The Riverside, CA law firm of Albertson and Davidson has announced that it is launching the "First Trust and Will Litigation Blog in California." The site is californiatrustestateandprobatelitigation.com. Not exactly Twitter-friendly.
We looked through the ABA Journal's Blawg directory for blogs focusing on trust and will litigation in California, and we believe Albertson and Davidson may be correct that there are no others focusing on will and trust litigation in California. Unfortunately, the rest of their press release wasn't so exact as the title.
Here's the press release's lead (the little explanation that comes after the title, and before the main body of text):
"Riverside law firm of Albertson & Davidson, LLP lauches the first legal blog discussing Trust, Will, Estate and Probate litigation issues:"
And here's the first sentence of the main text:
"The Riverside law firm of Albertson & Davidson, LLP launches the first legal blog focusing on Trust, Will, Estate and Probate litigation."
Notice these lines doesn't mention California. We're pretty certain that somewhere in the ABA Blawg directory of Will and Trust blogs is one that discusses litigation issues. Oh look, there it is! The New York Probate Litigation Blog. We only had to read down to the fifth one in the list, and we're pretty sure plenty of others discuss litigation, even if they're focused on planning issues.
We counted nine blogs in the directory that discuss wills and trusts in California specifically, and with how many small firms have blogs these days, there are almost certainly more that are not in the ABA Journal's directory.
Maybe we're being overly critical here though, after all, those two inaccurate lines appear within view of the more specific title. Surely readers won't be confused. There may be other California trust and estate blogs, and other trust and estate litigation blogs, but no other California trust and estate litigation blog.
Except that the Albertson and Davidson blog doesn't fit their own billing. There are currently 10 posts on their blog. Only 5 discuss litigation (and some are mixed litigation-planning issues), 2 discuss planning only, 2 are pure service advertisements, and 1 is a PR fluff piece about their efforts to help children. It's as much a "litigation" blog as any of the others.
Hell, the second line of the text abandons the idea that it's a litigation blog:
"The site is geared towards Trust and Will issues, including lawsuits (called litigation) relating to Trust and Will issues."
It's a blog that includes issues relating to trusts and wills. That's different from a trust and wills blog. Con Daily deals with legal issues, including ethics and professional responsibility, but we wouldn't bill ourselves out as an ethics blog.
(By the way, thanks for telling us that a lawsuit is called litigation. We were so freaking confused for a minute there.)
Maybe there's some very narrow interpretation that would make the title of the press release not false, but it doesn't exactly reflect well on the quality of the law firm. If they write your will and it one day gets challenged, you don't want them to have to go before the judge and say "One moment, your honor. If you'll just stand over here, and look at it from this angle, and ....Bailiff! Could you dim the lights a bit?"
