Sandpoint
(208) 810-4849
Bonner County grows almost entirely because people arrive. The will, the trust, the deed and the marriage you brought with you were all written under another state's law — and Idaho reads them by its own rules.
Book a consultationIdaho recognizes a will or trust drafted anywhere. Whether it still does what you meant it to do, once you live here, is a different question.
Census estimates via the Sandpoint Reader: Bonner County added 1,246 residents July 2023–July 2024 — with more deaths than births. The growth is arrival.
A will and trust drafted in Washington, in a state with no community property.
Under Idaho Code § 32-906, almost everything either spouse acquires during the marriage is presumed owned equally — fifty-fifty — regardless of whose name sits on the title, the account, or the paycheck. A plan drafted under common-law rules was never written to account for that.
Idaho Code § 32-906A living trust, funded years ago, before you ever saw the lake.
Real property has to be deeded into a trust by name. The acreage bought after the move is the single most commonly forgotten asset in an out-of-state plan — and property left titled in your own name goes through probate even with a trust in place. The trust can't reach what was never deeded into it. The deed has to say so.
A healthcare directive and power of attorney on another state's forms.
Idaho has its own statutory forms for advance directives and durable powers of attorney. Out-of-state documents invite exactly the hesitation you signed them to prevent, at exactly the moment nobody has time to litigate it.
In August 2025, homeowners in a Bonner County subdivision filed suit. Their water had tested for E. coli and arsenic. The central septic system had failed. The road to the highway had been built twenty-seven feet off its surveyed location, partly across a neighbor's driveway — on an easement the developers later sold to somebody else, without telling them.
Every house had passed inspection. The county had issued the certificates of occupancy. The developers held county planning posts. One homeowner had come from San Diego; another from Santa Cruz. What she said afterward is the sentence under every land deal in North Idaho: "I don't understand what more a buyer has to do."
Here is what more a buyer can do. Read the plat before the closing, never after. Trace the easement to its recorded grant. Find out who actually owns the road. And if it has already gone wrong — hire the lawyer who spent years inside the Sandpoint City Attorney's office and the Bonner County Prosecutor's office, and knows precisely how these files move.
Facts as reported by The Spokesman-Review, Aug. 10, 2025. Diagram is illustrative. Hickey Law Firm is not counsel of record in that matter.
Two attorneys, five lines, and the whole of what can go wrong on North Idaho ground.
The border your documents never actually crossed.
Andra. Wills, trusts, retitling the Idaho parcel, Idaho-form powers of attorney and directives.
Where the plat and the ground disagree.
Josh. Real estate transactions and litigation. Boundaries, easements, access, partition, developers.
Idaho Code § 32-906, drawn straight through a marriage.
Andra. Family law and mediation. Premarital and postmarital agreements, custody, support, divorce.
Highway 95, and the second somebody crosses it.
Josh. Personal injury, motor vehicle accidents, medical malpractice, wrongful death.
The only one nobody puts on the calendar.
Andra. Probate administration, guardianships and conservatorships.
Andra and Josh Hickey met at the University of Idaho College of Law. Both began practicing in Sandpoint in 2013 — Josh in the Sandpoint City Attorney's office and then the Bonner County Prosecutor's office; Andra at the firm where she would go on to become a partner.
In June 2023 they left to build their own. Andra takes the family law, the mediations, the estate plans and the probate. Josh takes the land, the litigation and the injury cases. Jennifer Albert, who was born here, keeps the whole thing running.
It matters, in a county where most of the growth arrives from somewhere else, that the people translating Idaho law for you are actually from Idaho.
"Having moved from Washington state to Idaho when we retired five years ago, we felt it was important to update our will to conform to Idaho law. We had a recommendation for Hickey Law to do the work and we are glad we followed through. Working with Andra Hickey was a breath of fresh air."
"Josh gave me very sound & professional advice on a property easement, as well as a property insurance claim. I appreciate his patience & professionalism."
"Josh helped me out with a property partition and was responsive to my needs and emails. He did exactly what was required and did not push unneeded services. An honest guy."
"Being native Idahoans we especially appreciate that both partners and the paraprofessional staff are also native Idahoans."
Most firms will not. Ours does — in our own words, “unlike many firms, we publish our pricing guidelines” — because the second-worst thing about a legal problem is having no idea what solving it will cost, and a client who was told the number up front is a client who calls back early, while a thing is still cheap to fix.
Wills, powers of attorney for financial and healthcare matters, living wills, healthcare directives.
$3,000 · individual$4,000 · couple
Everything above — plus the deeds that actually title your Idaho property into the trust, and the documents that keep your homeowner's exemption.
$4,000 · individual$5,000 · couple
Administration of an estate, start to close.
$5,000
Assessed at the initial consultation, so you hear the range before you retain us.
$5,000–$10,000
No upfront costs. No retainer. No monthly invoices. We are paid a percentage of what we collect, or nothing.
Contingency
Billed in tenths of an hour. Other civil matters take a $500–$10,000 retainer, refundable in whatever part goes unearned.
$350–$400 · per hour
The estate-planning figures are minimum fees: they cover drafting the basic documents. Consultations and revisions are billed at the attorney's hourly rate. Financing is available if you need to pay later.
Bring the will you had drawn up in 1998. Bring the closing packet you never opened. Bring the letter from the neighbor. We will tell you whether it is a forty-minute fix or a real fight, and what each one costs, before you decide anything.