Estate & Trust Litigation Attorney in Boca Raton, Florida

Claims this firm prosecutes and defends

Estate litigation in Florida runs through the probate division, and the procedural rules differ from ordinary civil practice.

• Will contests based on lack of testamentary capacity, undue influence, fraud, duress or improper execution.
• Trust contests and actions to reform, modify or invalidate a trust or an amendment.
• Undue influence claims, including the presumption that arises where a substantial beneficiary occupied a confidential relationship and actively procured the document.
• Breach of fiduciary duty, surcharge and removal actions against trustees and personal representatives.
• Petitions to compel a trust accounting or estate inventory, and objections to accountings already served.
• Elective share and homestead disputes, including determinations of homestead status and protection.
• Creditor claim litigation, including independent actions after an objection is served.
• Guardianship-adjacent disputes and challenges to lifetime transfers, beneficiary changes and deeds obtained by pressure.

Deadlines that decide cases before they start

A person served with a notice of administration generally has 3 months to object to the validity of the will, the qualification of the personal representative or the venue of the proceeding. Miss that window and the objection is ordinarily barred no matter how strong the underlying facts.

Creditor claims are generally due within 3 months of first publication of the notice to creditors, or 30 days after service, and an objection to a claim triggers a further short period to file an independent action.

Trust matters carry their own limitations, often shortened dramatically by a trustee's proper disclosure and limitation notice — sometimes to six months. The elective share requires an election within a defined period after service of the notice of election rights and letters of administration.

The practical rule is simple: a suspicion in month one is a case, and a suspicion in month six may be a memory. Call as soon as something looks wrong.

Strategy, cost and the realistic path

The first step is documentary: the instruments and prior versions, the drafting attorney's file, medical records bearing on capacity, financial records showing transfers, and the pattern of who had access and control. Most cases are decided by that record rather than by testimony about family history.

Many disputes resolve at mediation, which Florida probate courts routinely require, and a negotiated resolution generally preserves more of the estate than a full trial. That said, some fiduciaries will not move until a removal petition is on file, and this firm files when filing is what works.

Fee arrangements are discussed frankly at the outset, along with an honest assessment of what the claim is worth against what pursuing it will cost. If litigation is not in your interest, you will hear that in the free consultation.