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James R. McCormick
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James R. McCormick, Jr., Esq.
 Peters & Freedman
191 Calle Magdalena, Suite 220
Encinitas, CA 92024
Tel: (760) 436-3441
Fax: (760) 436-3442 James R. McCormick, Jr., is a partner in the law firm of Peters & Freedman, L.L.P.. James attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received his undergraduate degree in Political Science. James then attended law school at the University of San Diego, where he was a teaching assistant for legal research, writing and oral advocacy and recognized as a Dean's Outstanding Scholar. James has been formally trained as a mediator and has performed mediations for the former San Diego Mediation Center (now National Conflict Resolution Center). James is an experienced attorney, specializing in general representation of common interest developments and formation and representation of corporations and other businesses. He is a member of the San Diego County Bar Association, American Bar Association and California Bar. You can view his full bio on the firm's website. James has contributed his expert opinion and experience to the HOAleader.com articles below.
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Should This HOA President Resign?
May 2013
In response to a reader's question, we ask our experts if they can imagine a circumstance in which a board member who withdrew HOA funds for personal use shouldn't resign, even if the funds were paid back. Also, under what circumstances would the HOA have its lawyer defend the president in a recall petition? . . .
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HOA Legal Committee: To Be or Not to Be?
May 2013
An HOAleader.com reader asks, "A few years back our HOA board formed a legal committee of board members. They have been operating outside of the board on all issues, even those lacking pending litigation. Over the past 12 years, I've been on the board five times, serving in an officer position each time. This year I was appointed to the legal committee. . . .
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Collecting HOA Assessments from Banks: Discussion Forum Follow-up
February 2013
An HOAleader.com reader asks, "I'm a manager for an HOA located in Northern California. The issue this and many other HOAs face these days are delinquent assessment collections from bank-owned units. For example, there have been several units sold at auctions and transferred to new owners, and the banks have escaped paying HOA dues during the period the bank owned the property. Or the bank never takes 'possession' of the property, but places signs on the property stating 'the XYZ bank is protecting its asset, do not enter.' The home assessments are severely delinquent, yet the bank states that it's not the owner and not responsible for paying the assessments. Have you heard of any options an HOA has on forcing the banks to pay delinquencies?" . . .
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Is There a Limit to the Number of Proxies HOA Owners Can Gather?
October 2012
In the July 2012 HOAleader.com article "HOA Elections: How to Identify HOA Proxy Fraud or Abuse," James R. McCormick Jr., a partner at Peters & Freedman LLP in Encinitas, Calif., who represents associations, said, "There's nothing preventing any of the owners from soliciting proxies from anyone. And the reader asking these questions can solicit his own proxies, too." . . .
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Can You Just Change Rules You're Ignoring? Discussion Forum Follow-Up
August 2012
An HOAleader.com reader writes, "I'm part of a nine-member association in Minnesota, and we've been discussing reserves. We have a reserve provision in our bylaws but have historically used special assessments to pay for common area repairs (i.e., we have no reserves). Since our practice differs from our bylaws, we have agreed to change our bylaws to remove the reserve requirement and to restate what's common and what's not--to reflect how we actually behave today. So in the future we'd like to consider things like roofs to be aligned with the specific resident(s) vs the whole HOA. It's complicated in that eight of our nine units are really fancy duplexes, but we've agreed that we want to move expenses as close to home owner as possible and only share things that are truly common, such as our roads. Our complex is 15 years old. Aside from the risk of repair timing, variation, and likely neighborly conflict, are there any restrictions to us taking these actions? Also, what are we missing? I'm sure there are tons of things to think about (I've read the various documents on this website so I understand that our approach goes against convention)." Here our experts discuss the reserve issue and then the broader issue of ignoring your rules and then changing them to reflect your errant ways. . . .
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Clean Up HOA Elections: Prevent Proxy Problems
July 13, 2012
With concerns about voter fraud in this presidential election season, this week's tip reminds you to be concerned with a similar problem in your HOA elections. Here are two tips for preventing proxy fraud and abuse. . . .
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6 Tips for Balancing Election-Year Free Speech with HOA Rules
July 2012
A presidential election is just months away! That means it's a good time to review your HOA rules on political signs to ensure they allow owners to express their political preferences while keeping the community aesthetically pleasing. Here are five tips for creating and enforcing rules on political speech. . . .
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HOA Board Communications: Three Things You Shouldn't Do Via Email
April 2012
You've surely heard that it's important to be careful about which HOA business you handle through email. But California has taken restrictions on HOA business conducted via email to a new level. Here, an expert explains California's new anti-email law and provides three examples of never-handle-this-by-email issues. . . .
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Discussion Forum Follow-Up: Coordinating New Board Takeover and Accounting Deadlines
March 2012
An HOAleader.com reader writes: "I have been searching in vain for a recommendation regarding fiscal year and when a new board is instated. Years ago, our fiscal year ended June 30. It was changed to end December 31 as annual dues are due January 1. However, our elections and annual meeting still occur in September, with the new board instated immediately after the annual meeting in September. . . .
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What's a Small, Self-Managed HOA to Do with Its Reserves?
March 23, 2012
In this week's tip, we offer insight to an HOAleader.com reader at a 32-owner, self-managed HOA in Virginia. Our reader wants to know how investing his HOA's reserves in an interest-bearing account or certificate of deposit will affect his HOA's nonprofit status. . . .
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