The Recovery of Attorneys’ Fees and Costs for the Unsuccessful Offer of a Will for Probate

This article will explain Florida law about getting money for your legal fees and costs if you tried to get a will approved by the court but it didn’t work. It will also give tips on how to do this successfully. If someone tries to get a will approved in court but it doesn’t work, they can ask for the legal fees to be paid by the estate. This only applies if the will was valid and the person acted honestly. The law was changed in 2002 to make it easier to get fees, not just for the last will, but for any valid will. If you are trying to use a will to get money from someone’s estate, the will has to be done correctly. If you have a deal with a lawyer where they only get paid if the will is successful, and then it’s not successful, you can’t ask the estate to pay the lawyer. There aren’t many cases that talk about this, but one case hinted that lawyers with this type of deal might not get paid from the estate for an unsuccessful will. The law requires that anyone offering a will for probate must do so in good faith, meaning honestly and with legitimate reasons. If someone tries to probate a will that is found to be fake or invalid, they may not be able to get their attorney’s fees covered. For example, in the case of Letitia V. Graham, a woman named Beatrice Newport tried to probate a will that was later found to be a fake and forged. The court ruled that she couldn’t get her attorney’s fees covered because she didn’t act in good faith when offering the will for probate. In some cases where a will was offered for probate and later found to be invalid, the proponent of the will (often a major beneficiary) was not entitled to receive fees for their attorney under Florida law. This was because the proponent was found to have been involved in procuring the invalid will, such as through forgery or exerting undue influence on the person who made the will. On the other hand, if the proponent acted in good faith and without any wrongdoing, they may be entitled to receive fees for their attorney. Before January 1, 2002, the law only allowed attorneys’ fees for contesting a will to be awarded if the last known will of the deceased was involved. Now, anyone who contests a will can apply for attorneys’ fees and costs, but they have to show a good reason for doing so. If the person contesting the will is also named as the personal representative in the will, it’s a good idea to have someone independent as the representative instead. Also, it’s important for the attorney representing the person contesting the will to have a written fee agreement. If they have a contingency fee arrangement, they won’t be able to recover fees if they don’t win the case. Lawyers should be aware that if a person stands to inherit a lot of money from a will and was involved in making the will, they might not get their legal fees paid by the estate if their attempt to make the will official fails. So, lawyers should ask for a big payment upfront or make sure the client will pay the fees no matter what. It’s also a good idea for lawyers to write down all the reasons why the will should be accepted at the very beginning of the case. This way, if things go badly in court, the client can show they really believed the will was legit. When a lawyer wants to get paid for their work on a will contest case, they have to be careful to file the request for payment in the name of their client, not themselves. If they file it in their own name, the client might not get any money. It’s important for the lawyer to keep good records of the time they spent working on the case to have the best chance of getting paid. This is one of the few times in Florida where a losing party can get money for their legal fees, so it’s important for lawyers to follow the rules carefully. If someone is nominated to be in charge of someone’s will, or if they support a will but the person nominated doesn’t do anything, they can ask to be paid for their time and legal fees from the person’s estate, even if the will is not approved. There are other Florida laws that allow lawyers to get paid for helping with wills. This is all based on the Florida statute.

Source: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/the-recovery-of-attorneys-fees-and-costs-for-the-unsuccessful-offer-of-a-will-for-probate/