Your state’s pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the District of Columbia T&E solo who knows the District’s UPC-influenced Title 20 (Probate and Administration of Decedents’ Estates) cold but still loses an afternoon a week hunting the current homestead number, the DC Medicaid / EPD Waiver (DHCF) posture, whether the latest DC Bar Legal Ethics opinion changes how you scope an engagement, or whether a recent District of Columbia Court of Appeals decision just moved the law on capacity, undue influence, or a trustee’s duties. What’s below is what mattered in District of Columbia lately — the week’s developments and the recent rulings from the bench.
For licensed attorneys. This pack is general legal information and professional commentary for practicing attorneys — it is not legal advice, does not apply to any specific matter, and creates no attorney-client relationship. Verify every authority against the cited primary source before relying on it with a client. Published by Mike Moss, a Utah-admitted attorney, as an AI-enablement information product; it is not an offer of legal services and is not a representation that the author is admitted to practice in your jurisdiction.
Three developments from the last seven days that I think actually matter to a District of Columbia T&E solo. Each one has a read that lands on your practice specifically — and each one comes with the citation so you can verify the detail yourself before you use it with a client.
D.C. Act 26-337 (Strengthening Probate Administration Emergency Amendment Act of 2026, effective May 29, 2026, for 90 days) amends § 20-311 (redefines abbreviated probate and clarifies finality), § 20-312 (the Register of Wills or the Court may appoint personal representatives, with referral to the Court where verified proof is needed), and replaces “legal periodical” with “legal periodical or newspaper of general circulation in the District” in the publication provisions. A 225-day temporary successor act is in congressional review.
If you practice probate in the District, the operative procedure this summer is the emergency text, not the 2025 reform as originally enacted — check appointment routing and publication compliance against Act 26-337 before filing, and expect the temporary act to carry the same rules into 2027.
D.C. Act 26-337, Strengthening Probate Administration Emergency Amendment Act of 2026 (eff. May 29, 2026) · code.dccouncil.gov
Per the Department of Health Care Finance, Medicaid Director Letter 25-02 permanently lowered DC Medicaid income limits for adult categories effective January 1, 2026 — adults 21 and older drop from 215% to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level.
For a DC solo screening a client for Medicaid, the eligibility math changed at the start of the year: a client who qualified under the old 215% adult limit may now fall outside it. Re-run any 2025 eligibility screen against the 138% figure before advising, and flag clients near the margin who may need a different planning path now that the threshold has tightened.
DC DHCF · Medicaid Director Letter MDL 25-02 (income changes eff. Jan. 1, 2026) · dhcf.dc.gov · MDL 25-02
Per the DC Bar, Legal Ethics Opinion 388 (April 2024), ‘Attorneys’ Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Client Matters,’ addresses competence and technology, confidentiality, billing transparency, and supervision when a DC-admitted lawyer uses generative AI.
If you use AI-assisted work for DC clients, Opinion 388 is the controlling in-District authority — not borrowed ABA guidance. Square your practice to it: confirm competence and verify outputs, keep client confidences out of tool inputs, be transparent in billing, and supervise any AI-assisted work product. Read it before adopting or expanding an AI tool in a DC matter.
DC Bar · Legal Ethics Opinion 388 (Apr. 2024) · dcbar.org · Ethics Opinion 388
Decisions that bind a District of Columbia practitioner — District of Columbia’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering District of Columbia, including the U.S. D.C. Circuit — read for what actually changes how you draft, advise, and plan. Trusts and estates broadly, not Medicaid alone: wills and capacity, undue influence, fiduciary duty, trust construction, and estate recovery. One read, the holding, and the official cite.
This lane reads each new opinion from District of Columbia’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering District of Columbia (D.C. Circuit) before anything lands here, and reads-and-discards matters that aren’t trusts-and-estates — criminal, family, commercial/LLC fiduciary, tax, and cases where an estate or trust is only a party. For this period’s trailing window, no new verified trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision from those courts was identified in the sources reviewed.
Nothing to re-paper from the bench this period; controlling authority is unchanged. When the next verified T&E ruling issues, it lands here with the holding and the official cite.
Controlling authority unchanged · District of Columbia appellate courts · U.S. D.C. Circuit.
This week in DC for the T&E solo with DC Medicaid clients: the developments from the DC Bar (Estates, Trusts and Probate Law Community) and the Department of Health Care Finance (DC Medicaid) that actually moved your practice this period — each one primary-source verified.
Bar and Medicaid changes land on different schedules and aren’t indexed by practice focus. Every item here was checked against its primary source, with the link, so you can verify before relying on it.