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[00:00:07] Scott Benton: Hey, everyone. Scott Benton here. How are you? I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast where we help you easily transition from law school student into your professional life in a career as an attorney and where we make the practice of law fun, more importantly. And today we’re going to answer the question of, is the property the only value in a case?
[00:00:29] Scott Benton: [00:01:00] Is the property the only value in a case? That we have a little bit of context for this episode and because I work in a trust and probate litigation law firm, let’s set up a fictionalized scenario where a client comes to you and they want you to represent them as their attorney and they have a case with a trust that they are a beneficiary in and they stand to inherit one third of the overall value of the property.
[00:01:44] Scott Benton: For the sake of this illustration, let’s say the value of the property in that case is 3, 000, 000, which means that as a one third beneficiary, your client stands to inherit one third of 3, 000, 000, or if you do the math correctly, [00:02:00] that’s 1, 000, 000. So the question becomes, Is that the only value that your client’s going to see in this particular case?
[00:02:08] Scott Benton: All things being equal, if he’s or she is one third beneficiary and there’s a three million dollar estate, then it would stand to reason that your client would receive one million dollars. But is that all? Now the answer to that question is going to be a definitive, maybe. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t.
[00:02:27] Scott Benton: Maybe that’s all they’re going to get, that one million dollars, and maybe there’s more. Which is what you, as the attorney, want to be able to analyze and make sure that you’re presenting the overall value of the case to your client. Now, what do I mean by that exactly? You’re probably asking yourself right now.
[00:02:45] Scott Benton: There’s 3 million of total value in the case and your client has a one third interest. So where exactly are they going to go and get more out of this estate? I’m glad you asked that question. And this is why you want to get [00:03:00] very clear on all of the case facts. with your client. And this is why you want to drill down into their story with them.
[00:03:10] Scott Benton: We like to say at least three levels. You want to go three levels down. That’s how deep you want to get into the weeds with this story when you talk to them and when you’re doing the initial consultation. The initial consultation is probably not going to dig all of this up, but repeated conversations with them as their attorney, you should concentrate on going even deeper and deeper.
[00:03:33] Scott Benton: You want to ask them all kinds of probing questions. You want to say, and then what happened? You want to say, how did you feel about that? You want to do all these things because in that conversation, you’re pulling out all of those case facts that they probably forgot. But as you start having this conversation, All of these memories are going to come back to them and it’s why you want to focus on the [00:04:00] relationship building part of your interaction with your client because that relationship building part, it becomes so valuable, not only to you as the attorney, but also to your client, because When you’re successful in establishing that strong bond that the attorney and the client have with each other, the client builds a level of trust with you as their attorney that really opens them up and it allows them to build trust.
[00:04:29] Scott Benton: just put everything out on the table because they feel safe with you and they feel comfortable with you. And that’s what that trust bond is all about. And that’s really what you’re trying to do with your relationship building skills. You’re trying to open up that space for your client so that they’re going to tell you absolutely everything about their case and really about their life.
[00:04:50] Scott Benton: And so when you know the name of their spouse, and you know the name of their kids, and their dog, and the type of car that they drive, and even the specific [00:05:00] engine repairs that car is going to need now, you’re going to get everything that you need. And that’s going to help you determine the overall value of the case that goes far beyond the assets that are held in the trust.
[00:05:13] Scott Benton: What do I mean by that exactly? The truth is that there could be not always, but there could be far more value to the case than what you see simply by looking in the trust. In this example, the division of the assets in that trust, we know we’re going to go to three people, but there could be other factors built into your client’s back story.
[00:05:35] Scott Benton: Those sort of background case facts that you’ve been able to really tease out in your conversations with them. For instance, your client might have a guardianship or they’re going to receive a guardianship and that guardianship could include a government money every month.
[00:05:55] Scott Benton: of let’s say 2, 000 or 3, 000 that [00:06:00] you’re going to receive, that your client’s going to receive. Now, you don’t want to forget to include that amount in the monthly cash flow calculation of your case. So you might say something like to your client, you might say all right you’re going to get a million dollars in cash once all the property’s finally sold, and you’re going to continue to get 2, 500 per month in guardianship funds For the foreseeable future.
[00:06:25] Scott Benton: And as another example, maybe as part of the settlement, your client who, let’s say, has been living in the family home for the past two years, and they’ve been living there rent free, they’re going to continue to be able to live in that property rent free for the rest of their life. Maybe that’s part of the settlement.
[00:06:44] Scott Benton: So with that in mind, you want to calculate both of those amounts. Let’s say that they had been living in the house for two years or 24 months. And let’s say the average rent in that area is 2, 500 a month. Then [00:07:00] you want to say that they’re receiving a value of the 24 months of rent that they. That they’ve essentially already received and didn’t pay and that they’re going to receive a future value of I don’t know on average according to the actuarial tables.
[00:07:17] Scott Benton: I’m making this up. Let’s say another 25 years of free rent So we’re gonna just assume that rents never go up which we know that they are gonna go up but If they don’t, and just for the sake of this figure, then that’s going to mean the past 24 months of 2, 500 a month rent, which equals 60, 000 for rent that they didn’t have to pay.
[00:07:42] Scott Benton: And then on top of that, there’s 25 years of 2, 500, which equals 300 months for a total of 750, 000 minimum. Just for rent alone. That’s going to bring the value up. When you add that together, it’s going to bring it [00:08:00] up another 810, 000. So that means that ultimately your client is going to be walking away with a case value of 1, 810, 000 and not just the 1, 000, 000 settlement from the trust assets.
[00:08:17] Scott Benton: It’s much higher than that. You want to be able to calculate. that complete and total value by making those calculations such as rent that they haven’t paid or rent that they’re not going to pay in the future. And you want to lump that into that overall case value. So you can see in this example, the assets in the trust are not the only value in a case that you can identify, which is it’s precisely why It’s so important to really have those conversations with your client to really establish that strong bond with them and to use all your relationship building skills in order to use case [00:09:00] facts that not only apply to the law, and those are obviously going to be important, but also you’re going to use those case facts that don’t necessarily pertain to the law.
[00:09:12] Scott Benton: And those are case facts that a lot of times they’re just gonna be ignored, right? Because there’s no sort of law behind them as far as this case is concerned. This way, you have a full picture of what that settlement is going to be or that favorable result in that case. if it’s all in their favor, what that ultimately is going to look like and you want to make sure that you’re thinking out of the box of just what’s inside the trust and consider that bigger story surrounding your client’s case.
[00:09:41] Scott Benton: So this is where the, like I said, the case facts that don’t apply to the law become extremely valuable. And you really, you don’t want to leave any of those behind. You don’t want to leave those off the table when you’re calculating out the total value of the case for your client. It’s not just about what’s in [00:10:00] what’s in the trust fund or the estate or the trust.
[00:10:03] Scott Benton: So I hope that’s been helpful. I hope that’s been useful information for you. I’m Scott Benton. I’m the host of the Classroom to Courtroom podcast.
[00:10:10] Scott Benton: Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If this is information that you are enjoying and that you’re getting a lot out of if you’d like to get an alert every time we put out a new episode, you can go to our website. Our website is classroom2courtroom. com. That’s classroom, the number two, courtroom.
[00:10:25] Scott Benton: com. You can leave us your contact information. And you’ll get an alert every time we put together a new episode of this podcast. And if you are enjoying what you’re hearing here, you can always like, share and subscribe. And that way you’re going to stay on top of our newest episodes as well. And so until then, until our next episode, which we hope you’ll join us for, we also hope you’ll join us in making the world a better place one client at a time.
[00:10:53] Scott Benton: Thank you so much.
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