Gerald McDaniel | Woodland Park Real Estate Lawyer

1) My very capable paralegal (and daughter in law) Tiffaney and I were asked to take over an estate where the attorneys were doing nothing. A core value of ours is to work hard, competently, efficiently and cost effectively for all clients. The surviving spouse of the deceased was bound up in substance abuse and had lost custody of her 14 yr. old son. Under Colorado law her intestate share of the estate was about $250,000 but her family who had adopted her son needed far more support for him than he was entitled to in the estate since the surviving spouse took most of the estate. We approached the probate court for special orders to allocate a significant portion of the spouse's share to the support of her child that she failed to care for and were able to send about $60,000 from the spouse's lawful share to the family to care for the minor son. 2)A young lady, whom I had coached in soccer many years ago, was struggling to sell the residence her estranged husband held title to along with her. He was in prison and had a number of judgments against him by the state and his wife for child support. We filed a lawsuit against him and served him in prison and obtained a judgment to pay off his debts and his child support obligations from his share of the sale proceeds. We convinced the court to appoint the wife as the power of attorney for her imprisoned and uncooperative husband so she could fix up the house and sell it and get on with her life. She was very very relieved to be able to move on and the state got several judgments paid that had been outstanding for some time.

I worked in my home town of Durango for almost 20 years with my father but left temporarily to do global Christian mission work and ultimately lived in Trinidad, CO for 9 years, Colorado Springs for 13 and recently moved to my home office in the mountains near Woodland Park. Since leaving my father's firm in 1996, I have practiced alone until I hired my daughter in law to be my paralegal. She is simply fantastic and the two of us serve our clients well and keep the costs down. Hard work, honesty, providing help at no cost to those in need and prayer every day trusting in the Lord to bring me the work He wants me to do.

Common sense, competency in the area of practice, strong work ethic, upstanding character and honesty (especially when he or she makes a mistake), prompt communication and thorough communication. Most attorneys do not copy their clients on emails sent on their case. I copy my clients or send them frequent updates (usually at not charge) to make sure they are tracking everything I do and in that process involved them actively in the decision making process.

In my area of practice in water law, local knowledge is very important because every stream and the water rights associated with that stream are different. Also local knowledge of the politics, local councils and commissions, local planning staffs etc. are important in land use cases and other matters of local legal and political import. Also knowing the local courts and judges helps with cases.

I always like to do an initial phone consult at no charge to understand the case and determine whether I can take it (it is within my area of expertise); but I also like to know something about the client before I agree to help them. I am not for hire as a pit bull to beat up on someone else. I am there to genuinely help people with legal problems and as much as I expect to be honest and forthright with clients I expect them to be the same with me. That said, to keep costs down internally, I have my paralegal conduct initial interviews of potential clients to ascertain if we can take the case and process our attorney retainer agreement.

(1) nature of the case; (2) identity and character of the client and all contact information; (3) client's ability to pay or undertake a payment plan; (4) commitment to review and sign retainer agreement and pay the suggested retainer. We try to help clients understand the costs involved and count those costs before going into ""battle"" if a battle is imminent.

I have the best paralegal in the world. She loves what she is doing (hopefully going to law school soon) and is great with clients meanwhile keeping costs down. I am a sole practitioner working out of my home office in the mountains. Like my attorney father, I am like a country lawyer who will meet you anywhere for a conference except in the bull ring. I keep matters as simple as possible and am always conscious of costs to clients.

Helping others with legal matters but not laying heavy burdens on them with costs or fancy tricks.

(1) Horses: I have a horse property in the mountains and ride into the national forest every chance I get: (2) soccer- played most of my life (3) skiing- both alpine and cross country as I used to race in both; (4) hiking in the mountains; (5) fly fishing (6) camping with family and horses (7) watching the Rockies, Broncos and many other sports (8) hopefully will get trained to volunteer as a mounted back country rescue personnel.

Active in my church; teach legal issues at the local title company to non-attorneys; right now very busy with ranching work and gardening.

• Member | Colorado State Bar Association

• Avvo | Gerald McDaniel