Estate and Trust Litigation
Our firm regularly represents clients in disputes involving estate and trust matters. In Pennsylvania, when those disputes cannot be resolved by the parties, they are generally litigated in the Orphans’ Courts of each county. We regularly appear before all of the Orphans’ Courts in the southeastern counties of Pennsylvania and from time to time before other courts throughout the state. Estate and trust disputes can take a variety of forms. A few of the more common forms of cases that we handle are:
- Will contests in which the validity of a will is challenged
- Claims that one beneficiary has tortiously interfered with the inheritance rights of another
- Disputes regarding the interpretation of wills or trust agreements
- Claims by or against fiduciaries with regard to investment performance or fiduciary compensation
The Orphans’ Court is also the forum for many types of undisputed proceedings that we handle, such as the settlement of accountings that are filed by executors or trustees and proceedings in which executors or trustees seek instruction from the Court.
We have significant experience with all of these matters. Because litigation can be expensive, we work hard to be thorough but to manage carefully the costs of each phase of the case. We keep our clients closely informed about the progress of a case and give them realistic assessments (updated on a regular basis) about the probability of success.