What I mean when I say not every case provides a remedy is, "that isn't fair" is not a legal cause of action. Sometimes mom or dad changes a will or trust and did not tell you about it because they did not want to look you in the face and tell you what they did. Other times one element of a case cannot be proved.

For example, for a presumption of undue influence in Florida, you must demonstrate that (1) there was a confidential relationship between the victim and the alleged undue influencer, and (2) you must show that the alleged undue influencer "procured" the document you claim was is invalid.

There are about five different cases that deal with "procurement." If you cannot prove procurement, you cannot get a presumption of undue influence and you are likely to lose your case. However, as demonstrated below, these clients were very happy that they chose to use the courts to redress their grievances.

Contact Linde, Gould & Associates today for more information or to discuss your unique situation.

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Elder Law

This Case Started As A Simple Matter Involving The Removal Of A Trustee.

This case was one of the cases that I litigated which was many miles outside of Lee County. My client lives in Michigan and she hired me to remove a trustee of her late father's trust. The trustee was just kind of arrogant. My client (WS) had an income interest in 25% of a charitable remainder trust for fifteen years. In looking through the discovery, I discovered that the deceased father had improperly removed lots of assets from his wife's trust (which WS was a beneficiary of). Thus, a lawsuit was filed in the father's probate concerning the father's conversion of the mother's assets (the mother died fifteen years earlier). Two years later my client and her two brothers settled the lawsuit against the father's estate for over $1,000,000.00. This case demonstrates that you never know what you will get when you start looking through the discovery requested from the other party in a lawsuit.

Results From Litigated Trust And Estate Issues.

This page summarizes results from litigated probate and trust disputes over the years. While the results listed below are very positive, realize that I don't win every case, and not every dispute involves issues where the law provides a remedy (what does that mean?).

 

What I mean when I say not every case provides a remedy is "that isn't fair" is not a legal cause of action. Sometimes mom or dad changes a will or trust and did not tell you about it because they did not want to look you in the face and tell you what they did. Other times one element of a case cannot be proved. For example, for a presumption of undue influence in Florida, you must demonstrate that (1) there was a confidential relationship between the victim and the alleged undue influencer, and (2) you must show that the alleged undue influencer "procured" the document you claim was is invalid. There are about five different cases that deal with "procurement." If you cannot prove procurement you cannot get a presumption of undue influence and you are likely to lose your case. However, as demonstrated below, these clients were very happy that they chose to use the courts to redress their grievances.

This Case Was Resolved Without Extended Litigation!

If you are interested in viewing information about the lawyer’s past results and testimonials about the lawyer, please read and acknowledge the information below. The information in this section contains information about the lawyer’s past results, testimonials about the lawyer, and statements regarding the lawyer’s quality of services provided. The information has not been reviewed or approved by The Florida Bar.

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Whenever a new client hires me, I always attempt to resolve a case without extended litigation. Truthfully, in most cases a lawsuit must be filed and litigation proceeds for about a year. However, in some cases extended litigation is not necessary. Here is one. Daughter comes to me and asks me to sue brother because brother took care of mom several years before she died and got mom to transfer all her money into a joint account with brother. However, mom had documented dementia. After I wrote a letter to brother he came to the office slapped me on the back, shook my hand a little bit too hard and left. Oh did that make me mad. I wrote him another letter not quite a nice as the first and then served him with a lawsuit. Shortly after being served with the lawsuit he agreed to split all the money with his sister. He gave her the money and the case was over. The sister's cost to pick up $100,000.00 was about $5,000.00.  

Probate Litigation And Will Contests

This Trust Will Be Properly Administered From Now On

If you are interested in viewing information about the lawyer’s past results and testimonials about the lawyer, please read and acknowledge the information below. The information in this section contains information about the lawyer’s past results, testimonials about the lawyer, and statements regarding the lawyer’s quality of services provided. The information has not been reviewed or approved by The Florida Bar.

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This case was a dispute over a trust administration. The trustees were two children of the Decedent from a former marriage and one trustee who was the client's son and was always out-voted by the two trustees who were the Decedent's sons. My client was the surviving spouse and the Decedent's second wife. The two trustees hired a high priced lawyer from a large firm in Tampa. The client was referred to Linde, Gould & Associates, but then went with another lawyer in a large firm. Client was very unsatisfied with the previous lawyer, and there was a trial over a settlement agreement that was never signed but negotiated with the previous lawyer. My client did not want the settlement agreement, but the two trustees claimed that the settlement agreement was enforceable.  

A trial was held, and the court ruled against the Decedent's sons. The court ordered the parties back to mediation and my client obtained a much better settlement consisting of larger annual income distribution, one of the Decedent's sons resigned as trustee, a third neutral tie-breaking trustee was appointed, the client received a significant cash distribution, all client's attorneys' fees paid for bringing the trust action were paid, and the Decedent's sons had to pay all their expensive attorney's fees out of their portion of another trust. Then just like that the case was over.  

Two things are important to know here: first, just because a lawyer works at a large firm and charges $$$$ does not mean the lawyer is a competent; second, I have had many clients come to me after they have become satisfied with their previous lawyer. If you are very uncomfortable with your lawyer, then get another one. The lawyer you choose in an estate or trust lawsuit if not competent can do as much or more damage than the issue you are suing or being sued over. For more information contact Linde, Gould & Associates today.

Court Order To Release Estate Planning File Is Quashed By The Second District Court Of Appeals

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Matthew A. Linde, Esq., a Florida Bar Board certified specialist in Wills, Trust and Estates successfully petition the Second District Court of Appeals to quash a trial court order to release a decedent’s estate planning file. Normally communication between an attorney and his or her client is confidential with limited exceptions. None of those exceptions applied in this case.

See the decision at:

Patrowicz v. Wolff, 110 So.3rd 973 (Fla. 2nd DCA 2013)