Search Results: guardianships

For good or for ill, the number of Florida guardianships which are contested or litigated in Palm Beach County, Florida and Broward County, Florida are exploding. Yes, Florida guardianship trials are increasing.  Probate lawsuits over who will take care of someone, who will make someone’s most personal decisions, and who will control one’s property, are increasing.  Florida guardianships are not just handling issues of who should make decisions over someone’s health, personal rights and property, but probate courts and guardianship courts from Palm Beach Gardens to Ft. Lauderdale are now judging the “fights” between family members, heirs and advisors of the person who is, may, or may not, be in need of a Florida guardian. 

For good or ill, guardianship litigation has exploded in South Florida.   Probate Courts and probate judges in Broward County, Miami-Dade County and Palm Beach County, Florida preside over guardianship trials more than ever.   Florida elder law lawyers and lawyers who assist senior citizens have seen their practices get bigger and their client list get longer.  Now, probate lawyers and Florida lawyers who prepare wills and trusts in smaller communities like Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Aventura and Plantation are adding guardianship matters to their list of legal services which they provide.

Why are there three probate courthouses in Palm Beach County, Florida?   If you are a beneficiary of a Florida estate or a Florida trust, or are involved in a probate administration or estate administration in Palm Beach, you might be confused.  It may be more correct to state that there are three courthouses in Palm Beach County, and within those courthouses, there are probate divisions or probate judges who hear cases on Florida wills, trusts, estates and guardianships.  

Florida probate litigators deal with contested or disputed issues of wills, trusts, estates, inheritances and guardianships every day.  Many times there are family members or those who are related to the decedent, client or person by marriage who don’t get along.  Frustration is high.  Blood runs hot.  Money is at stake.  While Florida attorneys, indeed trust and estate clients, should be good advocates, one must always be mindful what everyone’s role in probate litigation and trust trials is:  to find out the truth and then apply the law to that truth, those facts. 

South Florida probate litigator John Pankauski will speak today in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and address Broward County probate attorneys who prepare wills and trusts and who administer estates.  Pankauski, and Boston attorney Joe Bierwirth of Hemenway & Barnes, will present the following Florida law topic:  Ethics & Estate Planners, 10 Things to Preserve & Protect Your Practice.   The topic will include Florida probate matters, ethical challenges involved in wills, trusts, estates and guardianships, and how Massachusetts law differs. 

Florida trial attorney John Pankauski, a member of the Probate and Fiduciary Litigation Committee of the ABA Real Property, Trust & Estate Law Section, was recently chosen as the Vice-Chair of the Litigation, Ethics & Malpractice Group. Pankauski is a trial lawyer with the Pankauski Law Firm PLLC in Florida, and restricts his practice to trials and disputes involving probate, wills, trusts, estates and contested guardianships.