Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Living Trust

The answer to your first question is yes. However, you need to discuss your needs with someone who has experience in drafting trusts to determine whether that is the best option for you.

As to your second question, I'm not sure what you mean by "lost legal cost." If you do not appear for a trial (in either a limited or unlimited civil case) the case is generally dismissed. If the case is dismissed there presumably is no "prevailing party" entitled to costs under the statutes.

If you don't appear for trial, the court dismisses the case "without prejudice," and the statute of limitations on your causes of action has not run, you can file a new lawsuit, but I doubt that you will ever be able to recover your "costs" for the first lawsuit.

Re: Living Trust

Hmmmm, two unrelated questions in a single posting under "Business Law," one dealing with wills, trusts and estates, the other dealing with general civil procedure matters.

OK, my response to the first question is as follows: (1) What do you mean by a single person? Do you mean one individual, or do you mean someone whose marital status is "single?" In either case, the answer would be that it is perfectly possible.

(2) What do you mean by "I?" The only person who can "set up," i.e. create, a trust is the trustor, meaning the person who places assets in trust. Of course, an intending trustor can employ an attorney or maybe a paralegal to assist in "setting up" her or his trust, but the authority and power to create the trust flows from the trustor herself/himself.

(3) I must note in passing that most living trusts are not irrevocable, they are revocable. In occasional circumstances, an irrevocable trust may be more appropriate for testamentary purposes, but such a trust should be "set up" by an expert with careful thought given to the reasons why it ought to be irrevocable. Nearly all trustors would be better served by retaining the power to modify or revoke the trust.

As to the second question, what do you mean by "the letter of the court date?" There is no legal document to my knowledge fitting that description. Are you referring to a summons and complaint? Or, if you are the plaintiff, as seems more likely, are you referring to a court date for a case management conference, a trial, or ???? Most courts follow up the failure of a party to appear at a "court date" with a mailed "order to show cause" or the like. In pro. per. litigants are pretty much held to the same standards for showing up in court as are parties represented by counsel.

If your case was dismissed because you missed court appearances set up by mailed notices, you won't get an sympathy from the judge when you re-file. The judge will assume, whether she or he says so, that you got the notice, or that your failure to get the mailed notice was somehow your fault, not the court's. Judges have heard every excuse imaginable at least 40 times, and they have a strong tendency to disbelieve.