Recent News

The lawyers of Beresford Booth harness our expertise to maximize the benefit for our clients in any given situation. This can mean transforming a seemingly dire situation to a positive outcome. We enjoy creating efficient and successful outcomes. Recently, we had a client whose financial position was bleak. His wife had died, leaving property in… Read More

Stated differently, “a job worth doing is a job worth doing right”. The Washington Statute, RCW 11.12.020, requires that a will to be validly executed, must, among other requirements, be attested by two or more competent witnesses  while in the presence of the testator (person signing their will). In light of these statutory requirements, our… Read More

Typically, a person files for Chapter 13 if he or she has too much equity in their home, or if his or her monthly income is too high to qualify for a Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy.  Further, and unlike a Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy, a person can stop a home foreclosure and cure delinquent mortgage… Read More

The IRS estimates that 25% of all LLCs consist of two members. Care should be taken to draft an LLC Agreement to avoid a deadlock between the members or managers. In Washington, our new default rule for voting of members is on a per member basis regardless of how much capital a member contributes. As… Read More

In my earlier blog posting, titled “Should you put your primary residence in an LLC?”, I discussed my opinion that one of the rationales for not transferring your principal residence into an LLC was a likelihood that the homestead exemption would not apply.  By statute, a “homestead” provides an exemption from creditors for up to… Read More

The Pacific Little League (PLL) All Stars won the Washington State championship and are now in San Bernadino California at the Northwest Regional Championship representing Washington. Prior to leaving for San Bernadino, three of the players from the PLL All Stars team met with attorneys from Beresford Booth where they received a check from the firm… Read More

The state of Washington imposes a real estate excise tax on transfers of real estate, but exemptions from the tax are available for certain types of transfers.  One exemption has been for distributions from the estate of a deceased person to a will beneficiary when the estate involves probate of a last will and testament… Read More

As a result of a major six-year overhaul by the Access to Justice Board, new “Plain Language” Family Law Forms are currently available on  https://www.courts.wa.gov/forms and mandatory to be used in all family law cases as of July 1, 2016. The purpose for the overhaul was to make the court forms more comprehensible for Pro… Read More

William O. Kessler was selected to the 2016 Washington Rising Stars list in the area of Business Litigation. This is Bill’s third consecutive year to be selected to the list. The firm proudly congratulates William O. Kessler for his selection as 2016 Rising Stars.  The Super Lawyers list is published in the Washington Super Lawyers Magazine.  Super… Read More