Irvine Probate Lawyers

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Our client hired us after his mother died. He had discovered that before his mother had died, the client’s sister had taken the mother to a notary and had her sign over her house to the daughter. We litigated the matter through a 7-day trial – after which the Court ruled in our client’s favor and ordered the property transferred back into our client’s name.

A client’s father passed away and left her a home. Her father wanted her to have his home so she would have a place to live. When the father passed away, the brothers sued their sister. A nasty litigation ensued, and our firm raised a vigorous defense for our client. Our client ended up with the house her father wanted her to have, and we were able to collect our attorney’s fees from the brothers.

After our client’s father was divorced from his first wife, he entered into a relationship with another woman. When the father got sick, the woman tried to forge/doctor new estate planning documents which would have resulted in my client losing his entire inheritance to the woman. We fought hard in Court, and we were able to obtain a very generous settlement amount for our client. Our client was very pleased.

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.