In this week’s email, I wanted to let you know about one of our longstanding practice areas here in my law firm – will, trust, and estate litigation.
More than 20 years ago, when I worked at a large downtown firm, I got involved in a significant piece of litigation involving a family trust and various businesses owned and operated by the family in question.
That case spawned other related follow-on cases that, in one form or another, continued for another 10 or more years, well into the early years of my own law firm.
Those various related cases were very interesting. I learned a lot about the general subject matter of family estate and trust litigation, not to mention corporate governance and shareholder rights litigation.
Near the tail end of those cases, my colleague, Benjamin Kyber, joined the firm. He worked extensively on those cases with me and took an interest in the subject matter.
We started an estate litigation practice area here in the firm that continues to this day.
That practice area has been the source of some of the more interesting cases I’ve handled in my career, not to mention some great adventures. These experiances include an international will contest case concerning a premarital agreement and several different versions of a purported will. That was a doozy of a case involving the English, Serbian, and Greek languages, and property in Serbia, Greece, Virginia, Mexico, and New Jersey. That case took me overseas to places Americans don't normally travel. (It also resulted in me forming lasting friendships with lawyers in Serbia, as well as getting 3 speeding tickets in 3 days in Switzerland as a result of their very robust traffic camera system, which is quite unforgiving!)
If you look at the firm’s website and case results, what stands out is our catastrophic injury litigation practice. But if you dig into our practice areas, you’ll find a lot of content dedicated to the subject of estate litigation.
This is an area of the law in which a lot of people need legal advice. We continue to get a substantial number of leads each month from people seeking answers related to a family estate issue of some kind.
And we get lots of referrals from other lawyers who know we handle cases involving family estate disputes and do so effectively.
As you might expect, the majority of people who contact us do not have a case that needs to be litigated in court. They just need to get some questions answered about the process. In that regard, we function as a gatekeeper helping people understand what is normal and what is not normal with respect to how an estate is being handled.
We do not offer free consultations for estate-related matters. However, for a minimal fixed fee, we will review the matter and conduct an initial consultation with a client to help them understand the situation. The client gets our initial impression and a list of what we feel are the next steps to move the matter forward. Sometimes, these sessions result in litigation. Most of the time, the matter ends with the initial consultation. But at least in those situations, we have sent the client away with answers and, hopefully, some peace of mind.
Please keep us in mind for referrals in this area! As with our personal injury practice, we would be grateful to have you as a referral partner for these matters.
