THE LAW OFFICE OF EDWARD B. BATISTA

         I specialize in estate planning, estate litigation, probate, contracts and all real estate and property matters.  Additionally, my practice has included much work in consumer disputes, general litigation, and appeals.  I have proudly served clients in these specializations throughout many counties in California.  
            
            Estate planning consists of drafting wills and trusts (and other related documents) to distribute your estate upon your death or incapacity with the least amount of hassle or expense.   I offer free notarizations to my estate planning clients.                  

            Estate litigation is when someone goes to court about an estate/will/trust that they feel is not being distributed or managed properly.   A word about difficult cases: Anyone can win an easy case, but problem cases -- which most attorneys avoid -- are my specialty.   Frankly, they require a combination of creativity, heart, and brains that is not that common among "inside the box" lawyers.  If you have been told your case is a "loser" or that you should give up because you have no chance of winning, call me.  We'll see if we can figure out a way.           

            Probate is the court supervised process by which all estates are distributed to heirs -- basically, all assets get probated except assets in trusts and assets where you can make a "beneficiary designation" (bank accounts, IRA's, mutual fund accounts, etc.) to specify who you want that asset to go to upon your death. 

             Appeals involve questioning a court decision to a higher "appellate" court.  The big issues in appeals are: (1) the deference given to lower court decisions (the appeals court tries to leave the decision alone if somewhat reasonable); (2) the "standard of review" which is the degree of scrutiny the appellate court will undertake (in some cases  they will examine the case brand new, in other cases they are only looking for a clear abuse of the lower court's discretion; (3) whether the harm caused by the "bad" decision is critical to the outcome or whether it is "harmless" -- in other words, mistakes that don't matter to the ultimate outcome are not a basis for appeal; (4) whether the appealing party properly raised the issue with the lower court; they can't bring up the issue for the first time on appeal, this is called "waiver"; (5) the "record on appeal" which is the universe of facts for the case -- if it wasn't established as a fact at the lower court proceeding it doesn't exist in the appellate world. 

            Additionally, I hold a real estate brokers' license which enables me to represent my existing clients with any of their real property/ real estate sales needs.  

            In addition to the areas above I have specialized in over the years, I have worked in many other types of cases such as divorce, landlord-tenant, DUI’s, and other miscellaneous items.  In these miscellaneous areas I see myself as the "family-lawyer" you call first to get going in the right direction.   

            If I can't help you I'll be honest about it and help you find someone who can.