PUNITIVE DAMAGES AND FRAUD IN PALM BEACH LAWSUITS
How do you get punitive damages in a Palm Beach lawsuit? Most Palm Beach trial lawyers and those that are involved in Palm Beach lawsuits and trials know that you have to request (or “move” ) to bring a claim for punitive damages in Florida. Your Palm Beach litigator needs to proffer facts, and evidence, from which a judge may make a ruling, and permit you to bring an additional claim for punitive damages. In other words, if you’re involved in a Palm Beach trial, your Palm Beach litigator cannot simply bring a claim of punitive damages from the get-go. A recent case from the Palm Beach appeals court, the Fourth District Court of Appeal, www.4dca.org, which is in West Palm Beach, Florida, deals with this important issue of punitive damages in Florida lawsuits. If you are involved in a Palm Beach fraud lawsuit or a Broward County fraud lawsuit, this recent Palm Beach appeals court case is worth taking note of.
Q: Are you involved in a fraud trial in Palm Beach, Florida, or Fort Lauderdale, Florida? If so, the appeals court for these two S. Florida counties just issued a ruling on punitive damages which is important.
WHY ARE PUNITIVE DAMAGES IMPORTANT TO PALM BEACH PROBATE LITIGATORS ?
Q: Why would this Palm Beach appeals court opinion on a Palm Beach fraud trial be important to people who are involved in Palm Beach probate litigation, or Broward County, Florida probate litigation?
A: You may be able to ask for, and possibly receive, punitive damages in your Palm Beach inheritance lawsuit if there was fraud involved.
DOES PALM BEACH ESTATE LITIGATION ALWAYS INVOLVE FRAUD?
No. Palm Beach probate litigation, inheritance lawsuits in Palm Beach, or Broward County, Florida, for that matter, don’t always involve fraud. But sometimes they do. If so, you should know your rights: don’t leave potential “money” on the “table.”
- Did a Palm Beach estate personal representative not tell you where the money is?
- Did a Boca Raton trustee not provide a Florida trust accounting?
- Did a Palm Beach Gardens Guardian only reveal half of the facts?
Under Florida probate law, including the Florida probate code, the Florida trust code, and Florida guardianship statutes, if a fiduciary has a duty to tell you something, and doesn’t do that, it can be fraud. So, if a Palm Beach trustee is not providing you with relevant information about the trust, or the trust assets, or is hiding that information from you, you may have a Palm Beach trust lawsuit regarding fraud.
Whenever there is fraud involved in a Palm Beach probate or a Broward County probate lawsuit, your probate litigator should be thinking: punitive damages.
FLORIDA LAW ON GETTING PUNITIVE DAMAGES
To get punitive damages in a Florida lawsuit, there are specific procedures, and rules, which you need to follow: and also specific things which you need to prove to a judge in an evidentiary hearing. In essence, you have a mini trial before the trial, to see if you can have a Palm Beach trial on punitive damages. As the 4th District Court of Appeal, from West Palm Beach, Florida said in this recent Florida appeal:
” We reiterate that allegations of fraud contained in a complaint cannot, standing alone, support a request to amend a complaint to include a claim for punitive damages. Such a request must be supported by a reasonable evidentiary basis.”
Some Palm Beach estate litigation, from Delray Beach, Florida, to Boca Raton, to Weston or Aventura, deal with allegations of bad acts which may be different than fraud under Florida law. You may also be able to seek punitive damages for bad acts which are committed by a Palm Beach trustee or a Palm Beach personal representative, or a Palm Beach Guardian, other than fraud: consult your Palm Beach probate litigator or your Ft. Lauderdale probate litigation team.
One final word on Florida punitive damages in Palm Beach estate litigation or Broward probate lawsuits: I wrote three articles on punitive damages in probate. You may wish to consult those articles in the Florida Bar Journal and Probate & Property (American Bar Association) for more details.