Estate Planning, Probate and Guardianship Attorney Serving Hollywood, FL

A condo on Hollywood Beach that was never put into a trust can sit in Broward probate for months before anyone is allowed to sell it. A parent in Emerald Hills who stops paying the bills, with no durable power of attorney signed, can leave the family filing a guardianship petition under Chapter 744 of the Florida Statutes. A house in Hollywood Lakes held in one name, with a second marriage and children from the first, can turn into a homestead dispute nobody saw coming. Most of this can be planned for.

Pamela Schatten has practiced for 20 years, trained beside her father, A. Jeffrey Barash, and is AV Rated by Martindale-Hubbell. Her office was on Hollywood Boulevard before it moved to Cypress Creek Road in Fort Lauderdale, and many of her clients still live in Hollywood. She handles every matter herself, from the first call to the last signature.

We handle estate planning, probate and estate administration, guardianship, real estate and title work, and family law for clients across Hollywood and the rest of Broward and Miami-Dade County.

Why Hollywood Families Work With Barash-Schatten Law

Plenty of firms list Hollywood on their website. The real question is who actually reads your file.

1. One attorney, start to finish

At a larger firm, the lawyer at the consultation often isn’t the one who drafts your trust or prepares your guardianship petition. Here there is no hand-off. Pamela reads every document, takes the calls and signs off on every filing. If something changes two years from now, she already knows the history.

2. The legal side of aging, handled together

A parent’s estate plan, a guardianship and the sale of the family home are usually the same family’s problem, a few months apart. Pamela handles all three. She is also an underwriting agent with Attorneys’ Title Fund and of counsel to a Florida title company, so the deed and the trust get drafted by the same person. That matters more than it sounds. A trust that never received the deed to the house does not keep the house out of probate.

3. Calls returned the same day

Messages go straight to Pamela, and most get an answer within two hours during the business day. No call center.

4. Plain answers about cost

Every matter is scoped and quoted in writing before work starts. If a simple will is all you need, we’ll tell you that.

Understanding the Florida Legal Landscape

Hollywood sits in Broward County, Florida’s 17th Judicial Circuit. Probate and guardianship cases for Hollywood residents are filed in the Broward circuit court under the Florida Probate Rules. Families with property or relatives across the county line deal with Miami-Dade’s 11th Judicial Circuit, where Pamela also practices.

Florida has no state estate tax or inheritance tax, so most planning here is about avoiding probate, protecting the homestead and deciding who can act if you can’t. Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution restricts how a homestead can be left by will when the owner is survived by a spouse or minor child. Estates of $75,000 or less, not counting exempt property, may qualify for summary administration under section 735.201.

Legal Services for Hollywood Clients

Estate Planning

Hollywood has a lot of second homes, seasonal residents and blended families. Each one changes what a plan has to do.

• Wills: Florida requires two witnesses for a valid will (section 732.502). We make wills self-proving, so nobody has to track those witnesses down later.
• Revocable living trusts: The main way to keep a Hollywood home or condo out of probate, but only if the property is actually retitled into the trust. We prepare that deed too.
• Durable powers of attorney: Signed before two witnesses and a notary under section 709.2105. Some powers, like making gifts or changing beneficiaries, need your separate initials, and we go through which ones to grant.
• Health care surrogates and living wills: So the person you choose makes medical decisions if you can’t, not a judge.
• Electronic signing: Our electronic estate planning package lets documents be signed, witnessed and notarized remotely. Helpful if you split the year between Hollywood and somewhere else.

Probate and Estate Administration

When someone dies owning Florida property in their own name, an estate has to be opened before anything can be sold or transferred.

• Formal administration: We guide the personal representative through letters of administration, the inventory, and the three-month creditor claim period that starts when the notice to creditors is first published (section 733.702).
• Summary administration: For smaller estates, or when the death was more than two years ago. Faster, though it isn’t available in every case.
• Trust administration: A funded trust skips probate, but the trustee still owes notices, accountings and distributions under the Florida Trust Code (Chapter 736).
• Homestead determinations: Asking the court to confirm a Hollywood home’s homestead status so it can pass to the family, or be sold, free of creditor claims.

Guardianship

Guardianship is what happens when no one has legal authority to act for a person who can no longer act for themselves. It is a large part of Pamela’s practice.

• Adult guardianship: Petitions to determine incapacity under Chapter 744 for a parent with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, including limited guardianships where the person keeps some rights.
• Guardian advocacy: For a young adult with autism, Down syndrome or another developmental disability, under section 393.12. Usually simpler than a full guardianship.
• Alternatives first: A durable power of attorney or health care surrogate often makes guardianship unnecessary. We look at those before anything goes to court.
• Minor guardianship: Needed when a child inherits or receives a settlement over $15,000.
• Ongoing reporting: Annual plans and accountings for court-appointed guardians.

Real Estate and Title Work

Hollywood real estate runs from 1920s homes in Hollywood Lakes to high-rise condos on A1A. A lot of our work here starts when a parent moves into assisted living and the house has to be sold or retitled.

• Estate and trust sales: Selling a parent’s home out of a probate estate or a trust, with the court approval or trustee authority each one needs.
• Deeds and trust funding: Moving property into a revocable trust, ladybird deeds, and adding or removing a name from title, with documentary stamp tax handled correctly ($0.70 per $100 of consideration in Broward).
• Residential closings: Reviewing the contract, clearing title and handling the closing for buyers and sellers.
• Title insurance: Commitments and policies through Attorneys’ Title Fund.
• Condo purchases: Reviewing association documents and reserves. These matter far more since Florida’s 2022 condo safety law required milestone inspections and structural reserve studies for older buildings.

Family Law

We also handle family law matters for Hollywood families, including uncontested and collaborative divorce and parenting plans. At least one spouse must have lived in Florida for six months before filing for divorce (section 61.021).

Our Process: Clear, Scoped, Direct

01. A short call first
Before the consultation, a brief phone or video call tells us what your matter involves and which documents to bring. Nobody spends an hour in a meeting while the deed is still in a drawer at home.

02. Consultation and written scope
We meet in person at our Fort Lauderdale office or by video and talk through what you want to happen. Then we put the scope and the fee in writing.

03. Drafting and review
Pamela drafts the documents herself and goes through them with you in plain language. If something is standard, she’ll say so. If something deserves a second look, she’ll say that too.

04. Signing and follow-through
Documents are signed in person or through our electronic package. For estate plans, follow-through includes retitling property into the trust, because a plan that was never funded doesn’t do its job.

Serving Hollywood and Every Neighborhood Around It

From the Broadwalk to the western edge of Hollywood Hills, we work with clients across the city and its neighbors.

• East Hollywood: Hollywood Beach, Hollywood North Beach, the Broadwalk, Hollywood Lakes
• Central Hollywood: Downtown Hollywood, Young Circle, Park East, Highland Gardens
• West Hollywood: Emerald Hills, Hollywood Hills, Driftwood
• Nearby Broward: Dania Beach, Hallandale Beach, Pembroke Pines, Davie, Fort Lauderdale
• Miami-Dade: Aventura, Miami Beach, North Miami Beach

Meet Pamela Schatten

Attorney · AV Rated by Martindale-Hubbell

Pamela Schatten learned wills, trusts and estates beside her father, A. Jeffrey Barash, a Super Lawyer who spent roughly forty years in estate and tax work before retiring. She was admitted to The Florida Bar in 2006, practiced from Hollywood Boulevard, and now runs the firm as a sole practitioner from Fort Lauderdale, appearing in Broward’s 17th Judicial Circuit and Miami-Dade’s 11th.

She holds the AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell, its highest peer review rating, and is a member of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of The Florida Bar. Her approach is simple: read every line, explain it plainly, and call people back. Read Pamela’s full bio.