What is a Motion to Reconsider in Florida Probate Court?

Are you currently serving as the personal representative of a Palm Beach estate? Are you a beneficiary or a Special Trustee of a Florida trust? The probate judge may issue orders you disagree with. What are your rights as far as refusing them? A November 16,2016 trust and estates case from the United States District Court, M.D. Florida, discusses a motion to reconsider.

Motions to Reconsider the Court’s Order

• Before you just ignore what the judge ordered, consider filing a Motion for Reconsideration.
• This is allowed within a reasonable time after almost any ruling from a Palm Beach or Delray Beach probate court.
• How is this different than an appeal?
• An appeal takes the issue to a new court where there are new judges and new filing fees.
• Reconsideration is you just asking the judge to review his Order.
• No new filing costs are needed.
• Here, in Inglis v. Wells Fargo Bank, the court construes a motion to compel as a motion to reconsider.
• The court mentions that “reconsideration of a court’s previous order is an extraordinary remedy and, thus, is a power which should be used sparingly.”
• What are the grounds to justify reconsideration? “(1) an intervening change in the controlling law; (2) the availability of new evidence; [or] (3) the need to correct clear error or prevent manifest injustice.”
• A motion for reconsideration should raise NEW issues, not just readdress issues litigated before.
• Click here to check out Inglis v. Wells Fargo Bank and learn more about motions to reconsider in Florida courts.