When a lawyer botches a will or trust, the people who get hurt are usually the ones who were supposed to inherit. The client is dead. The mistake often doesn’t surface until the estate is in probate, and by then the money is going somewhere the client never intended. So can a disappointed beneficiary sue...KEEP READING
Many families keep the same financial advisor for decades, even when that advisor changes firms three or four times. Mom’s investment account follows the advisor from one brokerage to the next, and nobody thinks twice about it. Then Mom dies, and her will leaves “my account at Firm X ending in 1234” to specific people....KEEP READING
Imagine your mother dies after an injury that someone else may have caused. She left no will, no surviving spouse, and no other children. You are her only heir. You file a lawsuit for her estate, and before you ever get a hearing on the merits, the trial court throws it out on jurisdictional grounds....KEEP READING
Administering a loved one’s estate is rarely simple, and when property ownership is disputed, it can stretch into years of litigation. An executor takes on a real responsibility: they are the legal face of the estate in court, and the estate cannot act without them. So what happens when an executor resigns in the middle...KEEP READING
When someone dies leaving two wills, the fight usually starts fast. The later will normally controls. But what if the person who loses out under that later will says the witnesses were never actually in the room when it was signed? He is not attacking what the will says. He is attacking whether it was...KEEP READING
When a family fight over trusts spills across state lines, you can end up with one court saying one thing and another court saying the opposite. A trustee who wins in one state will naturally want to use that win everywhere else. But a favorable judgment from another state’s court does not automatically erase a...KEEP READING
When a parent files for guardianship over an adult child with an intellectual disability, the hardest part is usually not the law — it is the family. One parent sees a vulnerable person who needs protection. The other sees a capable adult being unfairly restricted. When the medical experts also disagree, the probate court has...KEEP READING
Family property disputes often take an unexpected turn when siblings inherit land together. One sibling decides to sell their share to an outside buyer. The remaining family members watch helplessly as a stranger becomes their new co-owner in property that has been in the family for generations. The situation becomes even more complicated when the...KEEP READING
Property disputes among siblings after parents pass away are common. One brother wants to sell. Another wants to keep the family land. A third argues everyone should get equal value regardless of which parcel they receive. These conflicts often result in litigation when the property has unequal features—maybe one section has road frontage or commercial...KEEP READING
You might think that receiving an ineritance is easy. How could that be complicated? The maxum that nothing is easy is fitting. When a family member inherits property, they may be inheriting a build-in legal problem. This often happens when property is left to more than one person and one person wants to keep the...KEEP READING
