Out in the street, and shutting down the block, just below his West Palm Beach probate law firm, John Pankauski, senior trial attorney at thePankauski Law Firm PLLC, once again held his annual wine tasting to benefit Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, Inc.   http://www.legalaidpbc.org/ Sipping wine under the stars through the early evening, hundreds of attendees sampled wines which Pankauski had personally selected from his previous year’s trips throughout Europe and California.       Cuisine was prepared and served by Capital Grille Palm Beach Gardens, and Del Frisco’s Grille, Palm Beach.         The event is sponsored each year by the Pankauski Law Firm PLLC which handles estateand commercial disputes, trials and appeals: limited to litigation and administration ofbusiness, partnership, estate, trust and guardianship disputes and lawsuits.  

The 4th Annual Pankauski Pour wine tasting benefitting Legal Aid Society of  Palm Beach County, http://www.legalaidpbc.org/, was held February 20th, 2015. Hundreds of attendees sipped wine under the stars, out in the street, as the block was shut down beneath Pankauski Law Firm’s top floor probateoffice in the historic Guaranty Building in West Palm Beach.       Pankauski, a senior probate litigator in Palm Beach, personally selected 50 wines for attendees to enjoy, all the product of his prior year’s travels throughout Europe and California.       Pankauski’s passion for law and wine has seen this event approach it’s 5th Annual PankauskiPour scheduled for next year, 2016.

The Pankauski Law Firm PLLC, a probate litigation lawfirm handling trials, disputes and appeals, for probate and commercial matters inWest Palm Beach, once again sponsored an annual Wine Tasting to benefit Legal Aid of Palm Beach County: http://www.legalaidpbc.org/.

Most of us will make more than one will in our lifetime. Circumstances    change: new beneficiaries are born, old ones die, and often relationships change and unfortunately sometimes it becomes necessary to disinherit a previous beneficiary. When these situations change so does your estate plan, at least it should. Strangely people seem to remember to create new wills much more than they remember to audit and change their living trusts. This always shocks me as aPalm Beach Probate Attorney because one of the primary benefits of a revocable living trust is just that – its flexibility to adapt.

A secret daughter of an Australian mining millionaire was given   twice her initial request by an Australian Court after being left a mere 2.3 million dollars after her father died. In the end Ms. Mead walked away with about 19 million dollars.  Did your wealthy relative leave you some inheritance but not anything compared to your other relatives? A will contest may be a viable solution in Palm Beach Probate Court or anywhere in Florida. Learn more about when a Court is willing to disturb someone’s otherwise valid will on grounds of unfairness.

With every client there is always that moment where we have to get down to   brass tax- how much does Florida probate really cost? That is a good question that is by no means simple to answer. The amount of assets, the structure of the estate plans and the general temper of the beneficiaries all matter. Most firms work on an hourly basis so the length of probate is also significant. Here is my quick reference guide for beneficiaries to evaluate the cost of Florida probate. Obviously the most accurate estimates can only come through consultation from an experienced Palm Beach Probate Attorney.

In order to bring any lawsuit in Florida a person needs standing. Standing is the personal nature of a case it means that you have a stake in the litigation. This is also true of a Probate case like challenging a will in Palm Beach County Florida. In a February 24, 2015 case out of the Supreme Court of Montana the Court held that the testator’s niece who was not mentioned in a will did not have standing to challenge the will on grounds of undue influence. For more read below and check out the case of InRe Estate of Lawlor. 

So, there is an estate dispute going on and you are wondering if you need to get involved. Do you hire a probate litigatorand get involved in the probate or can you avoid it and not be harmed financially?  Maybe someone filed a Florida will contest in the probate of your late rich Uncle from Jupiter, Florida.  Or, perhaps there is a trust contest over your mom’s revocable living trust amendment which reduced your cousin’s inheritance or trust distribution.  Well, knowing whether you should participate in an estate dispute can be a tough call, so here are 5 options, or pointers, for family members, surviving spouses, heirs and next of kin, to consider, when trying to decide if you are going to get in on the “Probate War.”  Oh yes, if you are a beneficiary of the trust or the will, you may also want to read this probate commentary.

I have written several posts about the James Brown Estate but today jamesbrown2.jpg something new came out, according to local authorities the Supreme Court has frozen the estate. The highest Court in South Carolina on February 19, 2015 issued an order directing the Aiken County Clerk of Court to provide the SC Supreme Court with all orders issued in any action related to James Brown. Jay Bender who is an attorney for the South Carolina Press Association said that the latest news points to the SC Court’s efforts to take a step back and re-evaluate the case. The Supreme Court wants to figure out what is going on, because these cases get complicated. There are several take aways here for the Florida Palm Beach Probate Litigator.

Guardianship is a vehicle in state courts that allows for a guardian  to be appointed by the court to watch over various faculties of an incompetent person or minor ward. These vary from control over bank accounts and assets to full guardianship including overseeing daily life. Today, February 26, 2015 the Supreme Court of Appeals of New York (which is not the highest court in New York, this is a misnomer it is the functional equivalent of the District Courts here in Florida) handed down a particularly sad case that highlights three things you need to know if you want to contest a guardianship in Florida.