Are you currently serving as the trustee or personal representative in West Palm Beach? Does the other side, or beneficiaries keep filing frivolous lawsuits against you? You may have a cause of action against them for malicious prosecution! If a West Palm Beach lawyer told you that these were barred because of the litigation privilege, that may not be the case following a recent case out of the Fourth District Court of Appeal.
What is Malicious Prosecution
- Without getting into legalese, malicious prosecution used to be a cause of action used when a prosecutor made criminal charges that were unfounded and aimed to harass.
- Now this cause of action has been extended into civil matters.
- You can make it against an individual who is abusing the right to sue and injuring you as a result.
- Previous Courts in West Palm Beach have held that this cannot be used in civil matters due to a so called litigation privilege.
- So what does that mean?
The Litigation Privilege
- Have you ever heard the term litigation privilege?
- This is a rule of law that is based on the tenets of defamation.
- Basically it is unlawful to say defamatory things about someone and to publish them, but this can make litigating awfully difficult.
- So the Courts have held that defamation does not apply to actions filed in Court.
- That is a pretty broad privilege.
- See how that could pose a problem if you want to sue an ungracious beneficiary for filing countless lawsuit against you in probate court?
Edwards v. Epstein
- In this case the trial court held that a party could not bring a malicious prosecution case because of the so called litigation privilege.
- This was despite the fact that the law in Florida is quite clear – that you can bring a malicious prosecution claim against someone for filing actions in civil court.
- Now the law has become slightly more clear and settled, the litigation privilege does not bar a claim for malicious prosecution as a matter of law.
- How does this change your probate litigation plans in West Palm Beach?
Want to learn more?
Check out the entire case by clicking here.
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