Santa Clara Trust Litigation | Contingency Fees

Santa Clara Trust Litigation | Contingency Fees

• June 28, 2018 - Trust Litigation,

Santa Clara County is rich in people, talent and wealth. It is home to Apple, Intel and Google. It is also a place of astonishing residential values. Santa Clara’s skyrocketing real estate prices are shattering long held expectations of retiring in place. They also affect how trust and estate disputes arise and are handled.

A large percentage of estate and trust disputes revolve around the family home. There are many examples:

• A caretaker convinces an elderly homeowner with dementia to deed over the elder’s residence shortly before the resident’s death;
• A child living in the home of his parent uses undue influence to have his parent amend her trust to cut out his three siblings as beneficiaries of the trust;
• And a mercenary neighbor convinces an elder with Alzheimer’s to sell the family home to her at one-quarter of its value.

These examples mirror actual wrongs that Hackard Law regularly litigates. Wronged beneficiaries often lack funds to challenge the wrongdoing.

Hackard Law may provide contingency fee arrangements in estate, trust and elder financial abuse cases that are economically viable and meet the requirements of California law.

Costs are an important part of such an arrangement. Fee agreements can be negotiated. Contingency fee percentages will generally apply to any award, verdict, judgment or compromise. All contingency fee agreements must be in writing and conform to California’s statutory and ethical disclosures. Not all cases are won and past success is not necessarily indicative of future success.

Hackard Law regularly litigates estate and trust house fights on a contingency fee basis. If this interests you, give us a call at 916 313-3030. We litigate in Santa Clara and most Bay Area counties, and we’ll be glad to see how we can help you.