Recent Articles

            As a full-service law firm handling real estate, estate planning, and land use matters, we see this factual circumstance often: a buyer of real estate purchased the property in their individual capacity before creating an estate plan. Once talking with an estate planning attorney, the buyer/owner wants to transfer [...]

            Governor Gavin Newsom has now signed AB 12, changing laws related to residential tenancy and security deposits. The amendments to California law concerning security deposits will become effective next year. No longer will landlords have authority to obtain two months of rent as a security deposit or three months [...]

            Porter Simon, a Truckee and Lake Tahoe-based law firm, is proud to announce that partner Ethan J. Birnberg has been named the “2023 Best Attorney” in the Truckee and North Lake Tahoe. Over 100,000 votes were cast during an approximate three-week period, according to Tahoe Daily Tribune and Sierra [...]

            I am not a golfer. I prefer to walk in nature without the angst of having to hit a little white ball while doing so. Thus, I loved this quote from the First Appellate District Court of Appeal: “Golf is a sport whose object is for players to use [...]

          We’ve written about the Good Samaritan law before primarily because I want to encourage people to help others whenever possible without fear of being successfully sued. COSTCO GAS STATION FIST FIGHT             My only minor beef with getting gas at Costco is the price is so cheap there is often [...]

            When I attended Hastings College of the Law in the early 1970s, it was one of the top tier law schools in the country. And still is. I knew vaguely that the name came from Serranus Hastings who was the first Chief Justice of California. We’ve learned more about [...]

            All of us remember cult leader Charles Manson and some of us remember one of his cult followers Leslie Van Houten, who participated in the killing of Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary in Los Angeles. That was a day after other members of the Manson Family brutally murdered [...]

            The dog days of summer are here. The mercury malevolently rises, and heat records ignominiously fall world round. But here in Truckee-Tahoe, snow is still on the mind (and on the ground).             The past winter wreaked havoc. So much so that federal and [...]

            In recent years, the highly partisan, conservative Supreme Court has essentially gutted the Voting Rights Act by continuing to allow, if not endorse, racial gerrymandering of congressional districts. A “RED MAP” UPHELD             A bit of recent history.             North Carolina’s Republican Party drew partisan congressional districts in such [...]