We are a specialized, boutique law firm set up to assist elders and their families with Medi-Cal eligibility.  Our attorney is James A. Ward, and he also operates the Law Offices of James A. Ward, where he practices both Estate Planning and Elder Law.  Click here to transfer to our other website and read more about us.

Jim operates a small firm with himself as the only attorney, and he has three to four assistants working with him to support the practice.  We’ve had clients all the way north to the Oregon border (Siskiyou, Modoc, and Humboldt Counties), all the way south to San Diego County near the Mexican border, as far east as Lake Tahoe and Palm Springs, and as far west as Crescent City, Eureka, Mendocino, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, Oceanside —  all the way up and down the west coast of California. 

Medi-Cal is a California “thing.”  Medi-Cal is California’s name for Medicaid, and the rules, regulations, and laws governing Medi-Cal in California are very different than the Medicaid laws for the other 49 states.  If you’re in California, or if the elder is, or will be, in California, you need to know the California rules.  Don’t worry about how they do things in Nebraska or Kansas or Pennsylvania.  If the elder is in California, you need to know how things work under the California rules.

Jim obtained his law degree (J.D.) in New England on a full academic scholarship, and then he continued on for a post graduate law degree (LL.M.) at the University of Miami.  Very few attorneys have a post graduate law degree at all, and most who have such a degree obtained it as a specialization in Tax Law.  Jim’s specialization degree is in Estate Planning, and the University of Miami has had the nation’s longest running and most prestigious post graduate LL.M. degree program in Estate Planning.  If you know anything about the demographics of Florida with so many retired people and so much wealth, Florida is an absolute hotbed for Estate Planning.

With the changing laws and aging population, Elder Law has been a natural specialty to combine with Jim’s Estate Planning practice, and he has put the two together ever since he began practicing law.  He views the two areas as going hand in hand together to take care of clients and their families.

California Elder Law, together with the Law Offices of James A. Ward, has produced the Elder Focus Magazine because of the incredible need to educate people about Estate Planning and Elder Law.

A great deal of effort went into the writing and editing and publishing of the magazine to be able to present information in a straightforward manner so that readers can understand the process through simplified descriptions of what needs to be done, and through real life stories of problems that families have encountered.  You can pick up a copy at one of our offices, at most Santa Clara County hospitals, senior centers, or nursing homes, or you can jump to our Elder Focus Magazine tab above or read it online here!