So your rich uncle in Delray enlists the help of a Jupiter Probate Attorney to draft his last will and testament and to plan his estate. Your uncle being the private kind of man he is, keeps this documents in his safe until the day he passes away. Its not until then that you realize his attorney committed estate planning malpractice. Will the will be admitted into Palm Beach probate? Can you as the Personal Representative sue on his behalf for estate planning malpractice Delray Beach? Or, can the probate beneficiaries sue? See what a Texas Court of Appeal had to say about similar facts.
When can you sue a probate lawyer for estate malpractice?
- And who can sue the estate lawyer for malpractice? You, an estate beneficiary or abeneficiary of the will, or…… does the ESTATE or the Executor of the Will have to sue?
- Whose attorney was it anyway?
- Consider reading a recent, February, 2015 Texas case. Why?
- Attorney client relationships are usually set up through a written agreement or contractand if malpractice occurs that may also be a breach of contract but with probate litigation Palm Beach, the parties are usually dead when the malpractice is discovered. Sometimes.
What is the statute of limitations for lawyer malpractice?
- What about the statute of limitations? When does that start to accure, when the malpractice is discovered or when it was committed?
- What happens if the will your uncle drafted was drafted twenty years ago and that lawyer has since retired, can you pursue an action against the firm he left behind?
- Rehearing denials were finalized February 18, 2015 in the case of Messner v. Boon.
- Case No. 06-14-00020
- The executor (the Florida version of this is a Personal Representative) of an estate filed suit against an attorney
- Probate malpractice? Not quite
- Alleging that they had been negligent and breached his fiduciary duty in the legal representation of both the deceased person and the legal representative.
- The lower trial courts found that the case should be dismissed
- But this was overturned on the probate appeal. One of the main issues: was the executor was entitled to bring a malpractice claim in her own regard or as the personal representative?
- Certain claims were held to be to personal to the testator and not allowed to be brought by the executor of the estate.
- Do you know how estate planning malpractice Palm Beach is different than plain old legal malpractice? Do you know what the privity rule in Florida is for lawyer malpractice or how you get around it when suing for malpractice regarding a will or trust?
- But wait, don’t all legal claims survive the person? Aren’t estates allowed to bring the same lawsuits as a real person?
- Keep in mind the statute of limitations in this case was only 2years.
- The statute of limitations in Florida for lawyer malpractice is 2 years. But….do you know when the attorney malpractice statute of limitations clock begins to tick?
- So what kind of relief can you really get from your West Palm Beach Probate lawyerwho commits legal malpractice?
- Is there a strong advantage to pursuing these matters when the testator is still alive? Can you even do that?