Probate and Estate Litigation

Probate and estate litigation refers to legal disputes that arise during the probate process, which involves administering a deceased person’s estate. These disputes can involve various issues related to the validity of a will, the interpretation of its terms, the distribution of assets, and the actions of the executor or personal representative. Common types of probate and estate litigation include:

1. Will Contests: Challenges to the validity of a will, often based on claims of undue influence, fraud, lack of testamentary capacity, or improper execution of the will.
2. Breach of Fiduciary Duty: Disputes between beneficiaries and executors or personal representatives over allegations of mismanagement, conflicts of interest, or failure to act in the best interests of the estate.
3. Trust Disputes: When a decedent’s estate includes a trust, beneficiaries may contest the trust’s validity, its terms, or the actions of the trustee.  When the trust is created under a will (a testamentary trust), a challenge to the will also challenges the validity of the trust.
4. Intestate Succession Disputes: Disagreements over how an estate should be distributed when someone dies without a valid will, often involving disputes among heirs over who is entitled to inherit.

While a lot of people think probate attorneys draft wills and other estate planning documents, some attorneys specialize in litigation involving those documents and do not prepare them.  Ms. Baxter-Thompson is Board Certified in Estate Planning and Probate, but she does not draft estate planning documents.  Instead, at Baxter-Thompson Law, we focus exclusively on litigation involving probate and estates, which includes defending wills, contesting wills, breach of fiduciary duty claims, surviving spouse claims, and other inheritance claims.