputes Between “Tenants in Common””

  I had posted an article in June that I drafted about Adverse Possession: https://jeshualaukalegalnews.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/squatters-rights-how-easy-is-it-to-acquire-property-by-adverse-possession/ The contested matters that I handle on a routine basis are business, real estate, and estate matters. All of these matters are contentious – real estate matters seem to take on a different level  of discord- simply put, people get realContinue reading “Real Estate Boundary Disputes: What is Acquiescence?”