Attorneys · Brevard County
Harbor & Pine Legal Group
Gordon Hartwell · Attorney · Fictional demonstration
Practical Florida guidance for the legal questions that can follow a move.
A will that worked in another state does not automatically work here, and most people find that out at the worst possible moment.
Harbor & Pine works with people who have just moved to Florida and with people who have been here a long time. Estate plans, probate, property and title, contracts, and setting up a company. Most of the work is reading what somebody already has and saying plainly what still stands in this state and what does not.
Who runs it
He reads the documents you already have before writing anything new. Almost nobody arriving here is starting from nothing — there is a will, a trust, a deed, a company somewhere — and the useful question is which parts of it survive the move.
You are told which route applies to you before anything is filed. Not every estate goes through the full court process, and being told that at the start saves more than anything else on this page.
What they do
- 01Estate planning
Wills and trusts, read against what you own in Florida now rather than what you owned when the document was written. Homestead changes what can be left and to whom.
- 02Probate guidance
What has to go through the court after a death and what passes outside it. Which route applies depends on what was owned and how it was titled, and you are told which one before anything is filed.
- 03Real estate matters
Contracts, title and closings. What the search turns up — an old lien, a boundary that does not match the survey, an heir nobody knew about — explained in plain words rather than left in the file.
- 04Business formation
Setting a company up in Florida, and settling which form it takes before it is registered rather than after. Changing it later is more work than settling it at the start.
- 05Contract review
Reading an agreement before it is signed and saying plainly what it commits you to, including the parts people skip. If a term is unusual, you are told it is unusual.
- 06Personal injury consultations
A first conversation about what a claim would involve, what has to be proved, and how long Florida gives you to bring one. If there is nothing worth bringing, that is said in the first meeting.
Who it does not suit
It does not suit somebody who wants a document drafted without a conversation first, anybody needing criminal defense, family law or a case already under way, or somebody looking for a lawyer to confirm a decision they have already made.
Track record
- 2008
- Practicing in Florida since
- Two languages
- English and Spanish in the office
- Brevard
- County served
How a first meeting goes
- 1Bring what you already have
The will, the trust, the deed, the company papers. It is quicker to read them than to describe them.
- 2What Florida changes
Homestead, how property passes here, and what a document written in another state still does once you live in this one.
- 3What actually needs doing
Usually less than people expect. Sometimes the document is fine and only the way something is titled is wrong.
- 4What order to do it in
Some of it is urgent and some of it can wait a year. You are told which is which rather than handed a list.
- 5It gets written and signed
Drafted, read through with you, and executed properly. Florida has requirements on how a will is signed and witnessed, and they are not optional.
- 6Where it lives afterwards
Originals, copies, and who needs to know they exist. A document nobody can find has not done its job.
Reach them
- Telephone
- (321) 555-XXXX
- Practices in
- Florida
hello@harborpine.example
harborpine.example
Who it suits
This suits anyone moving to Florida with a will written in another state, and any property owner who has never had to think about homestead. It suits an estate after a death where nobody is sure what has to go through court, and a contract nobody has read all the way through. It suits setting a company up here, and a closing where the title search turned something up.
People moving to Florida and people who have lived here for years ask the same questions. Call and talk it through.
Call (321) 555-XXXX