Our Services

• Business Law

• Civil Trial Practice

• Medical Negligence

• Municipal and Zoning Law

• Personal Injury

• Adoptions

• Estate Planning and Probate

• Real Estate Transactions

Hughes Law Offices Uses Technology to Serve Clients

HUGHES LAW OFFICES has made a commitment to using "state of the art" technology to best serve our clients.  For example, HUGHES LAW OFFICES was able to support a legal argument using a case that was decided in a higher court only four days earlier. This, along with an otherwise vigorously pursued case, resulted in an excellent settlement for our client.  The advantage was a direct result of the staff using LEXIS-NEXIS on-line Internet research, a tool that allows the attorneys to access law as soon as it is decided.  Instead of searching through thousands of pages of case law, LEXIS-NEXIS allows legal professionals to enter key words or phrases and instantly pull up relevant documents.  Research that used to take days, now takes hours. We of course pass along the time savings to our clients.

Another technological advantage that HUGHES LAW OFFICES has to offer is world wide internet exposure for all our clients through our websites.

Adoptions

One of the most satisfying practice areas for John Hughes is representing prospective adoptive parents in interstate and instrastate private placement adoptions. John helped his first adopting family in 1991, and since then his practice has grown by personal referrals to representing many childless couples who dearly want to adopt. A competent, caring staff works closely with John in his adoption practice.

Private Placement Adoptions offer the adopting couples and birth mother a myriad of choices in meeting their unique needs. In a private adoption, the birth mother usually selects the adopting parent herself. For her selection of the adopting parents to be meaningful, she needs to know a good deal about the couple. Hughes Law Offices asks our couples to prepare "family books", which are made available to birth mothers in assisting with their decision-making process. The costs of a private placement adoption varies, based on the complexity of the situation.

Wills

Why a Will?  A will is a written document that states how and to whom you wish your property to go after your death. When you make a will you are then defined as a testator. Although you essentially may dispose of your property in almost any way you wish through your will, state law places some restructions on the distribution.

Drafting a will involves decisions that require professional judgment. John Hughes and Marc Feinstein at Hughes Law Offices can help avoid many pitfalls and advise you concerning your best course of action. Our experienced advice in drafting a will and planning your estate can, in many cases, reduce tax consequences and prevent unforeseen problems in the administration of your estate.

Today, there are will kits available for purchase "off-the-shelf" at stores and over the Internet. People ask us if they are adequate. One can answer this by saying, "Yes, they are adequate ­ until you die!" Unfortunately, the legal sufficiency of an "off-the-shelf" will is essentially not discoverable until the testator dies because a will has absolutely no effect until the testator¹s death. Then and only then will any problems in the legal sufficiency of an "off-the-shelf" will kit come to the surface.

A will is in effect until it is changed or revoked, however, it does not have any real meaning in a technical sense, until your death. There is no limit to the number of changes that you may make to your will or how often you rewrite and replace it in its entirety. With this in mind, you should review both your will and your estate plan from time to time. We recommend that your will and estate plan be reviewed every 3 to 5 years because of changes in the amount and the kind of property you own, changes in your family circumstances, and, as happened this year, significant changes in both federal and state transfer tax laws.

A will may be changed by rewriting it in its entirety or through a codicil. A codicil is the term used for a written amendment which can change a single provision or several provisions in your will, while leaving the rest of the provisions of the original will in place with full effect.

If a person dies without a will, the property owned by the intestate person, or person without a will, is distributed according to a formula set out by state law.