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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.