Supreme Court of Illinois – Daughter Contests Mother’s Will and Wants to Documents from Mother’s CPA

When a document is protected because of its private nature in the law game   we call that being privileged another common phrasing is that something is “confidential.” Estate planning can involve many such documents, including financial documents that you would probably not want filed in a court making them public record. So what happens in a will contest when a Palm Beach litigant wants to aquire privileged documents to prove their case? Check out what the Supreme Court of Illinois had to say: 

• Normally an attorney has to turn over documents when the other side asks, this is calleddiscovery and the rules in Florida can be very broad. Sometimes a document by its nature is deemed privileged meaning that disclosure is not necessary. Do you know who determines if a Palm Beach Probate related document is privileged?
• What happens when a Court determines something is not privileged and an attorney disagrees? Do they honor the court or their client? What happens if they disobey the court? Contempt hearings. What happens when someone disavows the wishes of their client – is that malpractice?
• Thats the exact problem a CPA’s attorney dealt with in a case recently decided by the Supreme Court of Illinois.

What would you do in this situation?

• A daughter brought an action contesting her mother’s will and she sought disclosure of documents the mother gave to an accounting firm. The Accounting firm’s attorney refused to comply with the discovery order and requested he be held in noncontumacious contempt. What does that mean? Basically that he does not want thrown in jail because thats what contumacious contempt brings.
• The Court said that not only was the accountant and his lawyer in the wrong he actually had no claim of privilege over the documents since he had previously disclosed them to the mother’s personal representative. 
• Do you agree with that? Obviously one can waive confidentiality, but does disclosing something to an estate’s personal representative count in Florida? Should it count?

Want to read more about this interesting case? Check out the full case of Brunton v. Kruger decided March 19, 2015 by clicking here.