Third DCA Appeal: Failure to Follow Notice Deadlines Could Spell Disaster for Your Palm Beach Probate Lawsuit

Are you preparing to administer an estate in West Palm Beach? Do you know all of the notice requirements that you are obligated to follow? I know that specific statutes may seem strict and the rules can be cumbersome but deadlines are important! Want to see what happens when you fail to follow the notices? Check out this recent case out of the Third District Court of Appeal dealing with PIP payments. Do these same strict sanctions for notice rules apply to yourprobate lawsuit?

The Importance of Deadlines

• Deadlines can certainly be extended for certain things when it comes to your probate lawsuit. 
• For example do you need more time to prepare a response to discovery? No problem.
• Do you need more time to answer the lawsuit?
• Again no problem, your counsel will likely talk to the other Palm Beach litigation firm and request an extension.
• Experienced Palm Beach probate litigators regularly grant extensions if they do not prejudice the clients, because they know they may need an extension one day soon too.
• Certain deadlines though are set by the Court and cannot be excused. Furthermore, if you need an extension you should ask ahead of time not the day something is due.
• That is leaving your extension up to chance and its just bad form. Furthermore sometimes your extensions may be denied.
• For example if you have 90 days to contest the will you better get those forms in before the deadline.
• Do not just expect the probate judge to be lenient, if you are going to be late you may want to consider entering into a tolling agreement with the other side.
• Do you know what a tolling agreement is?
• These are written agreements to stretch out the statute of limitations for when you are still not ready to file the lawsuit.
• What happens when you fail to pay attention to the deadlines?

State Farm v. Gonzalez

• Believe it or not this was an appeal over less than $700!
• A woman failed to timely bring notice of a personal injury claim to her provider in a timely manner.
• By timely I mean she brought it up years later. 
• On appeal the court said that the insurer did not have to pay.
• Florida Courts are not in the business of rewarding those that sleep on their rights in any form.
• If you think you have a claim you need to bring it up sooner rather than later or this could spell failure for your case!

Want to learn more about this interesting case out of Miami?

Read the entire thing by clicking here.