7 THINGS TO ASK YOUR TRUST LAWYER

Involved in a trust lawsuit  ?

Trust litigation has begun and you have an interest in the trust as either a trust beneficiary or other interested person to the trust. Should you get into the fight? Is the trust property worth fighting over?

You are considering hiring a trust litigator— not merely a trust lawyer, but a trust attorney who actually tries cases.    There are a number of very good trust lawyers out there, some of them even go to probate court regarding #trust matters.   Only a handful, a select few, of the trust lawyers actually handle full-blown evidentiary hearings, trust trials, and trust appeals.

Here are seven things to consider when interviewing a potential trust litigator, or if you are considering hiring a trust trial lawyer to represent your interests in the trust lawsuit.

1. Is your law practice limited to trust litigation? Everybody wants a specialist these days. …… and the world of probate litigation, estate lawsuits, including trust litigation is no exception.    Consider those probate litigators whose practice is 90% or more estate and trust litigation.
2. Do you actually try cases and handle appeals? There are a lot of lawyers  who want to handle trust disputes and trust disagreements, but in reality don’t handle trials involving trusts and inheritances.   If you’re looking for a trust lawyer to discuss a settlement, you may be just fine. But if there is a #trust trial on the horizon ……………If you are looking for a trust litigation lawyer, you need one who is familiar with the rules of evidence, the Rules of Civil Procedure, preserving trial matters for appeal and who knows how to try a case or defend a case.
3. How much will this trust case cost me?   You should be able to get a least a range, or an estimate, of what this trust litigation will cost you. Although each trust case is different, and it is difficult to create a budget at the very beginning, you should at least have an expectation of what you may have to pay if you decide to get involved in a trust lawsuit.
4. What do I stand to win? You should always know what you are fighting for and you should be able to quantify that in trust money or dollars. Fighting for a interest in a discretionary $100,000 trust is a lot different than fighting over a $10 million bank account that belongs to you and not the trust. Q:     Are  you  fighting  over  principal and  not  trust  money ?
5. What are my chances of winning?  You can’t gauge your chances for winning at the very beginning, because one never knows exactly what is going to be discovered, what the parties or the court will do. However, after the initial #trust complaint is filed, and trust discovery is completed, you should have a much better handle on the facts and the legal issues. You and your trust litigator should try to analyze, as reasonably and intelligently as possible, your chances of winning.   It is not an exact science and it will certainly depend upon a number of variables which cannot be predicted.
6. What’s my best day &  worst day in court look like?   You need to know how much you stand to gain in trust damages if you win. You also need to know how bad this #trust litigation could get for you: what happens if you lose, and you are forced to pay #trust damages, &  the other side’s trust legal fees and costs?     You should know your upside —-  & your downside.
7. What would you do? Consider asking your trust litigator how he or she would advise their mother, sister, brother, father or child?   You may be surprised, or this may be very insightful.

FOR REFERRAL SOURCES, LAWYERS AND LITIGATORS

We help you with Florida estate and trust administration and trials, and #probate appeals.

Our #Florida probate law firm

• does not draft estate plans
• does not draft wills and trusts
• does not steal your clients or your probates

Our #West Palm Beach, Florida #probate litigation firm :

• hands your clients back to you at the conclusion of the Florida litigation—after all, they are YOUR clients
• we try cases
• we handle appeals
• restricts its practice to Florida probate disputes & contested guardianships
• we work with you on Florida estate administration, Florida probate
• we litigate for and protect beneficiary rights
• we represent Florida personal representatives or executors, and #Florida trustees
• we receive 95% of our clients from other lawyers
• we take contingency fee cases
• Who are we? Our firm is comprised of
• serious Florida litigators,
• focused probate lawyers,
• experienced paralegals and support staff.

We have been involved in high profile, nine figure, multi-million-dollar Florida estates, including Madoff matters, old # Palm Beach money and complex trusts and multi-party #Florida probates. We also handle “small” or “simple” matters. All we do is litigate and help you with Florida estate and trust administration. Tortious interference with an inheritance and allegations of undue influence, and will challenges and trust challenges are a unique subspecialty of the law. Does your client know which ones to file, when to do that, and why? Do you know the different ways to prove each case? How about quantifying or assessing damages? It would be our pleasure to work with you and to serve your clients. For a complete copy of this very recent legal opinion please email michelle@pankauskilawfirm.com.

John Pankauski, www.johnpankauski.com, is the author of The Trustee’s Book – An Individual’s Guide To Money, Misfits, Marriages, and Mismanagement, and the upcoming The $41 Trillion Inheritance War. He is an estate and trust litigator in West Palm Beach, Florida, www.pankauskilawfirm.com and has been featured on the CBS Evening News, in The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, NBC, ABC and Fox networks.