- Divorce
- Child SupportModifying a parenting plan or child support: bring all previous court orders (parenting plan, orders of child support), and for child support modifications, your income taxes for two years and your most recent pay stubs.
- Child Custody and Visitation
- Paternity
- Spousal Support
- Legal Separation
- Annulment
- Criminal DefenseWhile Diane's career started representing the state in criminal matters as a deputy prosecuting attorney, she has also served as a defense attorney for a variety of cases from misdemeanors to murder. Diane is available for representation for charges of domestic violence matters, theft, embezzlement, and malicious mischief. Diane possesses the opinion that Kitsap County has a large number of highly qualified criminal defense attorneys and no longer offers her services on serious felony assault charges, DUI charges, murder or any sexual crimes. Diane is available to provide second opinions on plea offers.
- DUI/DWI
- Sex CrimesWhen you check into a hotel, you expect that your privacy and safety will be protected. I have traveled solo frequently and have never had a hotel clerk state my room number out loud at check in, or given any confirmation to any one whether I am staying at the hotel or what room I am in. This is not a new practice. The hotel owes its guests the highest level of care to keep them safe from unreasonable risks and dangers the hotel knows or should have known about. Stalking, peeping, sexual assaults, domestic violence -- they are not new crimes. Before the 2008 intrusion, the hotel had been advised by a security company that they should have more than one guard and they should have more security cameras. The hotel elected not to follow this advice for budgetary reasons. Even still, if they had just trained their employees to say they could not give out the information that was requested, the matter would have stopped. Instead, a hotel employee confirmed Erin was staying in the hotel, confirmed her room number and accommodated the stalker's request to be booked into the room next to her. Once he was in her room, he listened through the wall to hear when she left the room, walked out into the hall, took a hacksaw and changed the peephole so he could video tape her. He went back into his room, heard her enter, listened to her shower, and when the water stopped, he went into the hall and spent 4 and 1/2 minutes video taping her. No guard was on duty. No cameras recorded his activities. No employee alerted Erin about her "business associate" who requested the room next to her. No housekeeper or maintenance person looked at the peephole to observe that it had been tampered with. And with this negligence, Erin's life was completely transformed.
- Theft
- Misdemeanors
- Embezzlement
- Assault
- MurderYet again we are mourning for the loss of innocent lives and for the devastation created for those who were injured or were witnesses; for those whose lives have been changed forever in another mass murder. The needless loss of children, brothers, sisters, spouses, parents, lovers, and friends, in a short span of time -- caused by a seriously disturbed individual who used a semi-automatic weapon to kill as many people as he could as quickly as he could.
- Restraining OrderCaetano v. Massachusetts, 577 U.S. ___ (2016), the SCOTUS struck down a Massachusetts law that prohibited the possession of stun guns. Jaime Caetano had a violent ex-boyfriend. He beat her so severely, she required hospitalization. She obtained multiple restraining orders against him -- which he ignored. Jaime's friend offered her a stun gun for self defense. She accepted. One night after leaving work, her ex-boyfriend was waiting for her outside her workplace. He was screaming at her that she was not allowed to work and that her place was with their children. She showed him the stun gun and stood her ground, stating something to the effect of "don't make me use this." He got scared and left.
- Construction Contracts
- Trade Secrets
- Wrongful TerminationProvides legal representation to employers and employees for wrongful termination, discrimination, violation of trade secrets and non-compete agreements
- Employment ContractDiane is available to prepare, review and negotiate a wide variety of contracts, such as real estate contracts, purchase and sale agreements, leases, options to purchase, construction contracts, roadway easements, well agreements, employment contracts, art gallery and other miscellaneous contracts, employment agreements, promissory notes, and settlement agreements.
- Employment LitigationDiane possesses excellent trial advocacy skills. She has tried over seventy jury trials and far more than 100 bench trials (trial to a judge only) in her career. Diane attended the career prosecutor college in Houston, Texas, to refine and learn advanced trial advocacy skills and was asked back the following year to serve as a faculty member. Diane is comfortable in the courtroom. If you are facing a lawsuit involving a will contest, breach of contract, construction defect litigation, employment litigation, criminal trial or a family law trial, you will be confident having Diane on your side.
- Non-compete Agreement
- Sexual HarassmentProvides training seminars for management and non-management employees in a variety of areas, including sexual harassment, discrimination or hostile work environment based on gender, religion, creed, marital status, sexual orientation, age, disability, use of a dog guide or service animal, national origin, color, race, veteran status
- Real Estate LitigationDiane can offer her services in preparing, reviewing and negotiating a variety of real property documents such as real estate purchase and sale agreements, leases, options to purchase, roadway maintenance agreements, easements, and well water agreements. She is also available to represent you in real estate litigation matters such as adverse possession actions, boundary line disputes and so on.
- Construction Litigation
- Real Estate TransactionsReal property consultation: bring all of your real estate documents, including the Real Estate Purchase and Sale Agreement, preliminary title report and home inspection report.
- Easement
- Estate PlanningYou may wish to consider other specialized estate planning documents. For example, if you have real property in your name only and are living with a person in a significant relationship, you may wish to consider awarding a life estate in your real property so that after your death, your significant other could stay in the house. Upon the death of your significant other, your children or other heirs would inherit the real property.
- WillsEach couple and person is different, however, most couples will want to consider having a Community Property Agreement, a Mutual Durable Power of Attorney (to address business and financial issues when you are not able to address them yourself), a Last Will and Testament for each spouse, a Health Care Power of Attorney for each spouse, and a Directive to Physicians (living will) for each spouse. An individual will most likely want a Last Will and Testament, Health Care Power of Attorney, Durable Power of Attorney and Directive to Physicians.
- Power of AttorneySpecial Power of Attorney: A special power of attorney allows the person you designate (Attorney-in-Fact), to immediately take certain actions while you are living. For example, if you are scheduled to be away from the state when closing on a real estate transaction is to occur, a special power of attorney will allow your representative to close the transaction on your behalf. Another example might be to allow another person to immediately access your checking and savings accounts to deposit checks and pay bills when you are temporarily incapacitated. A special power of attorney is also a valuable tool if a person in your family is in the early or mild stages of Alzheimer's Disease or Dementia and experiences periods of confusion along with periods of lucidity. In this case, a special power of attorney can allow the caregiver to take care of the day to day activities without having to embarrass or have the person questioned about his or her mental state on any given day.
- Probate