Probate, estate and trust litigation in Los Angeles is very time intensive.  You may have heard the old saying that all a lawyer has to sell is his time. So what do you do if you’re fighting for your beneficiary rights and you don’t have the money to hire an experienced, battle-proven attorney? That’s where contingency fee arrangements can make all the difference between remaining with nothing and recovering your rightful share of trust assets or estate property. Hackard Law represents LA-area heirs and beneficiaries who need a fighting chance to contest disinheritance or a proposed estate or trust distribution. I regularly meet with clients who want to hire our expertise but cannot afford to pay hourly fees. That’s why most of th[...]

What can you do if someone's hijacked your family's estate or trust assets? Perhaps a wrongdoer lied, cheated or stole their way to taking over the family home. Maybe it was a stepmother, a sibling or perhaps even a next-door neighbor. The damage caused to families by lies, deception and betrayal is often impossible to quantify in purely financial terms. How do you calculate the pain a wrongdoer inflicts by isolating a sick or dying elderly loved one from other relatives - and all in order to gain some monetary advantage? Many times the rightful heirs or beneficiaries of an estate or trust are tempted to simply "move on" and accept they've been effectively robbed out of their rightful inheritance. Letting the wrongdoer get away with what t[...]

We want the professionals serving us to aspire to and act consistent with the highest ethics and standards of their profession. Doctors should “first do no harm,” lawyers need to be honest with their clients, themselves, courts and juries, and trustees who manage trust assets must be honest and loyal in their administration. When trustees are not honest and loyal in administering a trust, they can be held liable to the trust for breaching their fiduciary obligations to the trust. California probate courts regularly address such fiduciary breaches in accounting and removal petitions brought by aggrieved beneficiaries against sitting trustees. So what are some examples of fiduciary breaches? Trustee self-dealing; preparing false documen[...]

Trust and probate litigation on behalf of abused beneficiaries and wholly or partially disinherited heirs in Los Angeles against wrongdoing trustees and perpetrators of elder financial abuse is often handled by way of attorney-client contingency fee arrangements. Such fees are not set by law and are negotiable between attorney and client prior to signing the agreement. The economics of contingency fee considerations underlie the decision to propose or accept a contingency fee. Each party will assess the viability of a contingency fee at the time the agreement is entered into. Here’s the deal: there is a contingent risk factor – the case may not succeed, and in that event, neither the attorney nor client will get anything. At Hackard L[...]

A Los Angeles relative, caretaker or trustee must never financially endanger a Will or Trust maker or the maker’s heirs or beneficiaries. An Executor or Trustee must prevent, remedy or guard against conditions that financially endanger a Will or Trust maker. California Trust, Estate and Probate Rules are enforced in our state’s Superior Courts – including the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Such rules are designed to provide an orderly and safe process for inheritance by heirs and beneficiaries from the makers of Wills and Trusts. Some of these rules address the incapacity of the Will or Trust maker and other rules address coercive elder financial abuse. Such prohibited acts consist of the use of excessive persuasion upon a vulner[...]