Are you involved in a Palm Beach probate that was an extension of a Florida guardianship matter? Are you wondering how you are going to prove everything that happened in the Delray Beach guardianship…. in the probate lawsuit? Maybe you are involved in a will contest Palm Beach, or perhaps you are fighting in the estate about joint bank accounts or spending money by a sibling or a guardian or a trustee, when your mother or father was determined to be incapacitated by a Palm Beach guardianship court. But that information from the guardianship is relevant to what’s going on in the probate now, says your Florida estate lawyer. So, can’t you just have the Probate Court look at the guardianship file? Consider reading this September 2, 2015 Florida appeals court case, which is not a Florida guardianship case, and not a probate appeal Florida, about Florida evidence at trial and taking “judicial notice.”
Is the Palm Beach probate really a continuation of the Delray Beach Guardianship?
- When a parent needs a guardianship, family members sometimes file for Florida guardianship by going to the probate court in Palm Beach Gardens and by hiring a guardianship lawyer Boynton Beach
- In the Florida guardianship, there might be a guardianship of your parent’s “person” and his or her “property“
- Adult children sometimes have a disagreement with their parent’s 2nd or 3rd spouse, about how much money is being spent for mom or dad
- Likewise, sometimes siblings themselves don’t get along in the guardianship and fight over land, joint bank accounts and mom or dad’s revocable trust, like who is going to be the trustee, or the guardian of your parent’s property
- Many adult sons and daughters battle it out over who will control mom’s Millions or who gets to make guardianship decisions for dad
- Sometimes, but not all the time, the angst is not directed to mom or dad’s Florida guardian and how the Florida guardian is spending money.
- Indeed sometimes the legal “fight” is about family money and, for example, what mom’s will says or what dad’s revocable trust leaves for an inheritance.
- Were the estate documents changed when mom or dad may have been incompetent or suffering from dementia?
- Was a joint bank account changed at a Lake Worth bank when dad was suffering fromAlzheimers and subject to memory loss and was vulnerable?
What Happens if a Parent Dies During the Florida Guardianship?
- So, one question may be, what if my parent dies during the guardianship in Delray Beach?
- Well, I won’t get into the many filing and procedural requirements of the Florida Guardianship Code or the Florida Probate Code, but
- Many family members then end up having a disagreement in the Palm Beach probateover your parent’s property and money, if those issues were not resolved in the Palm Beach Gardens guardianship filing
- So, the question becomes…
Can’t the Probate Court Use What Was Done in the Florida Guardianship?
- Maybe!
- A probate court of an estate proceeding in Florida may take judicial notice of documents in the guardianship file that were properly placed there
- BUT…. this notice is just notice
- You still have to prove your case: you just can’t point to the guardianship file from Delray Beach and tell the probate court judge in West Palm Beach to read the file
- Why?
- Because judicial notice of a court file from another case does not make the documents or the contents of those guardianship documents admissible if they were subject to challenge, such as when a document is protected by privilege or is hearsay
- So, probate litigation law firms West Palm Beach and estate litigators Boca Raton will tell you that documents in a guardianship court file that have been judicially noticed mustcomply with the rules of Florida evidence
Here is a copy of the Florida 2nd DCA opinion of Tomlinson v. GMAC Mortgage, LLC, 2015 WL 5124763, issued September 2, 2015:http://www.2dca.org/opinions/Opinion_Pages/Opinion_Pages_2015/September/September%2002,%202015/2D13-6030.pdf