Are you engaged in a West Palm Beach will contest? Has the court dismissed your case because you failed to follow an order? You may be able to appeal. Take a look at what the Third District Court of Appeal had to say about a party’s right to appeal a dismissal for failure to follow trial orders.
Florida Guardianship was on the minds of many as the Sarasota Herald has just put out a rather troubling piece. EntitledElder Guardianship: A well-oiled machine the report outlines how Florida is pretty good at getting you a guardian and not so good at ensuring you are actually guarded. The report broke my heart as so much of it was spot on as you will soon see.
Are you involved in business litigation Palm Beach? High dollar commercial litigation Florida? If you are a business owner or a member of a Florida LLC or partnership, should you consider hiring a business litigator Boca Raton on a contingency fee.
Most of us will make more than one will in our lifetime. Circumstances change: new beneficiaries are born, old ones die, and often relationships change and unfortunately sometimes it becomes necessary to disinherit a previous beneficiary. When these situations change so does your estate plan, at least it should. Strangely people seem to remember to create new wills much more than they remember to audit and change their living trusts. This always shocks me as aPalm Beach Probate Attorney because one of the primary benefits of a revocable living trust is just that – its flexibility to adapt.
Guardianship is a vehicle in state courts that allows for a guardian to be appointed by the court to watch over various faculties of an incompetent person or minor ward. These vary from control over bank accounts and assets to full guardianship including overseeing daily life. Today, February 26, 2015 the Supreme Court of Appeals of New York (which is not the highest court in New York, this is a misnomer it is the functional equivalent of the District Courts here in Florida) handed down a particularly sad case that highlights three things you need to know if you want to contest a guardianship in Florida.
If you are a beneficiary of a trust in Florida you have a right to expect that the trustee will uphold his fiduciary duty owed to you. Sometimes a beneficiary can get somewhat trigger happy with litigation because they may see the potential gain from a victory regarding the trust. What often these beneficiaries forget is they are essentially fighting themselves. The attorney fees your trustee expels fighting you can be taken directly out of the trust in certain circumstances. A January 2015 case in Florida highlights how you might avoid these fees as a beneficiary litigating against a trustee.
This morning I was reading an article by Forbes magazine that I attached a link to below. Apparently now Facebook has a “Legacy Contact” that lets you decide what happens to your social network profiles when you die. This is a good sign to me as a Palm Beach Probate Attorney, I want people thinking about their legacy and what to do with their assets. Facebook is something most people check on as religiously as their email (some even more frequently!) and if Facebook is thinking about people’s legacy, hopefully it will be on the national conscious too.
John was a loving son who spent years taking care of his Father, and his sprawling South Florida home. Upon his Father’s death John learns that he will not be inheriting what he expected. In fact all of his Father’s estate will instead be given to John’s sister who never even spoke to their Father. John thinks that the lawyer who drafted his Father’s will interfered with his inheritance. Now what? In Florida this is called a case of tortious interference with expectancy or sometimes tortious interference with estate planning, here is what you need to know.
On Jan. 5 2015, Florida became the 36th state to permit same-sex marriage.While this is a momentous victory, it comes with a new set of concerns for the happy couple. As with any marriage, once the ceremony is over, the couples must plan for the future. Being able to legally marry your partner is simply one aspect of the law.
Estate planning can be complicated and taxing, to say the least, and those who go about it alone may find that a single mistake can have big effects. Minor problems might only result in some unnecessary expense or delayed inheritance for the heirs. Other mistakes, however, will waste unnecessary millions in estate taxes or even cause the estate to be passed to unintended heirs! Below is a list of some common problems encountered.