Florida probate lawyers will have new and more concise probate law before year end. Florida probate law involving creditors claims and claims against a Florida estate will be clarified when the Florida Supreme Court decides the Golden v. Jones case.
Question: Who should care?
Answer: If you are the executor of a will in Florida, or are participating in a Palm Beach probate, you may want to follow this case. If you are involved in a Florida probate and there are claims or creditors, this is an important case that will make new (or clearer) law in Florida. What will be interesting is whether the Supreme Court’s ruling applies to existing and prior cases (retroactive) or only applies to future cases (prospective, usually after an “effective date.”)
Florida Estate Law Regarding Creditors and Claims
- Florida probate law regarding creditor claims has been described as a bit confusing and even punishing
- If the estate , or the deceased Florida resident, owed you money, that means you are an estate creditor & you have very short time frames and limited circumstances under which you could make a claim
- So, if you are a businesswoman living in Boca Raton, Florida and loaned $1,000,000 to a business partner who was a retired executive living in Jupiter, Florida, and the Jupiter, Florida exec dies: then the Boca Raton businesswoman is a creditor of his estate
- Act fast
- Open the estate, file the claim
- If you didn’t open the estate, were you entitled to actual notice of the estate? (Maybe the personal representative of the Palm Beach County Probate did not tell you that he or she opened the probate).
- If you didn’t know about the Palm Beach probate and you missed the deadline to file an estate claim, what could you do?
- Various probate cases said you should file a motion for an extension of time to file a late claim in the Probate—BUT…. and here’s a big but….. but if you didn’t file a motion, but simply filed a late claim, you lost…… harsh? punitive
Florida Supreme Court to Make New Probate Law
- The Supreme Court of Florida is expected to make new Florida estate law and let us know that if you are outside of the creditors period, what procedure should be followed to file a claim against the estate
- Remember a few things that the court will keep in mind about estate administration in Florida
- 1) the timely and fair administration of estates serves a public policy in Florida. Paying just debts of valid creditors in the probate setting is important public policy.
- 2) Florida probate law should not be “gotcha” with onerous or difficult and harsh, even punitive, Probate rules or procedures
- 3) All the Florida appeals courts which hear probate appeals should be singing from the same songbook…. Florida estate law should be consistent throughout the districts