A March 12, 2014 Palm Beach guardianship appeal court opinion is a “must read” for any adult child who wants to be involved with his parent’s Palm Beach guardianship.   This Delray Beach guardianship case also demonstrates the limitations of the Florida Probate Code and the statutes which make up Florida guardianship law, including Chapter 744 of the Florida Probate Code.   This opinion may be a startling wake up call to children who delay or don’t get involved the guardianship of their parents.   Can you move your father out of the State of Florida ?

Punitive damages can be an important part of any Florida lawsuit.  In the Palm Beach probate setting, punitive damages are one consideration when fiduciaries do bad things.   Fiduciaries like trustees and personal representatives of Palm Beach estates can open themselves up to punitive damages if they do terrible things.  After all, a Palm Beach trustee or a Palm Beach executor of a Palm Beach probate is supposed to look out for and help its beneficiaries, right? 

If you are involved in a Palm Beach guardianship, you should know who’s going to pay your attorneys fees.  Who gets paid from the guardianship funds ?  Who doesn’t? If you are involved in a guardianship matter in Palm Beach County, Florida, or any Florida guardianship case for that matter, you must read this March 7, 2014 Florida guardianship appeals court opinion. If you are Palm Beach elder law lawyer or a Palm Beach guardianship attorney, you DEFINITELY need to read this guardianship opinion from Florida’s 2nd District Court of Appeal.

So, you purchase that beautiful Boca Raton condo and pay a premium — $50,000 for an extra parking space.  Then you die.  Now you have a   Palm Beach estate that has to deal with the Boca property.   The Boca Raton personal representative of your estate goes to sell the condo and wants a premium for the parking space. Only the condo board says the parking space doesn’t belong to the Boca Raton estate.  The    Boca probate lawyer   for the estate tells the board that the condo was held in the   decedent’s Boca Raton revocable trust, which is now an irrevocable Florida trust. 

To appeal an order from a Florida trial court awarding attorneys fees as a sanction, you need to wait til the end of the Florida lawsuit. Most Palm Beach probate litigators know that attorneys fees is an important part of estate lawsuits.  Sometimes, the attorneys fees in a probate lawsuit can approach the amount in controversy.  Probate litigation is expensive in Florida.  I’ve referred to probate attorneys fees or trust litigation attorneys fees as the “X” factor in Palm Beach probate litigation. 

Can a Palm Beach joint bank account with a right of survivorship be used to pay for a person’s Palm Beach guardianship expenses ?  Yes.   EVEN if the joint tenant or joint owner objects ?  Yes.   But what if one of the joint bank account owners dies ?  ——  doesn’t the account belong to the survivor ?     Yes……BUT, the money in the joint account may still be used to pay for guardianship expenses    of the account owner incurred before he  or she  died.

Are you involved in probate litigation in Palm Beach ?  If so, you may have your deposition   taken. Knowing   what to expect at your Palm Beach deposition and knowing how to present yourself are important aspects of your trial strategy.   Your Palm Beach litigator will know all about this. If you saw the recent posts and videos posted online about Justin Bieber, take note. There’s a lot you can learn from that video.  Justin Bieber just had his deposition taken:  on videotape.   If you are involved in a Palm Beach lawsuit, including a Palm Beach probate case, here are some Palm Beach trial pointers and deposition pointers you may wish to consider:

When can you   end a Florida trust   early ?  When can you   terminate a Florida trust earlier than called for  and      distribute all the trust $$$     to the trust beneficiaries right now  ?  Oh yes, and if someone    objects    to the Florida trust ending sooner than expected, how is that reviewed by a Florida appeals court that hears trust appeals ? There is a very recent    Florida trust case   whose legal opinion was just handed down on February 26, 2014.  In Florida,     Florida trustees and trust beneficiary rights are governed by the  Florida Trust Code. 

If you have been sued in a   Florida lawsuit,    you may need to sue someone else who may also be responsible for damages, but who was not named as a defendant in the Florida litigation. Palm Beach   probate   litigators   know this as a “cross claim”.    Cross claims   seek to bring in a   third party defendant    who may be responsible for damages.  Palm Beach Trust Litigators   are familiar with this concept when a Palm Beach Trustee is sued and  trust damages   or   trustee liability    may be the responsiblity of some third party who was involved with the Palm Beach Trust.  Like who ?  Like a :

You’ve heard me say many times before that sometimes estates and trusts do more than just give someone an inheritance.   They also can give you a headache when there is sibling rivalry “played out” in the form of administering an estate or a trust.   Like someone has said: “You never know someone until you share an inheritance with them.”  So here is recent case out of DC that deals with two siblings administering an estate  &  sister who wants to remove her brother as co personal representative of the estate. If you have a sibling who is running a Florida estate or is trustee of a Florida trust, like, perhaps your mom’s revocable living trust, you may want to take note of this case, whose legal opinion was rendered days ago.