What happens if you are in the middle of a probate dispute West Palm Beach & the other side does something bad in court? Can a probate judge in Florida issue sanctions, or sanction, bad conduct in a will contest or fraud trial? An August 7, 2015 Florida Appeals court case, not a probate case, illustrates the authority and power of a Florida court, in this case Florida’s 5th District Court of Appeal, to sanction bad conduct. Can you sanction a Florida probate lawyer and not necessarily just her client?
When can a Florida probate court sanction an executor of a will or a Personal Representative of a Palm Beach Probate?
- Florida courts have an inherent authority to sanction bad conduct
- Period
- If the probate court judge believes that a party, like an estate beneficiary, or a widow,or a Florida estate attorney, like a probate attorney Palm Beach Gardens, is doing something bad, sanctions can be issued.
- What are sanctions under Florida probate law and what, exactly, is “bad?”
How does a probate court sanction a Florida probate lawyer or trustee?
- The most extreme sanction that a probate court Florida could give, possibly, is declaring the other side the winner.
- For example, if, say, someone filed a will challenge in the Main Courthouse West Palm Beach and the executor is defending the will and lies to the court, then conceivably, the probate court, if it wanted to issue a sanction, could “strike the pleadings” of the executor
- In other words if the executor had a defense or a counter claim, it, or they, would go away
- Or, a probate court could find for liability or fault against someone who put their name on a joint bank account and then just have an inheritance trial on damages and probate attorneys fees
- But striking a beneficiaries or executor’s pleadings, is extreme and reserved for very particular situations.
- But sanctions must generally be issued only after an evidentiary hearing where there is proof and a finding of a bad act
How bad does a probate beneficiary have to be before a probate court Florida will issue sanctions?
- Whether something is “bad” depends on a number of variables and the facts and circumstances of each probate case in Florida
- A sincere, honest mistake is generally not “sanctionable”
- Understand that sanctions at the probate court level, the trial level in Florida, is a bit different than sanctions at the appellate court level in Florida
- For a recent case of sanctions, where the 5th DCA in Florida issued sanctions against lawyers, not a probate case, read the case of Massa v. McNutt, 40 Fla. L. Weekly D 1846, issued on August 7, 2015
- In that case, the appellate court found that there was absolutely no basis in law or fact to support filing a notice of lis pendens with the Court