Irvine Probate Lawyers

In 2019, our client represented the guardian-ad-litem of an elderly woman who had been financially abused. After a nine-day trial in Orange County Probate Court, our client obtained an award for elder abuse damages including double damages, punitive damages and attorney’s fees.

In 2016, our client’s spouse had passed away, and relatives claimed that the Decedent had signed a last-minute Will which allegedly disinherited our client. After going to trial, our client received a judgment in her favor which included payment of her costs.

Our client, who believed that he was the Trustee and beneficiary of his mother’s Trust, learned that while his mother was sickly and mentally infirm, his daughter had manufactured a situation where the mother did last-minute changes to her Trust which supposed to disinherit the son. After aggressively litigating the case, we obtained a settlement for our client where he received virtually all of the frozen funds.

Prior to our client's mother’s death, when the mother was mentally incompetent, the sister took the mother to a lawyer and had her estate planning documents changed – purportedly disinheriting the brother from the mother’s $10 million estate. The matter proceeded in litigation for 4 years, during which our firm relentlessly fought in Court for our client. Finally, the sister conceded, and our client received a generous settlement.

In 2017, we were hired to defend against a claim brought against trustees of their deceased mother's trust by their father for a 50% interest in a $9 million property in Laguna Beach, CA. After a trial that spanned over 2 ½ months, the Court reduced the father’s claim to 25% of the Property and awarded none of the $1,000,000 being sought by the father.

In 2014, our client’s husband died. His daughter from a prior marriage sued our client for millions of dollars in assets that the husband had gifted to our client. The children were assisted in their litigation by the Decedent’s ex-lawyer who he had named as Trustee of his Trust. After vigorously defending our client in all of these Courts for four years, we forced a settlement of the entire matter which strongly favored our client.

Our firm was hired by an elderly gentleman who was being financially abused by his neighbors. After being hired, we obtained elder abuse restraining orders against the neighbors, and we counter-sued for elder abuse and to have all of the fraudulent estate planning documents voided. After we vigorously litigated the matter for two years, the neighbors finally gave up – released all of the client’s assets back to him – and relinquished all claims to his Trust.

Our clients (brothers) lost their mother. The father, who was a successful orthopedic surgeon, was aging and began to lose his capacity. A new woman injected herself into his life and began to take over. She moved into his house, put her name on his bank accounts, and supposedly got him to change his estate plan to disinherit his sons. At trial in the matter, we were able to get the house back for our clients in addition to many other valuable assets that the woman had tried to steal from our clients.

In July of 2018, our client, who was the Trustee of her deceased mother’s trust, was sued by her sister for breach of fiduciary duty, elder abuse, removal as Trustee, and surcharge. Our Firm vigorously defended the claim and although the initial claim was for in excess of $1 million, we settled for pennies on the dollar. All charges for elder abuse, surcharge and removal were dismissed.

In 2015, we represented a client in a dispute with his sister, where his sister was claiming that he wrongfully took a parcel of real property from their father. Our client was sued for breach of fiduciary duty, removal as Trustee, accounting dispute, and surcharge. After a 7-day trial in 2017, our client won a total victory. The Court denied all claims against him and found no liability.