The Top 10 Most Common Probate, Trust and Estate Battles
https://www.hackardlaw.com/blog/2015/11/the-top-10-most-common-probate-trust-and-estate-battles.shtml
Back to this source. I found some interesting items here.
Italics will be copy and paste from link.
We represent people who challenge the wrongdoing of others in estate-related matters. Familiar grounds of challenge often arise from undue influence and financial elder abuse allegations. Some matters are wrapped up through early efforts at resolution. Other matters defy early resolution. Seemingly intractable matters soon become courthouse proceedings.
My case defies, it seems, normality.
My mother was a survivor of the Holocaust.
That makes me a generation two survivor, a group that is being studied now for damages related to what their parents went through in the Holocaust.
I would normally, as next to kin, be the only close next to kin, if I understand how this works, or the only next of kin in this level of offspring.
I have written how my son's mother destroyed me for not loving her after she forced me to marry her with the only option of her aborting if I did not. S0 I married Kimberly Colangelo and 8 months later or sooner my son was born.
If one reads the Motion in Limine created during Kimberly Colangelo's attempt to have me convicted and thus gain all of my resources, assets...one can wonde3er if Kimberly Colangelo was telling the truth about my fatherhood or using a random pregnancy to hook me....as I told her I would not marry her many times previously. Hey, lets take another look at that Motion in Limine as the State so well describes Kimberly and Shadow (aka Charles Perkins)
Read what Judge Heath rubber stamped so prosecutor Leslie Meyer might have a better chance at convicting me if we were not allowed to mention in court ALL that is in the motion., In other words, both the prosecutor and the damn judge KNEW I WAS INNOCENT!
....thankfully the jury figured that out also....but the severe damage to my ability to MOVE ON was accomplished. The recession etc put me in stasis.
Somewhere...sometime after all that the attorney for my mother and her estate, took an intense dislike to me it seems....and therefore all this probate corruption writing and research.
Back to the Motion in Limine.
Given the history of this mentally ill, self mutilating Kimberly Colangelo....how reasonable is it to believe my son is NOT my biological son....and if so, I lost EVERYTHING including my son, biological or not, because that matters not to me albeit to a probate court it may mean much...it would mean much to my mother.
I am not disputing the will, the trust...I am aghast that the lawyer could CHANGE things around to complete my destruct5ion something that utter4ly destroy my mother, were she witness now, to her attorney destroying the extended family she had hope would persevere, but cannot now unless I somehow win in court.
There is something I wanted to copy and paste on this post. from the link.
We represent people who challenge the wrongdoing of others in estate-related matters. Familiar grounds of challenge often arise from undue influence and financial elder abuse allegations. Some matters are wrapped up through early efforts at resolution. Other matters defy early resolution. Seemingly intractable matters soon become courthouse proceedings.
When estate disputes cannot be resolved by decent compromise, then disputes become cases - cases with court numbers and court timelines. When those who unduly influence estate dispositions and commit financial elder abuse seek to preserve their unjust advantages, we take the estate battle to them. Wrongdoing is not defeated by acquiescence.
In the strategy classic The Art of War, Sun Tzu remarked:
It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.
The
same principle applies for litigation: only experienced,
battle-hardened lawyers can marshal legal resources and seize the
initiative without wasting a client's valuable time. Like war,
litigation can be a nasty and expensive undertaking - a balance of risks
and rewards, where success never comes with a 100% guarantee. An
efficient economy of force is necessary to protect and advance client
interests, and that's a system best managed by veterans with years in
the field.What, then, are the main actions in litigation - hearkening back to Sun Tzu, we might call them campaigns and operations - that characterize a probate, trust and estate contest? Our own experience and that of other estate litigators provides some useful insights. Our insights are simply taken from our experience with every-day life - they are observations, the spotting of patterns within a sea of facts.
We've identified 10 of the most common probate, trust and estate battles. This is not an exclusive list - others might suggest additions or deletions, and that's according to their good judgment. We hope that this list helps those who may be facing trust or estate battles. This may help to answer the question often posed - Are we the only family that is facing this kind of problem?
1) Petitions against Former Trustees Alleging Wrongful Acquisition and Misappropriation of Trust Assets
#1
I believe much in the way of very expensive jewelry is unaccounted for. MUCH.
My mother told me she wanted me to live with my son in her condo. They sold the condo and my piano....and I can not find my ancient pottery from the middle east tat I brought hom,e and allowed my mother to enjoy ....knowing it would come back to me....which it never did...much disappeared.
In those cases where family members decide to challenge the actions of the successor trustee, the successor trustee might resign or otherwise be removed from his or her position. Under such circumstances, the new trustee gets to look at accounts and make a determination whether assets were transferred - and if transferred - whether the transfers were the result of undue influence or fraud.
Undue Influence and FRAUD is spot on IMO.
The battleground is then set. Were the asset transfers valid gifts? Were signatures forged? What was the mental capacity of the transferor? What was the health of the transferor? Were the gifts made consistent with long solidified estate plans? The fight is on.
Yes it is.
3) Petition by Beneficiaries For Instructions Regarding Interpretation of Trust Terms
Trust terms are not always clear. There may be a reference to property that is unclear. The distribution of assets to beneficiaries may also be unclear. The arithmetic indicated as to estate divisions may not add up. Life estates can present particular problems. If there is a life estate, who is to pay for maintenance? Taxes? Insurance? The mortgage? Other common issues are whether the value of gifts made prior to death are to be deducted from a beneficiary's share of an estate.
My mother made many "gifts" to me.
The WELL RESPECTED LAWYER is interpreting each and every one as a loan. That they are tacking INTEREST on to it is unbelievable.
Yes there is at least one agenda owned by THE WELL RESPECTED LAWYER....that is in conflict with my and my mother's wishes. I should not have to say that a mother who survived the holocaust in Auschwitz would want her child to survive her death and raise her (hopefully) grandson instead of the self mutilating sociopath Kimberly Colangelo, who once my mother came to know fully ...absolutely detested.
4) Petition To Compel Return of Real Property To Trust, For Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Financial Elder Abuse, Conversion and Imposition of Constructive Trust
This handful of serious allegations can evolve into protracted litigation. These types of petitions generally arise when the trust maker - or his or her appointed trustee - transferred real property to a new owner prior to the trust maker's death. Whether the trustee breached fiduciary duties or took unfair advantage of the trust maker to make a secret profit is part and parcel of these claims. The trustee's duties of reasonable care, undivided loyalty, avoidance of conflict of interest, and preservation of trust property all become points of contention.
Secret profit??? Are you kidding me???
THE WELL RESPECTED LAWYER avoid the chance for secret profit??? No way!
UNFAIR advantage, conflict of interest? You bet! Preservation of trust property?...maybe for herself and others.
5) Notice of Proposed Action (personal representative to take without court supervision)
These provisions of the Probate Code allow for certain actions to be taken without a Court hearing. Such Probate Code provisions allow for more expedited decision-making, when all beneficiaries agree to a course of action.
I NEVER AGREED TO A COURSE OF ACTION.
WHITE COLLAR CRIME to suceed must have the TRUST of the victim.
I would never have thought that MY MOTHERS LAWYER was anything BUT well respected.
I TRUSTED HER EXPLICITLY until I found out the WELL RESPECTED LAWYER is a LIAR.
6) Citation To Appear At Hearing to Answer Interrogatories (to be examined under oath or both)
This is what I've colloquially referenced as a scenario of "We'll see about that." We often encounter trustees, executors or family members who think they can suppress the existence of a trust or will. I suppose that they might think that possession is nine-tenths of the law - it isn't. We can bring people into Court who have estate planning documents. We can have them examined under oath or ordered to answer questions that are posed to them. The availability of this remedy usually cures the document possessor's overconfidence, and the documents are relinquished to our clients.
This is exactly where we are now.
If you pay any attention to the "tone" of my writings...you can guess that I am not going to receive well ANY "OFFERS" from the LYING WELL RESPECTED LAWYERS. You might guess that the posts containing bits of my history of the last 20 years of hell, predict my response to THE WELL RESPECTED LAWYER P.O.S.
OH...!....did I say that? ....so sorry...
7) Petition For Order Removing Co-Trustee and Appointing Fiduciary as Successor Trustee and Bringing Trust Under Court Supervision
We use this process when there are cotrustees that don't get along - for whatever reason. Once you're a trustee or cotrustee, it is not a good idea "to hide the ball." Yet this happens. When we represent an active cotrustee who cannot get information or performance from the other cotrustee, this step comes into consideration. Another part of the process is the appointment of a licensed California fiduciary as the replacement for the errant cotrustee. Probate Courts generally like this approach as an alternative resolution to the paralysis induced when cotrustees cannot cooperate..
Interesting.
8) Ex Parte Petition for Order Suspending the Powers of Cotrustee (and appointing fiduciary as temporary successor trustee and bringing trust under court supervision)
This has all the attributes of the above Petition for Removal, but it reflects an urgency to act. Court rules require a demonstration of urgency for ex parte petitions. In most cases, suspension can occur because of misuse of assets or the danger of the loss of assets. An interim trustee - a licensed fiduciary - can come in and help protect assets during the time period between the fiduciary's appointment and the Court hearing on the appointment of a permanent cotrustee.
More interesting.
9) Petition for Order Suspending Trustee's Powers (appointing temporary trustee, compelling a forensic accounting, instructing trustee on real property)
This is similar to the Ex Parte Petition referenced above, but it is generally scheduled for a Court hearing two or three months after filing. The unique part of this is the appointment of a forensic accountant to review trust records and account for receipts and disbursements.
More I never knew.
10) Petition to invalidate a trust amendment on forgery and undue influence. No trust funds for legal defense.
It's a nightmare when trust assets are spent defending what ultimately turns out to be wrongful conduct. This type of petition asks the Court (and it will require follow up Orders) to prevent the expenditure of trust funds to defend an action to set aside a trust amendment based on forgery and undue influence. The concept is clear - its implementation is not. There can be skirmishes and all-out battles to stop the payment of trust money for a defense that benefits only the trustee (usually as a beneficiary) and not the trust itself.
Now that is extraordinarily interesting.
Hmm...THE WELL RESPECTED WHITE COLLAR THIEF (IMO of course) watched me sign papers blindly because she was my mothers lawyer...and THE WELL RESPECTED WHITE COLLAR THIEF (IMO of course) watched my INCAPACITY for focusing, for understanding any financial matters given my EXTREME PTSD and ANXIETY....from my financial DOWNTURN mentioned in many posts......and decided to totally screw me for her benefit (whatever conflicts were involved with such)....I know the date of...one of the dates when THE WELL RESPECTED LAWYER decided to totally screw me financially....It was before a meeting in June 2016 between my mothers accountant and THE WELL RESPECTED LAWYER. The day of the meeting I KNEW that THE WELL RESPECTED LAWYER was nothing more than a brutal thieving scum bag lawyer.Albeit took months until that really and truly sunk home because hey, how the Hell could that BE!!!
My mother would be so proud of me NOW...she favored the underdog who was screwed and particularly the underdog who was being screwed MALICIOUSLY. She told me to persist with another blog that was making a large organization upset...likely because her father my grandfather who was murdered in Auschwitz had a Yiddish weekly in Lodz Poland that fought for Justice.
And I am over $20K in debt for getting the Criminal Justice degree in 2007 so I could more effectively combat injustice I experienced in Warren County- see the motion in Limine and the video of Judge James Heath. I failed in that quest and I am failing against the undue influence etc of the WELL RESPECTED LAWYER....so far.....but I have spent every day researching TRUST SCUM...and I have an attorney who understands...the latter only by the will of the great Goddess...or pure luck. How this ends is anyone's guess. I either win or I will blog until death about such thieving that is well documented on the net under PROBATE conflicts. I can live with either. I think. Actually if only blogging is what I can do for lack of funds to resuscitate my personal and business life...well..its good therapy, eh?
...there is a conclusion to the article linked to this post. Here.
Our experience is that once the decision is made to litigate, it is critical to be organized, focused and aware that litigation itself is not a middle ground or a halfway solution. It is a path to victory - a path that may result in resolution before trial - but resolution is possible only because a competent legal team is forging that path to victory.
Tough Chicago cop Jimmy Malone took zero nonsense from gangsters in The Untouchables. The same philosophy applies to bad actors in estate cases.
In cases of egregious wrongdoing, it is worthwhile to consider Sean Connery's character, Irish-American policeman Jimmy Malone, in The Untouchables. In speaking about the 20th Century's biggest gangster, Malone reflected:
You
wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He
sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue.
Similar
statements are currently being made about how the Western world should
deal with terror groups like the Islamic State. Yet estate wrongdoers
are not Al Capone, and they're not the Islamic State. Remedies against
estate wrongdoers will not involve guns or knives, but the availability
of punitive damages against bad actors is the litigation equivalent of
bringing a gun to a knife fight.Litigation is not violent, but its repercussions can change lives - repercussions that should have first been considered by the perpetrator at the time of the wrongdoing, yet only later considered during the process of litigation. We are civilized because we have rules, and we endeavor to follow those rules. Innocent people cheated by the wrongdoing of estate predators deserve justice. Punitive damages can punish wrongdoers who have been guilty of oppression, fraud, or malice.
Punitive damage awards are used to both punish a defendant (wrongdoer) and make an example of him - an example that the community at large can see. Findings by clear and convincing evidence of malice, oppression or fraud are necessary triggers to ensure the Court's imposition of punitive damages.
California law defines these terms as:
(1)
"Malice" means conduct which is intended by the defendant to cause
injury to the plaintiff or despicable conduct which is carried on by the
defendant with a willful and conscious disregard of the rights or
safety of others.
(2)
"Oppression" means despicable conduct that subjects a person to cruel
and unjust hardship in conscious disregard of that person's rights.
(3)
"Fraud" means an intentional misrepresentation, deceit, or concealment
of a material fact known to the defendant with the intention on the part
of the defendant of thereby depriving a person of property or legal
rights or otherwise causing injury.
If perpetrators of estate
fraud are planning to get away with their dirty deeds, they should think
twice. All it takes is a skilled veteran litigator to stop them cold,
returning assets to the rightful heirs.All it takes is a skilled litigator.....time will tell.
1, 2, and 3 above.
Malice oppression and fraud.Read those details.
IMO each and every one is involved in my case.
