Florida Litigation Lawyer
The litigation team at Legacy Protection Lawyers, LLP focus’s its practice primarily on contested estate, trust and guardianship matters as well as holding fiduciaries accountable when they breach duties owed to the beneficiaries. Added skills and knowledge in the area of estate planning, real estate, commercial transactions and commercial litigation further complement our firm’s litigation capabilities.
We have handled a multitude of cases involving will and trust contests based on undue influence, lack of capacity, improper execution and even based on insane delusions. We have represented beneficiaries, spouses, children, charities, creditors any anyone else who has had an interest in an estate or trust and found they needed legal representation.
For the most part, however, we hold trustees accountable to the beneficiaries.
The laws governing the duties of trustees was first developed centuries ago when the concept of a “trust” first arose when land owners, to avoid taxation placed the ownership of their land into a “trust” to avoid taxation by the King. The land owner had to have great trust and confidence in the trustee he appointed to hold and manage the property. At common law a trustee was charged with many fiduciary duties in order to protect the beneficiaries. These fiduciary duties included the duty of loyalty, the duty of impartiality; the duty to keep the beneficiaries informed. These, and many other fiduciary duties are now codified in the Florida Trust Code that sets forth the many duties a fiduciary must assume and the remedies and consequences the fiduciary will face if he breaches those duties. A personal representative of a probate estate is held to the same high standards of a trustee.
Many times, we have held fiduciaries accountable often times resulting in their removal as trustee and having to repay the trust the damages the trust suffered because of the bad actions of the trustee. We have also successfully defended fiduciaries who have been wrongfully accused of breaching their fiduciary duties.
Not only do we have an intimate knowledge of probate and trust law, but we have the courtroom experience to effectively advocate our clients’ positions. We have handled cases all over the state of Florida and even a few out of state.
We know how to focus our pre-trial discovery to develop facts that are needed to win. We know how to weave those facts with the law to tell a convincing story at trial to the judge or jury.
We also understand the stress most clients endure when they are involved in litigation. While we like to try cases, we understand that sometimes an early resolution through mediation and settlement is something the client prefers or is in the client’s best interests.
Many lawyers tout themselves as “probate litigators” but few have the experience and depth of knowledge that we have.
Controversies regarding estates, trusts, wills, and guardianships require seasoned litigators with intimate knowledge of estate and trust law. Our reputation and experience make us the law firm that families turn to when they need litigation help throughout Florida.
Because of the national reputation of our estate litigation lawyers, we often are the law firm that non-Florida families hire when they need probate or trust litigation assistance in Florida. Our litigation practice is state-wide. Many of our clients are beneficiaries who don’t live in Florida. We have represented beneficiaries, spouse, children, charities, creditors and others who have had an interest in an estate or trust and found they needed legal representation in litigation matters.
