Personal Injury, Estate Planning, and Probate

Martin P. Avanesian

Attorney at Woodbury Law Group, Glendale. California State Bar No. 348994.

By Woodbury Law Group Last reviewed August 1, 2026

Martin P. Avanesian leads the firm's personal injury, estate planning, and probate practices. On the injury side, he represents people hurt in car crashes, falls, dog bites, and wrongful death cases across Los Angeles County, on contingency, with no fee unless the case wins. He deals directly with adjusters and defense counsel, and every client gets his direct line.

On the estate side, his work sits at two ends of the same story. On one end, he helps California families put plans in place while everything is fine: wills, living trusts, powers of attorney, and health care directives, drafted to hold up when they are finally needed. On the other end, he guides executors, trustees, and grieving families through probate and trust administration when a plan was never made, or when the time has come to carry one out.

Seeing both ends changes how he drafts. An attorney who spends part of every week in the probate departments at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse knows exactly which ambiguities a court will stumble over, which handwritten amendments cause siblings to stop speaking, and which unfunded trusts send a family into the very proceeding the trust was meant to avoid. Martin brings that knowledge back to the drafting table. His plans are written to be administered, not admired.

How he works

The first meeting is a conversation. Martin asks about your family, your home, your accounts, and the decisions you have been putting off, and he listens for the things clients rarely think to mention: the child who should not manage money at eighteen, the house that one sibling wants and two would rather sell, the business that needs someone able to sign payroll next week if something happens. Then he quotes a flat fee, in writing, before any drafting begins. The number you hear at that meeting is the number you pay.

The documents themselves are written in plain English. A trust only works if the people who must use it can understand it, so Martin drafts every provision for the reader at the kitchen table. When the drafts are ready, he walks you through every provision, revises at your pace, and then supervises the signing personally: witnesses where California law requires them, notarization, and the deed that moves your home into the trust, recorded with the county. Clients leave with originals, copies, and a one-page summary of what lives where.

The probate side

When families come to Martin after a death, the work is different but the approach is the same: calm, plain-spoken, and thorough. He handles full probate administrations at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, where every Los Angeles County probate matter is heard and where e-filing, probate notes, and the county's probate referee system reward an attorney who knows the local procedure. He also handles trust administrations, the quieter process that a funded living trust makes possible, keeping trustees on the right side of their duties and their deadlines.

Martin earned his B.A. in Philosophy from UCLA in 2019 and his J.D. from Southwestern Law School in 2022, and he has practiced California law since his admission to the bar in February 2023. He is a member of the Armenian Bar Association, the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and the Glendale Bar Association, and he maintains an active practice centered on Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena, and the wider Los Angeles area. Lawyers of Distinction recognized his estate planning and probate work for 2024 and 2025. Outside the office, he is a regular presence in the local community.

Start the conversation

If you have been meaning to get a plan in place, read about the estate planning practice, or learn what to expect from probate if you have lost someone. When you are ready, the form below schedules a consultation at whatever pace suits you.