Family Law

I love doing both mediation and estate planning/elder law with clients. As a mediator in separation & divorce, I work with both clients together to help them make wise decisions in a separation/dissolution. I also like to help them to make the necessary decisions about the division of their property, monthly finances (support) and parenting so that the judge can simply sign their Judgment after all the decisions have already been made by the clients.

As an estate planner and certified elder law attorney, I help clients with a fairly wide range of issues, from premarital agreements to powers of attorney, to conservatorships, to planning for qualification for Medi-Cal eligibility.

• Mediation/Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
• Name Changes

• Child Support
• Custody
• Paternity
• Visitation

• Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual, Transgender Rights
• Living Together/Cohabitation
• Marriage
• Power of Attorney
• Prenuptial & Postnuptial Agreements

• Long-Term Care
• Powers of Attorney
• Medicaid & Medicare Planning
• Advanced Health Care Directive
• Tax Planning
• Nursing Home Negligence

Divorce

I enjoy working with clients as a mediator to help them make wise decisions in a separation/dissolution. I also like helping them make necessary decisions about the division of their property, monthly finances (support) and parenting. This makes it easy for the judge to simply sign their Judgment after all the decisions have already been made by the clients.

• Child Support
• Custody/Visitation Rights
• Division of Property
• Mediation/Alternative Dispute Resolution(ADR)
• Uncontested Divorce

CA, Dec 1982
Bar Number: 106295

Certified as an Elder Law Attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation.

California Supreme Court, and all courts of California.

California State Bar, Sacramento County Bar, Estate Planning and Family Law Sections, Association for Conflict Resolution (Formerly Academy of Family Mediators, lifetime, practitioner member) National Academy of Elder Attorneys.

I always exceed the required number of continuing education credits. I have more than 450 hours of training in mediation. I continue to participate in ongoing communication training as well as my required continuing legal education.

In the Divorce area:
My most satisfying cases are comprehensive divorce mediation. I enjoy helping couples who are often having difficulty communicating to work through the necessary decision-making to provide a settlement agreement to the court and avoid having the court make those important decisions, which often affect people for the rest of their lives. A separation can be such a stressful time that even people who are otherwise good communicators can have a hard time expressing themselves effectively. Many of us have not been trained to communicate effectively, and the situational stress often magnifies the issues that block communication. A couple may have the intention to talk clearly with each other, but find it almost impossible because of the personal issues that are presented during the separation. My goal is to understand each person, individually, and as clearly as possible. This helps each client understand him/herself, and also understand the person they are negotiating with. I believe that such understanding, of yourself and the other person, is what leads to wise decisions.

In the Family area: :
I really enjoy helping clients clarify their goals. For example, some clients really want to have their final affairs in order, but they don't know who to name as their agent, or who to leave their property to, or whether to give lifetime gifts or put (for example) a child's name on the deed to their house. By asking the right questions and listening carefully I can help them to sort out what their goals are, what they are worried about, and what their feelings may be regarding the people who are involved. I also educate clients about the legal options and legal results of various actions they might take. Recently a client told me about her experience in having me prepare a will and powers of attorney: "Patsy, the thing I appreciated most was that I really felt heard by you."

Couples who choose to live together without marriage or registration as domestic partners need to be aware that there is no common law marriage in California. Any rights to inherit, make health or financial decisions, must be made with the appropriate legal documents, such as powers of attorney. Cohabitation agreements may be important to clarify each person's understanding and reach agreements about property and support issues.

1

California

My focus in law school was estate planning. After establishing my practice, I learned about mediation and have focused on both areas for the last 25 years. Since I have never been a litigator, I bring a planning focus to divorce mediation as well to estate planning. I have also been practicing elder law since the eighties.

My focus is helping clients make wise decisions. I provide worksheets to the clients to gather the concrete information that they need (assets & liabilities, budgets), I give them the legal information that applies to their situation, and I help them clarify their own goals and concerns so that they can make wise decisions. If more than one party is involved, whether a mediation or estate planning in a couple or family situation, I have extensive training to help people communicate so they can understand each other clearly.

I graduated from UCLA Law School in June of 1982, and moved to Sacramento a year later and established my estate planning practice in the summer of 1983. I first learned about mediation soon after that and took my first mediation training in February of 1984. I have practiced mediation since, and have done more than 1200 divorce mediations over the years. My practice is approximately evenly divided between the two areas of divorce mediation and estate planning/elder law.

I worked briefly for an estate planning firm in Los Angeles after graduating from UCLA Law School and before moving to Sacramento.

Past board member of the Sacramento Mediation Center (founding board member), of California Lawyers for the Arts, Sacramento area, and have served on the boards of my children's pre-school and the Waldorf school. I was awarded the Peacemaker of the Year by the Mediation Center in 1995. I am a past board member of the Probate section, Sacramento County Bar, the Legal Center for the Elderly and of the dispute resolution committee of ECHO (Extreme Choices, Humane Options).

I have given presentations to the following organizations:
• California State Bar Bench/Bar Roundtable, topic family mediation
• Sacramento County Bar, Continuing Education Class for Attorneys, topic family mediation
• Sacramento County Bar, Probate Section, topic mediation
• Placer County Bar, Probate Section, topic mediation
• CPA/Law Forum, topic mediation
• Women Accountants of Sacramento, topic mediation
• Sacramento Women's Network (twice), topic mediation
• McGeorge Law School and U.C. Davis Law School, topic mediation
• Continuing Education of the Bar, topic Planning for Aging and Incapacity
• Regular speaker for Alzheimer's Association of Sacramento, topic planning for incapacity

Desirae

(916) 457-7035

Monday through Friday
9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

No

I generally charge my hourly rate for everything except some estate planning for which I have fixed fees.

$290.

No, I have a staff person who can answer questions about the process over the telephone and who will send out a worksheet so that the information is organized. When clients come in for the first appointment we can begin to work efficiently and I charge the hourly rate.

Instead of a retainer, I find that it is more affordable for clients to pay for each mediation session at the time, with a deposit toward the drafting at the last meeting.

I work in two-hour sessions with people, and generally, it takes two to four sessions if there are no children, and three to six sessions if there are children. Drafting of the settlement agreement takes 2-3 hours. Clients share the fees.

For other matters such as powers of attorneys, trusts, conservatorships, and other estate planning/elder law I will either charge the hourly rate or a flat fee for all estate documents that generally ranges from $1,800 to $4,000 depending on whether it is a will or trust, a single client or a couple.