Extend your neighbor a hand, not a bullet.

 Brian Ford was shot by his Florida neighbor while trimming trees along their shared property line. Read the full news article, here. 

This is an extreme example of boundary disputes gone horribly wrong. Our Firm has been, and continues to be involved in neighbor disputes over boundaries and overhanging trees, extended flower and crop beds, and encroaching pools, decks and bow windows. Each and every one a potential flash point for violent confrontation between otherwise law abiding folk.

In one long-ago case, I was walking through a client's wooded lot in one of Maryland's more rural Counties. The purpose of my visit was to eyeball a "logging road" that was in dispute. A neighbor claimed rights to use the logging road for development of multiple subdivided lots. My client believed that the intended logging road was located elsewhere, or had disappeared, as historical facts demonstrated that logging roads move over time, with logging operations. 

It was late afternoon and I was casually crunching through the underbrush in search of a discernible path. I stopped immediately upon hearing the "click" of a shotgun being chambered and cocked behind me. 

"Who the **ck are you?" bellowed my inquisitor.

"I'm the lawyer for the owner of this land...I have permission to be here!" I squeeked (in the most authoritative voice I could muster in that instant).

My heart beat once, then twice, a bird chirped, and then...

"Aw, heck, you're MY lawyer!"

And we had a hearty laugh, a handshake, and a nervous discussion about shooting lawyers out-of-season.

George Washington wrote that personal freedom and property rights are inseparable. The more visceral reaction many like the shooter in the Florida have to any perceived encroachment speaks to how deeply this concept is embedded. Inherent decency and problem solving learned through the social institutions of family, school, church and community should, and often does buffer such an immediate and deadly adverse reaction. As lawyers, we seek to channel such disputes away from violent confrontation to alternate dispute resolution in forums like mediation, arbitration or trial.

It is cheaper to engage a civil litigator than to hire a criminal defense attorney.

You can't rely on the Will as evidence of title!!

Here's a common situation, as evidenced by the several questions I've gotten over the last week, alone: A settlement is done to secure a loan to real property, and the only evidence of "ownership" of one or more parties is a copy of a Will, showing the "owner" is an heir to some interest in the real property. The loan is made, the deed of trust is executed by the heir and is recorded, and the title policy is issued to the lender to assure "ownership" of the heir.

But no title document is recorded in the land records showing "ownership." Faux pas!

The Will merely directs the PR or Special Administrator on how property should be passed. Upon death, the entire recorded interest of the decedent becomes estate property. Any interest stated in the Will must be passed out of the estate, by the PR, and that instrument must be recorded in the land records. Period. Reliance by the settlement company/title agent solely on the Will is just wrong! The Will merely evidences the decedent's intent....nothing more.