Do you know how the latest probate case from the Supreme Court of Florida changes your rights as an estate creditor?

How long do West Palm Beach creditors have to file a claim against your  father’s estate? The answer depends on a few factors such as services of notice to creditors and publication of the same. Do you know how to get the creditors noticed so that the estate can be closed and you can finish your job up as personal representative? Check out this new case out of the Florida Supreme Court that addresses creditor’s claims in West Palm Beach.

Creditors In West Palm Beach 

• Most estates in West Palm Beach have at least a few creditors. 
• A creditor is someone who is owed money by the estate.
• How does a creditor protect their interests in a West Palm Beach estate?
• First a personal representative appointed by the Court or the will is going to publish something called a notice to creditors.
• If there are known creditors they may be personally served as well.
• What does this do for the estate?
• These actions start various timers for the creditors such that they need to act or lose their claim against the West Palm Beach estate.
• After you serve a creditor they get thirty days to file a claim.
• After you publish all creditors get a ninety-day timer. 
• If someone is served then they get the later of the two dates.
• After that, the claim is barred.
• Do you know what you will have to put in your notice to creditors?
• Do you know where to file the notice to creditors for a West Palm Beach estate?
• Check out how creditor notice issues got to the Florida Supreme Court in a decision filed yesterday!

Jones v. Golden

• There was a conflict among the various District Courts of Appeal about how to handle creditor claims.
• What happened when a known creditor (someone who should have been personally served) was expected to rely on notice?
• Some courts held that the individual was subject to the ninety day or three-month rule while others extended it much longer pursuant to a statute that offered a two-year statue of repose.
• Which do you think is fair?
• Given the conflict the Fourth District Court of Appeals in West Palm Beach asked the Florida Supreme Court what the right answer was.
• The Supreme Court gave known creditors the better deal and stated that the two-year statute applied.

Want to learn more?

Check out the Supreme Court case by clicking here.