Cases: Probate

Second District, Division 8 Affirms Fee Award to Attorney for Conservatee.      Conservatorships frequently happen to be sad cases, involving sad facts, litigious factions, and fee awards bitterly contested by relatives. This next case is no exception to the rule.      In Conservatorship of Gilly, Case No. B201971 (2d Dist., Div. 8 Mar. 30, 2009) […]

Fourth District, Division 1 Affirms Fees and Sanctions Awarded in Long Running Battle Between Trust Beneficiaries.      Probate proceedings bring out all the nuances of human beings, in what frequently boils down to a struggle over trust or estate assets between disgruntled family members. However, California does authorize awards of attorney’s fees to professionals that

  Second District, Division 6’s Holding Designed to Promote Trust Administration by Trustees.      Probate practitioners, pay attention—we have a recent unpublished case that should be of interest in your area of expertise.      In Kasperbauer v. Fairfield, Case No. B200076 (2d Dist., Div. 6 Jan. 26, 2009) (unpublished), trust beneficiaries obtained orders substituting a

Case One Rejects Adoption of Lodestar Methodology For Probate Cases; Case Two Determines that Fee Request for Successful Defense of Will Contest Must Be First Directed to the Trial Court Rather than the Appellate Tribunal.      Now we have two cases of interest to probate and estate practitioners.      The first case is Conservatorship of

Probate Code sections 17211(b) and 16061.9(b) Are Proper Statutory Predicates For Fee Awards.             Attorney’s fees awards in probate actions must have a statutory basis.  (Estate of Trynan, 49 Cal.3d 868, 874 (1989).  Two bases for awards were at issue in the next case we discuss.             In Matthews

First District, Division One Discusses This Equitable Doctrine.             In our September 16, 2008 post, we discussed Estate of Daley, which summarized the normal compensation principles applicable in probate proceedings.  Usually, the court awards compensation as either “ordinary” or “extraordinary” in categorical nature.  “Extraordinary compensation” includes attorney’s fees that the probate court,

Division One Notes the Difference Between "Ordinary" and "Extraordinary" Compensation From An Estate.             In a case that apparently has generated roundelays of appeals, the First District, Division One did a nice job of distinguishing "ordinary" and "extraordinary" compensation from the probate estate.  The Court of Appeal, in Estate of Daley, Case

Appellate Panel Rejects Beneficiaries’ Challenge Under Probate Code Section 11003 As Inapt.             We would like to welcome probate practitioners to our blog.  This is one of our inaugural posts on the discretion probate courts possess to award extraordinary fees to attorneys.  Given this discretion, we would surmise that few appeals are