The Hymson Goldstein & Pantiliat, P.C. team includes numerous attorneys, paralegals, legal assistants, secretaries, as well as an administrative and support staff. We match the needs of the client and the demands of the project to the persons best able to complete it efficiently, economically, and competently. Yet, when you retain our firm, you will work directly with the attorney actually working on your unique situation. With our cumulative hundreds of years of experience, we are able to offer our clients a wealth of creative and effective representation, adding value to our clients’ “bottom line”.

The attorneys at HG&P are well versed in a wide variety of law and can handle legal matters such as: commercial & residential real estate acquisitions, landlord and tenant matters, business compliance and regulatory issues, contracts and agreements, business formations, business mergers, wrongful death, product liability injury, automobile injury, divorce, child custody, irrevocable/revocable trusts, business trademarks, copyright as well as many other areas of law. Please see our areas of law for additional details and additional legal services.

All attorneys at Hymson Goldstein & Pantiliat, P.C. devote time and energy serving our community in areas of personal interest through a variety of civic and charitable organizations.

The law firm of Hymson Goldstein & Pantiliat, P.C., has also won the Scottsdale Airpark’s “Top Prop” award for “Top Legal Service Firm” for 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.

We are always here to provide you with peace of mind.

Hymson Goldstein & Pantiliat, P.C.
14646 N. Kierland Blvd., Ste. 255
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
480.991.9077
480.443.8854 (fax)

Most of us don’t wake up in the morning and think that we might be involved in an accident that day – that is what makes it an “accident” – it was unplanned and unpredicted.

In Arizona, drivers must have automobile insurance in order to lawfully drive a motor vehicle. Many people do not know that the minimal amount of insurance a person must carry is $15,000/$30,000. What this means is that if a driver with minimum limits strikes a vehicle causing an injury to a single person, the total amount of insurance available to that injured person is “$15,000!” What is even worse is that if there is more than one person injured in that same scenario, all the injured people making claims against the negligent driver are limited to a total amount of $30,000.

Those amounts include reimbursement for all medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

So, if you are seriously injured in an automobile accident and incur medical expenses over $15,000 alone, there is no money available to compensate you for your lost wages, pain and suffering and you will also have to come up with out-of-pocket monies for the additional medical expenses you have incurred over the $15,000.

You can protect yourself against such a scenario by carrying “under-insured motorist coverage” which will compensate you for damages in situations where the negligent driver’s limits are not enough.

We suggest that you review your automobile insurance coverage to make sure that you have adequate protection. You may also want to speak with your insurance agent regarding “med-pay coverage,” which would help pay for your medical expenses if you are involved in an automobile accident.

Other tips to remember in case you are in an accident are:

• Makes sure that a police report is taken
• Get names and phone numbers of all witnesses
• Take photographs of the vehicle damage
• If injured – seek immediate medical treatment

At Hymson Goldstein & Pantiliat, P.C., we have represented hundreds of injured people over the years and helped them recover for their losses caused by an “unpredicted event.” We stand ready to do the same for you, your family members, or anyone who may need our services.

By Irving Hymson, Esq.

When I lecture on the Art of Negotiation I note that, while all enjoy the theory, some appreciate the opportunity to make lists of real concepts that can be viewed and reviewed prior to a negotiation session so as to have concrete reminders of important elements in any negotiation. Foremost on the list are things to include in a negotiation as follows:
1. Thorough preparation including alternatives. There is, of course, no substitute for being thoroughly prepared prior to commencing any negotiation. I have a simple rule: If I am not prepared, I do not negotiate. Preparation also includes having alternatives ready. As a practicing attorney, one of the criticisms I often hear about attorneys is that they are “deal killers.” I used to object strenuously to that point of view but, after twenty-seven years of practice, I understand it better. What is meant is that people without a lot of experience in a certain area are more prone to say “no” or encourage aborting a deal. The experienced person is prepared with alternative ways to accomplish what the parties seek to accomplish and, accordingly and thus is more likely to make a deal rather than kill it. It is an important point to keep in mind when choosing legal counsel (make sure you have the right horse for the course) as well as conducting your own negotiations. Have alternatives. If the price doesn’t suit, perhaps it will with more favorable terms. If you know you will need to draft a clause regarding a radon inspection contingency, have the language with you should you need it.
2. Getting what you need but leave others satisfied that their needs have been addressed. There is no substitute for satisfying needs in a healthy negotiation. If it does not cost you to let “them” have “theirs,” then let them! A satisfied feeling at the end of a negotiation will leave the parties with a good relationship that may need to be availed of during the course of implementing the contract or relationship.

3. Taking a balanced (win/win) approach. It is not often that you will win much and the other lose much. More likely, there will be a balance slightly tipped one way or the other. If you are seeking that balance from the beginning, the likelihood of your having the scales tipped more in your favor than otherwise will be greatly enhanced. Such an approach will also leave good relationships for future interaction.

4. Seeing negotiations as competitive but cooperative. Yes, there is some element of contest involved but in the end you need the cooperation of the other party in order to accomplish what you want and to get the deal done. The surest way I know to make negotiations more difficult is to lose sight of the need for the cooperative element.

5. Active listening. Success equals perception. Perception comes in great part from listening. If you need to know what it is the other party wants, listen for it. They will oftentimes be quite clear and direct with you. If they are not, then you need to listen actively, which is to say hear what is being said, attempt to read between the lines, and interpret the two into a theory that you may actively check back with the speaker by asking. I spent a whole afternoon once with an attorney who told me at times that he could not offer more and at other times that he could not offer more, at this time. It took me a while to get the key to the negotiation. All I had to do was wait for the time he could offer more on those particular issues!

6. Thorough goal setting. You must know what you want to achieve before you enter into negotiations. You must keep that in mind as you conduct your negotiations. There is nothing worse than being told you can have something that you are not sure you really wanted. Make sure that all the participants on your side are on the same wavelength as to the real goals. Help understand them by prioritizing those goals.

7. Commitment to goals; asking. You must not only set the goals, you must be committed to them. You must make a real, good faith attempt to achieve them. You cannot have what you do not ask for. Hymson’s rule is ask three times. (I learned it from my teenage children.) Actually, I learned from my teenage children that you should ask twenty times but I have, in the interest of saving time, abridged the rule to just three.

8. Integrity. Negotiations come and go but what we are each left with is our integrity which should never be compromised for any reason and certainly not any one transaction. This is a relatively small town when it comes to business, real estate and legal circles and one’s reputation is to be carefully guarded and preserved. Simply put: no deal is worth it if it needs you to compromise your integrity.

9. Use your power (in moderation). Power is, of course, valuable but sometimes it is not necessary to use all of it. Sometimes the hint of the power or the knowledge that it exists is enough without clubbing the opposer with it. The heavy handed use in one phase of negotiation could produce a problem in another phase of the negotiation where you do not have that same power to employ. It is good to keep in mind that the perception of power is not as clear cut as one might think. For example, people believe that lenders have all of the power because they have the money. Having represented many lenders over the years, I can tell you that having the money is not enough. Lenders need to earn money on that money and accordingly finding the right deal for them is every bit as important as finding a lender who will lend you the money if you are the borrower. Also, once the money is loaned there is a dramatic shift in power even though the documents do not read that way. If you question that statement, review in your mind the S&L crisis and the inability that those lenders had in getting their money back and their lack of interest in the collateral which they subsequently oftentimes dumped on the market.

10. Study limits of other’s power. Do not be quick to assume that the other person has as much power as you give him/her credit for. People talk about seller’s markets or buyer’s markets. In the end result in the given deal that you are doing if you have a seller who is motivated to sell then he wants the deal at hand irrespective of whether or not in his neighborhood or in his city there is generally perceived to be a seller’s market. Similarly, if you represent a buyer, even when there is a glut of homes on the market, when the buyer falls in love with that one special house he and she must have it regardless of whether or not they can sit back and pick and choose from ten others. That is just a fact of life. I always believe if someone is sitting to negotiate with me then I have power because there must be something that I have which they want.

11. Sensitivity to others. Just as you need to know the limits of other people’s power, you should also be sensitive to their needs. The key to successful positioning in negotiation is understanding. One cannot fully understand unless one is sensitive to all of the people in the negotiation process. Make sure you understand what needs are at issue or in question. Sometimes they are not business needs at all but rather they are human or personal needs that have to be addressed to satisfactorily proceed, e.g. making a younger person feel like he/she is experienced, or an older person feel like he/she is current and “with it.”

In Ticketmaster v. Tickets.com, 2003-1 Copr. L. Dec ¶ 28, 607 (C.D. Cal. 2003), Ticketmaster sued Tickets.com for appropriating information from Ticketmaster’s website. Tickets.com used an electronic “spider” to gather information about Ticketmaster events. The spider would find a relevant website, copy the contents onto random access memory, eliminate the material not in the public domain (such as Ticketmaster’s trademark and unique copy), and copy the material in the public domain (such as the date of concerts, the artist appearing at the concert, and the location, as well as prices and times of the event). Notably the court found that the copied content was not protected by copyright because it was not original to Ticketmaster. The only cause of action that survived was one based on contract.

The contract arose from a notice posted on Ticketmaster’s website. Ticketmaster placed a notice on the home page of its website warning that anyone going beyond that home page agreed to the Terms and Conditions of the website. Anyone using the web pages beyond the home page agreed that they were only going to use them for non-commercial uses. Ticketmaster claimed that Tickets.com breached a contract formed by clicking to go beyond the home page. That contract claim was the only one that survived a summary judgment.

The court rejected the notion that uniform resource locators (the website addresses) are copyrightable. It rejected the idea that the momentary copying of material on Ticketmaster’s website that qualified for copyright protection was a copyright violation. It reasoned that the momentary copying of such things as Ticketmaster’s logo and material unique to Ticketmaster into the computer random access memory and subsequent almost instantaneous erasure of that material was a fair use.

The decision is only by one of the many federal trial courts. More definitive law is yet to be written. The case, however, reinforces the counsel we have been offering to all of our clients: Use all of the means at your disposal to protect your website content.

We can assist you in drafting terms and conditions for website use and to provide the contractual protection the Ticketmaster court recognized for those clients who use their websites for business-to-business or business-to-consumer sales. We look forward to being of service.

We Americans have the best legal system in the history of the planet. However, it is not perfect. Costs and fees mount up and are hard to bear in the smaller cases. One alternative to resorting to the courts, is mediation, a way for people to resolve conflict relatively peaceably and reach a mutually agreeable solution without resorting to the greater cost (emotionally and economically) of litigation.Several of our attorneys have completed a 40-hour course of study and learning to qualify as mediators. Our attorneys who could be selected as mediators have experience in virtually all fields: business and contracts, real estate, family, personal injury, wills, trusts and estates, employment, construction and financial problems, to name a few. We think that our combination of knowledge in the field, born of many years of experience together with mediation training and process, is special.

Mediation is a private and confidential process where people with a problem meet with one or two independent mediators. Each party explains their concerns and, with the guidance of the mediator(s), they work on finding solutions that they agree will resolve the problem. No one is forced to decide any particular way, or to decide at all. The parties actively participate in the process to produce their own solution, as compared to the result being determined for them by a third party who may not have a complete understanding of the parties’ interests. Those situations, e.g., in court or at an arbitration, are decided according to precedent -a reliable, but very different thing.

Twenty-seven (27) states in our country have either a State office of Dispute Resolution or a Statewide Dispute Resolution Resource Center. They were created to promote the use of ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) in every aspect of life as a citizen of that particular state.

Hymson Goldstein & Pantiliat has five (5) experienced attorneys who have been trained in the process of mediation and who are available to assist you in avoiding the costly, time-consuming and emotionally-charged litigation proceedings through the alternative procedure of mediation.

For more information on this highly-effective alternative to the court system, please call today!

Oh, by the way . . . if your family, friends, or business acquaintances have a legal need, like a will or a trust, an uncollected claim, a contract which should be reviewed, a home or property to be bought or sold, a business, to be bought, sold, or formed, have been injured in an accident, need assistance with family law or community property matters, or are in need of financial planning, we hope that you will think of us. When you think of these people, please call us with their names and numbers. We’ll be happy to follow up and tend to their needs. We have an active practice, but we will always accept referrals from people like you.

Cgood@legalcounselors.com

For over twenty years, Coni Rae Good has practiced law in Arizona, primarily in the areas of real estate, commercial and construction law.

Ms. Good has extensive experience in creating agreements and providing business advice for commercial ventures, financing, construction and transfer of real and personal property interests. Ms. Good also has extensive trial and appellate court experience as well as representing clients in arbitration, administrative and mediation proceedings.

As a business lawyer, Ms. Good has represented local and national corporations, financial institutions, construction companies, partnerships and sole proprietorships.

Ms. Good served as pro bono counsel to Sojourner Center, a domestic violence shelter, and received its 2005 Vanguard Award for her outstanding contribution.

Ms. Good has lived in the Phoenix area since grade school and earned three degrees from Arizona State University. She received her bachelor’s degree with high distinction and was a member of Phi Kappa Phi honorary society. Immediately thereafter, she completed a Master of Business Administration.

After working in the legislative and gubernatorial branches of Arizona state government, she received her Juris Doctor cum laude from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Ms. Good was an articles editor and a published member of the Arizona State Law Journal. She was the recipient of numerous scholarships and academic awards.

Bio coming soon.

Yvette Ansel is a litigator, focusing her practice in the areas of domestic relations and civil litigation. 

Ms. Ansel is admitted to practice in New York, Minnesota and Arizona.  She began her legal career in New York City in the litigation department at the firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore.  She later practiced litigation in Minneapolis at Rider, Bennett, Egan & Arundel.

In 2005, Ms. Ansel joined Hymson Goldstein & Pantiliat.  Her practice in domestic relations includes, but is not limited to, dissolution with and without children, post decree modification, paternity actions, orders of protection, and pre and post-nuptial agreements.  She is also well versed in the area of civil litigation, including real estate and business disputes.

Ms. Ansel received her B.A. in Political Science in 1984 from Barnard College, Columbia University, where she graduated cum laude with departmental honors.  She received her J.D. from the Cardozo School of Law in 1987, where she was elected to the Moot Court Board.

Testimonials:

• “This [letter] sounds great! Thanks for everything!”
  -from an e-mail from client Lori D.

• “…Thank you Yvette, I appreciate your hard work.”
  -from Gail M.

• “I really had no idea it would go so far, but now we are in it and you are doing a great job and I thank you.”
  -from an e-mail from client Barbara A.

• “Thank you for everything. It was a wonderful day for my family and we couldn’t be any happier. I appreciate you hard work.”
  -From client Mike C.

Marilyn Murphy is in private practice in Scottsdale where she practices in the areas of divorce and family law. She is a member of the Arizona (1987) and Kansas (1979) bar associations, the American Bar Association, and is past president and board member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. Marilyn received her JD from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and her BS from the University of Kansas; she has also taken a post-graduate international law course at Oxford University in England. Marilyn is qualified as a mediator in family law practice. Marilyn also serves as a board member of the Epilepsy Foundation of Arizona.

Testimonials:

• “I was proud to have you representing our interest. You did great.”
  -From client Joseph C.

• “I know you guys have a gazillion cases on a daily basis and I really appreciate your time and attention to mine. . . [Jill] you rock!!!”
  -From client Kalli B.

• “Thank you so much for helping me through this ever so stressful time. You helped me keep things in perspective when I would get weak and scared. You were understanding and compassionate and made me feel that I wasn’t ‘just another client’. Thank you for sharing some of your personal experiences with me, I appreciate your openness. . .I will never forget you because I feel you truly believed in me and my true intentions.”
  -From client Jamie M.