Vegas Law Talk

Kevin Krall: You're listening to
special programming sponsored by

Stovall and Associates law firm.
The content of this program does

not reflect the views or
opinions of 91.5 Jas and more,

the University of Nevada Las
Vegas or the Board of Regents of

the Nevada System of Higher
Education.

Unknown: Good morning, Las
Vegas. This is Larissa Jehova,

TSA Attorney at Law and I am
joined by my partner

here. This is Leslie Stovall,
how're you doing? This morning,

we are putting on a show called
Las Vegas law Talk where we are

going to be discussing how the
law applies to you guys as

listeners, and we're going to be
discussing legal current events.

And in today's show, we are
going to be discussing the

legislative changes in Nevada
that take effect January one of

this year, we are going to be
talking about the current events

in the news and how they relate
to the law. And we are also

going to be discussing what you
need to know if somebody close

to you passes away, not just
what you need to know as far as

how to cope with the loss of a
loved one, but the legal aspects

that apply when a person dies.
So on January 1 of this year,

there are a number of changes
that Nevada has voted in to be

coming into effect, and one of
them will be the permanent mail

voting. Now what that does is it
requires all county and city

clerks to send every active
registered voter and mail ballot

before each primary general
election. You know,

that's really interesting. One
of the arguments that you see

across the country is whether or
not there should be mail in

voting. This certainly helps
people have the opportunity to

vote if they're not able to get
down to their voting or place of

voting.

I agree with you. One of the
major legislations for women my

age is that doctor visits are no
longer required to receive

certain types of birth control.
Now, this is going to be key

because what happens is, many of
the male listeners might not

know but my mom is in the
women's healthcare industry.

When you run out of your birth
control, you are required

typically to have a doctor's
appointment to refill those. And

in this particular legislation,
it's going to allow individuals

to get those refilled without
the doctor visits, hopefully

making it more convenient and
cutting down on unwanted

pregnancies.

Worse, I understand there's also
been a change in Medicaid for

incarcerated people. What did
the state legislature do with

that?

Sure. So beginning on the first
of this month, there's now a

more seamless transition for
Medicaid eligibility for

incarcerated people. Previously,
when an individual was receiving

Medicaid and became
incarcerated, their coverage

would be terminated. That caused
a lot of problems when they were

out of incarceration and had to
reapply for Medicaid. Now, when

a person is incarcerated, their
Medicaid eligibility is only

suspended rather than
terminated. The bill specifies

that individuals who were not
previously on Medicaid should be

allowed to apply for enrollment
in the program up to six months

before their scheduled release
date.

Well, Laura, I understand
there's another Medicare, excuse

me Medicaid service change
that's coming up. Would you like

to explain

that one? Sure. There have been
changes to Nevada's state

Medicaid program including
coverages for doula services,

coverage for community health
workers, and presumptive

eligibility for pregnant women.
That statue also makes changes

to Medicaid coverage for doula
services and takes effect today.

Yeah,

this new law implements the
state Supreme Court order

establishing a statutory right
to a jury trial for a person

charged with misdemeanor
domestic violence, that would

lead to the defendant losing his
firearm ownership rights.

This was huge, because
previously in domestic violence

cases, there were not jury
trials. And there were a lot of

individuals who felt that losing
their right to be able to carry

a firearm, which is a
consequence of being convicted

of a domestic violence charge
would necessitate the need for a

jury trial. Well, that's

right. And people, not only the
right carrier, firearm, but also

employment. People in the
military people in law

enforcement would lose their
jobs if they were convicted of a

domestic violence charge, and
now they have the opportunity go

before a jury and have a jury
make that decision.

So what this law really has
done, it has created a framework

to hold jury trials in municipal
court which was not previously

available

That's correct. You know, the
one change that I see in the

political system has to do with
the end of the presidential

caucuses, and Nevada had a
rather unique way of determining

who would be a presidential
candidate through the caucus

system. This year, the
legislature has adopted the

primary system, which means
every voter gets to go out and

vote for the person they think
should be the party's candidate

for the general election. And
that is really a significant

change.

Well, one of my favorite changes
to legislation this year is that

savings accounts for low income
Nevadans have been established.

This new law kicked in January
1, and it will allow some low

income people to create a
savings account and receive

matching funds from a bank to
multiply their deposits up to

fivefold. The new program called
the Individual Development

Account Program will be
available to people living in

low income housing projects who
have enrolled in Medicaid, or

who are in the foster care
system. The law calls for the

State Treasurer to accept grants
and donations, and use them to

match deposited funds by account
holders with up to $3,000 per

beneficiary per year. The state
is also required to provide

financial literacy training to
account holders, which I think

is awesome. I also think that
financial literacy training

should be a requirement in
Nevada public schools.

Before we leave legislative
changes, I do want to point out

that the state legislature has
changed the carseat requirements

for children who used to be
children had to be in a car seat

if there are six, under six
years of age and weighed 60

pounds or less. The weight
requirement has been eliminated

now is children under the age of
60, who are less than 57 inches

tall. So folks if you have
children, or grandchildren or

grandchildren, keep that in mind
when you are making a decision

about a car seat.

Great. So now that we have the
legal changes in Nevada covered,

I want to talk about current
legal news. Now something that I

found shocking and interesting
was that 2021 was the deadliest

year for homicides in many US
cities. Philly, Portland,

Louisville, and Albuquerque had
their deadliest year on record.

It's inexplicable the amount of
violence that has occurred over

this last year. Not only do you
have these record numbers of

homicides, but there's also a
record number of children who

have been killed by gun
violence. It's reported that

1500 children and these are
children and teenagers under the

age of eight teen have been
killed by gun violence this last

year that exceeds the year
before 1300 80 in 2021 of

the things that I see are
parents who are negligent in

leaving firearms available to
children and teens.

That's a terrible problem. I
don't know what what parents are

thinking or caretakers are
thinking about leaving a

firearm, a pistol or even long
gun available to children.

Children are inquisitive, they
dig around, they play around in

the house, they pick up
something like a gun.

And what parents need to know is
they can be held criminally

liable for leaving guns
available for children and teens

to be able to take and either
injure themselves or injure or

kill others, not only can

they be held criminally liable,
there's also civil penalties,

which is monitoring or by Child
Protective Services. And it's

not to mention lawsuits. Well,
not to mention lawsuits because

if you have a visitor coming
into a home, and their child is

injured as a result of a gun,
the parents are going to be held

liable when we saw in the most
recent shooting by that young

man, where both of the parents
have been charged up in

Wisconsin,

I think for giving him the gun
when he knew he was unstable.

Well, that's right. And one of
the other things that's been

noted is that many teenagers are
obtaining what are are

untraceable ghost guns. And
these are guns that are made

from kits or they're parts of
guns that are put together to

form of functioning gun. In
fact, here in Nevada, the Nevada

legislature just passed a
legislation and it goes into

effect this month that outlaws
ghost guns here in Nevada.

That's interesting. Center
talking about guns. I want to

talk about the Alec Baldwin
shooting case. And there are

many articles still coming out
about the investigation in to

the unfortunate and terrible
accidental shooting death of an

individual who was on set. Do
you have any comment or any type

of analysis of that case?

Well, recently, it was reported
that Alec Baldwin owns the

production company that employed
the individual that gave Alec

Baldwin the gun that was loaded.

But it was not supposed to be
loaded. All the bullets were

supposed to be blanks, and it's
unknown how live bullets got

into the mix of blanks?

Well, I have to tell you, I, I
don't understand how anybody

that has a firearm, or a pistol
in their hand that would pointed

at somebody without first
themselves looking at it and

making sure that that did not
have live and ammunition in it

in the first

place. They had somebody that
they hired to do that.

I'm just telling you, I wouldn't
trust somebody to hand me as a

firearm if I was going to be
pointing it at somebody. That's

how accidents occurred. In my
opinion, he should have been

looking in the first place. Now,
you know, the real question is

whether or not I think a lot of
people are wondering this is

this if he's going to be charged
criminally? He certainly has

civil liability, not only
because he owns a production

company, but because he did not
look at that gun himself. And

with regards to crime, I don't
know. He may have some criminal

liability because of the
circumstances under which this

killing occurred.

Well, the investigation is still
open. So we shall see what will

result from this unfortunate
accident and my heart goes out

to the victim, not only the one
who passed away, but there was

another individual who was
injured as well.

That's right. Hey, did you hear
about the phony bourbon that's

being sold? No, but

I'm sure you drink it.

No, I didn't. That's funny.

No, I'm just kidding. I know you
like the good stuff. I've seen

your receipts when you visit the
liquor store.

Well, what's happening
apparently, is these high price

collector liquors. I didn't even
know there was such a thing.

People have been buying the
empty bottles and then refilling

them with cheap liquor and then
selling them over the internet

for 1000s of dollars. Not
surprised, and it's all

happening over the internet. So
hey, Larissa. Did you see where

the German government is looking
at? legalizing recreational

marijuana? nationally? Yeah,
though entire country they're

gonna legalize marijuana use and
they think that the EU, the

European Union is going to
follow that means all the other

countries in Europe will move to
legal legalize marijuana.

They must need money. Tax money.
Well,

you know, here in Nevada, the
legalization of recreational

marijuana has really paid off.
This last year, it's been

reported that the state sold
over a well over a billion

dollars of product was sold in
the state and the state has

received $159 million in tax
revenue from the sale of

marijuana.

Now, I was under the impression
that money was supposed to be

given to the Clark County School
District and educational funding

has that happened?

Well, it appears to the
reporting is that the this tax

revenue money from the sale of
marijuana is being distributed

through the through the school
systems, not just to Clark

County, but it goes to all of
them. It's interesting, I don't

know how many how they
calculated it. But they said

that that really works out to be
about three $350 per student in

additional funding to the
educational system, which is

good. Every Every dollar helps,
because our school system in

particular needs needs a lot of
help, because we're not very

highly rated. Yeah,
unfortunately, you know,

well, one other article that I
found interesting, since we're

talking about controlled
substances, was the interview of

Travis Scott, regarding the
Astro world tragedy. If some of

the listeners are unfamiliar
with this case, there have been

more than a billion dollars
worth of lawsuits filed against

Travis Scott Drake, and the
production company that put on a

concert a few months ago, that
left many injured or dead. It is

reported that Travis Scott was
performing at his concert. And

there were crowds rushing the
stage and as a result, many

people were injured. It is
unknown whether or not Travis

Scott knew of this tragedy, but
at the time it was occurring and

for a long time thereafter. He
kept performing and the

individuals who were injured or
passed away were unable to get

help.

It's a it's a tragedy. Eight
people were killed 300 People

people were injured during the
concert. And there were

apparently 50,000 people within
the area that were searching the

stage. And unfortunately, this
is something that has happened

repeatedly at the Travis Scott
concerts, there were concerts in

2017 and 2016, where they had
problems with crowds surging,

also with people jumping over
barriers. And Travis Scott

himself describes his concerts
as these high energy concerts

where people are encouraged to
do how they feel, I suppose is

the best way to put it.

What's your opinion on whether
or not he should be held

responsible, whether criminally
or financially for the deaths or

injuries of those individuals
who attended that concert?

Well, you know, he may be
exposed to criminal liability

because of the way he's
conducted himself in prior

concerts. And the same problem
occurring on? Well, this looks

like about three times certainly
has civil liability, not only

him, but anyone who was involved
in the production of that and

staging that concert, I also
think you may be looking at the

local government being
responsible, because it seems to

me that you would have to know
that with this particular

entertainer and the number of
people that are going to be

present that you'd have to take
extraordinary steps or

management to keep this from
occurring. Again, I don't think

it was a surprise, or anybody
that is going to take a look at

what happened, I would say this,
this doesn't surprise them that

it occurred.

Well, my heart goes out to all
the families of the injured and

deceased individuals. And that
leads me into my next

conversation with you, which is
what to do when somebody close

to you passes away.

You know, this is really an
important matter, an important

issue in today's environment,
you know, we've lived through

two years now, of pandemic, and
it's shocking the number of

people that have died or have
have been seriously injured

because of the COVID virus. And
look at us now, here we are

2022. And we're facing another
variant of a virus. And that

leads to disabilities and death.
And I think you're probably in a

good position to talk about
this, really think about how

they're going to take care of
their families in the event of

their death or disability. And I
know that's an area that you do

a lot of well, almost
exclusively working.

Right. As you know, I do a lot
of probate and estate planning

work. And one of the, I would
say good things that came out of

COVID in my eyes as an attorney
is that it required a lot of

people to face their own
mortality, and start thinking

more about planning for death or
disability regardless of age. I

know that my estate planning
practice where I drafted Wills

and Trusts for people exploded
last year, more young people are

thinking about getting wills in
place and trusts. My friends

that our life insurance agents
told me that they were extremely

busy selling life insurance
policies, because of COVID. And

unfortunately, my business did
pick up in the area of probate

where individuals passed away
and their loved ones were were

left to handle the legal affairs
of the decedent. And in my

opinion, there's not enough
information out there about what

somebody needs to do when their
spouse or loved one or mother or

father passes away. It's almost
as if you have to get an

attorney to know what to do when
somebody dies.

You know, that's been my
experience also is that people

really don't know don't
understand what their legal

position is, when a loved one
passes away, and they have no

idea what probate really does.

Yeah, a lot of people don't know
what to do with probate, how to

transfer the assets, they don't
even know that you are supposed

to report the death of a loved
one to their credit card

companies. to Social Security,
you need to cancel their credit

cards you need to cancel their
passport. There's a whole long

list of items that people need
to do when somebody passes away

to protect the legal rights of
the deceased and the

beneficiaries and any creditors.
And I've actually made this list

available on our website. So if
the listeners have questions on

what to do when somebody passes
away, they can visit our website

at less stovall.com Um, Le s s t
o v a l l.com. I have several

blogs on the website and probate
articles. But in my experience,

a lot of people don't do the
proper planning, before they

pass away to save their loved
ones, the time, money and

anguish of having to deal with
probate court and the conflicts.

That's been my experience also.
And I suppose there's really two

different ways that individuals
can do their estate planning

one, they can prepare a will, or
they can do a trust if they have

assets that would benefit from
being in a in a trust,

right. But sometimes people
don't need either as long as

those assets are beneficiary
designations. Meaning on a bank

account, you could designate a
beneficiary, you could designate

a beneficiary on investment
accounts, IRAs, 401, K's on life

insurance, or if the property
has a joint owner, those assets

will avoid probate court. But a
lot of people don't have the

proper planning in the first
place to know how to structure

assets, any event of death or
incapacity of a loved one

spouse, or co owner.

Well, what do you do, or offer
to help people review their

situation and decide what they
should do for in the event of

their death.

So in my estate planning
practice, I start all my

sessions with a family wealth
planning session. And normally,

these sessions are $750, because
they're two hour working

meeting, where I analyze all the
assets of the individuals, I

analyze the family dynamics, and
I go over the goals. And we talk

about what would happen with
their current plan, which is

usually no plan. And we talk
about the plan that would best

fit their family situation,
budget and dynamics. And those

sessions are now complimentary
due to a promotion that I have

this quarter, where the
complimentary family wealth

planning session is now free.
And there's no obligation to

sign up with me. But it is a
really good eye opening meeting

to have with individuals because
we go through each asset that

they own, we see how that asset
is owned, whether a joint owner

or if it's owned solely. And we
talk about what's going to

happen to your property and your
money if you become

incapacitated or die. Now, there
are different courses of action

if a person becomes
incapacitated, versus whether

they pass away. Now if you get a
comprehensive estate plan that

will cover incapacity and death,
and it will leave your family

and loved ones free of court and
conflict. But as I've seen, in

most cases, people do not
properly plan for death or

incapacity. And they hire me to
handle their guardianship cases

and their probates.

Well, how does how to do
families avoid the long drawn

out process of probate? In these
kinds of situations, what can

you offer them?

Well, what I always recommend to
my clients is getting a

revocable living trust. And in a
nutshell, that's where assets

are transferred out of a
person's name into a legal

entity that they manage, and own
and that they benefit from

during their lifetime. And in
the course of that trust

planning, we designate a
successor trustee to manage

assets once a person passes away
or becomes incapacitated, you

know, either due to an injury or
old age or anything of that

nature. And then you designate
beneficiaries to inherit your

property when you pass away. And
I generally recommend trusts to

individuals whose family
dynamics require that meaning

they have minor children are
multiple beneficiaries, and they

want to stagger payments and
ages and stages, meaning they

don't want a loved one to
necessarily get a large lump sum

of money all at once. Only a
tres can accomplish staggering

the inheritance. If they have to
go through probate. The

individual who inherits the
property will get all that money

once the probate is over and in
a situation of minors. Leaving

property to minors is not a good
idea because if they are

entitled to that property upon
your death, and they're under

the age of 18, that money will
end up in guardianship court and

locked up until those minors
reach the age of 18. And then at

18, they will receive an
inheritance with no oversight or

direction and that's usually the
last thing that a person wants

to do is leave an 18 year old
with a large amount of money

with no direction or oversight.
But just to talk about Roby in a

nutshell, that is the court
process of proving the validity

of a will if there is one
marshaling assets inventorying

assets of a deceased person
notifying and paying creditors

and handling any claims that may
be as a result of any type of

lawsuit, I know, in your
practice, you do file lawsuits

on behalf of deceased people.
And that always goes through

probate court.

Well, that's true, you have to
petition to the probate court to

appoint a personal
representative to represent the

decedent.

So basically, if somebody dies,
and there is money owed to them,

they need a living person to
handle the estate.

Well, that's absolutely right.
When a person dies, there is no

one who can handle or transfer
or collect assets on behalf of

that dead person.

Many people think just because
they are married to somebody,

they automatically get the
money, or they can automatically

do things just because they are
married, and they forget that

No, it has to go through court
first. You have to be appointed.

That's a process, it takes time,
it costs money, and there's

delays built in along the way.

Well, and that's one of the
advantages of a trust is you

don't have to wait for the court
to appoint you. An individual

would be the administrator or
personal representative of the

estate, you don't have to ask
the court to issue orders for

payments of certain debts are
things like that the trust is

able to manage those things
immediately upon death, and

start distributing assets or
paying off debts that are due.

Right. And I think it's very
important for listeners to know

that once a person passes away,
unless there's a beneficiary

designated, or there's a co
owner, all those assets are

frozen. So if your husband or
wife has $10 million in their

bank account, and only their
name is on it, and there's no

beneficiary, you cannot get that
money right away, it's going to

have to go through probate
court. And that's the importance

of planning. Because if you know
that your family will need money

upon your passing, you will
benefit from having a planning

session with me to know how to
set your family up to have that

money if they need it for
funeral expenses, bills, things

like that.

You know, another benefit of
trust is that it's more private,

when you are in probate, you
have to file public accountings

of assets in an estate in a
trust. That does not occur.

Yeah, and one of the things I
think is particularly

embarrassing is that the death
certificate is made public, the

only thing that's required to be
redacted is the social security

number. But many people don't
understand your death

certificate will be public, if
it goes through probate, meaning

your cause of death, whether you
are married or widowed who

you're informing was where you
lived. And that's something I

wouldn't want to happen if I was
deceased, or what I died from, I

just wouldn't want my death
certificate to be public.

Well, they do list out the
causes of death. And that can be

very personal. One of the other
things that I think is

beneficial interest is for
parents, they're able to

designate guardians for
children. Is that true?

Right? Well, it's very important
for parents of minor children,

because if like I said they
leave money to minors, they're

not able to actually obtain that
money until they're 18 years

old. And the guardianship
process is a whole other animal.

In addition, having to go
through probate, there are a lot

of resources available for
people who want to know more

about the probate process and
guardianship. One of those is

the website for the Legal Aid
self help center of Southern

Nevada. There's also our website
where I have created a lot of

blog articles and informational
postings regarding the probate

process guardianship estate
planning, and anything that

would be of benefit for people
to know what to do when a loved

one passes away. So the website
that people can check out for

more information is Les
stovall.com. Or you can reach me

by phone at 702-258-3034. I love
to be a resource.

Well, Larissa, how have you felt
about our show today? This is

the first one we've done
together. Seems like I've

enjoyed it. How about yourself?

I've enjoyed it. I hope the
listeners have enjoyed it.

Well, we're gonna come back in a
couple of weeks with another

program and we plan on staying
on the air for a while. Don't

you agree?

I agree. And if the listeners
have anything they'd like us to

talk about, they can visit the
website and put in requests for

information on what our show
should be about. You bet.

Look forward to hearing from
folks I'd be very nice to give

us some feedback on the show and
what we can do to Answer

questions for listeners.

So listeners if you enjoyed the
show or if you didn't enjoy the

show and you want to tell us or
if there are any topics that you

would like us to discuss on our
next shows, please visit the

website www dot less stovall.com
le SS to be a ll.com and send us

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questions, comments and

concerns.

Kevin Krall: You've been
listening to special programming

sponsored by Stovall and
Associates law firm. The content

of this program did not reflect
the views or opinions of 91.5

Jazz and more, the University of
Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of

Regents of the Nevada System of
Higher Education.