Ask an Attorney: Your dog can inherit your estate!

This article appears monthly as a public service.

It is not intended as legal advice, and will address only general propositions.

If you have a question about a matter which affects you, you should contact an attorney.

• Question: I am estranged from my family and consider my dog to be my best friend.

Can I leave my entire estate to my dog?

• Answer: Some of you may have heard about Leona Helmsley leaving $12 million to her dog, Trouble, so that Trouble could continue to live an opulent lifestyle after Leona’s death.

Such trusts for the care of a pet are valid under Arizona law.

I have a provision in my will that provides for a trust for my dog, Kool, though Kool, thankfully, has become accustomed to a much more spartan lifestyle than Trouble.

In your estate planning documents, you will want to set forth the terms that the trustee will follow for the administration of the trust.

You will want to name a person you have confidence in as trustee; if the trustee simply absconds with the money, the dog will have a difficult time explaining the situation to the court.

Such a trust will terminate when the last animal covered by the trust passes away.

When this happens, the unexpended trust property will be transferred as directed in the trust.

If no direction is given, then there is a possibility, depending on how your estate planning documents are drafted, that the remaining money in the trust will go to your heirs at law; in this case, to your estranged family.

• Q: I am involved in a dispute with my neighbor. If I sue him and win, will the judge make him pay the attorney’s fees I incurred in the lawsuit?

• A: Maybe. Under Arizona law, the court has discretion to award attorney’s fees to the winner in certain types of lawsuits, such as in contract cases.

A contract which is the subject of a dispute could also provide for an award of attorney’s fees to the winner.

However, even when I think a client has a very good case I never advise the client that he is guaranteed to be awarded his attorney’s fees if he wins the lawsuit, simply because you never know how the court will rule.

Although litigation is not a large part of my practice, and this column will not focus much on litigation issues, I will say that litigation often ends up being more costly than people anticipate.

It is not the least bit unusual to incur $5,000 or more in attorney’s fees in a case in which you are fighting for $10,000.

Fighting for “the principle of the matter” is always more attractive to a person before he has received a bill for thousands of dollars from his attorney than it does afterward.

It is true that there are some cases that simply need to be taken to court.

However, it is almost always a good idea to attempt to come to a reasonable settlement before going to court.

Keep in mind as well that even when you win, sometimes you cannot collect the money you are owed due to the other party’s financial situation.

Send a question to Andrew Heideman at aheideman@duffield law.com. Contact him at 625-4404.