Family Law

• Adoption

Criminal Law

• Criminal Defense
  As noted on our main page, the practice of criminal law and being familiar with all of the local prosecutor’s offices and their policies, as well as having covered most of the counties in northern Michigan and knowing the Judges and their specific ways they handle criminal matters in their respective courts is invaluable knowledge.
• DUI/DWI
• Traffic Violations
  Whether it is a traffic matter as simple as a speeding ticket, or a felony where jail or even prison is a real possibility, we can help. Keeping that first criminal conviction off your record, or perhaps even after the fact, having that matter expunged from your record, is something that can affect your life and your livelihood for a lifetime. Even those matters that involve minors that end up in Probate Court can haunt you for a very, very long time.
• Misdemeanors
• Murder
  Practicing for almost Four Decades in Northern Michigan has allowed a wide variety of experiences, including, as a sample, complex litigation claims against the State, high profile criminal cases, including multiple successful "not guilty" verdicts in murder/manslaughter cases, and a wide variety of issues and matters in almost all county courts in the Northern Lower Peninsula and Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, including Circuit, District and Probate Courts.
• Manslaughter

Property Law

• Real Estate Litigation
  The purchase or sale of a home is something that often deals with the largest single investment in one’s life. Please have legal counsel review offers or buy-sell agreements before you sign. Too often the “horse is out of the barn door” by the time we have a chance to assist. We also are a full service firm with regard to any type of real estate transactions involving deeds or land contracts. Sometimes access issues or boundary disputes also occur with regard to the occasional neighborhood or what once was a neighborly dispute that degenerated into litigation. We can help.
• Real Estate Transactions
• Landlord-Tenant Disputes

Health Law

• Personal Injury
  There is no question that if you have a personal injury matter, that you are tempted to call the “1-800” numbers or respond to the television commercials or heavy advertising that a few “broker” attorneys promote. Call those numbers if you want to be part of the mass production of claims and not receive personal, individualized attention to your matter. If you call us, you will actually speak to an attorney and promptly meet with him to review your situation and he will be candid in assessing what you should do. You will not be contacted or referred to a “handler” or someone that will simply “refer” you out to an attorney who will receive a referral fee for taking your case. We don’t handle all of the claims that come our way, but we get the best results for the clients that choose to have us represent them.
• Auto Accidents
• Medicaid Planning

Trusts and Estates

• Estate Planning
  Many real estate issues are related to estate planning, in that to prevent uncapping and the increased long term ownership cost of property, the adjustment of title through joint tenancies is now something that should be considered. This is a result of appeals that we took up to the Court of Appeal and eventually the Supreme Court. Call us with all of your real estate questions.
• Wills
• Power of Attorney
  We provide a full array of estate planning from the simplest will or powers of attorney to complex trusts. We have handled a number of contested probate claims and issues for almost four decades. We can handle all matters involving real estate, as our general practice of law has given us a wide variety of experiences in title/boundary work.
• Probate

Finance Law

• Tax Law
  For example, we handle more property tax appeals than any other office in Northern Michigan. We have successfully handled matters through local Boards of Review; appeals to the Michigan Tax Tribunal, the equivalent of “tax court” for real property taxes; uncapping/property tax increase matters, going all the way up to the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court on occasion. The dramatic drop in property values has the net effect of many people paying more than they should for the taxes on their real property. We are normally very busy during the March Boards of Review and then the follow-up appeals to the Michigan Tax Tribunal, which can take a year or more.