Estate / Trust Litigation and Will Contests

Worrell, Durrett, Jaynes & Gavrell, P.C. has developed a specialized practice in trust and estate litigation and will contests. This area of litigation presents unique challenges, often involving misrepresentation, theft, concealment, failures to act, incompetency of a party to a will or trust, and competing accusations of family members under strained circumstances and strong emotions.

WDJG attorneys have experience prosecuting large estate cases, and have demonstrated their qualifications in representing fiduciaries and beneficiaries in trust and estate disputes, both in their defense and and in prosecuting claims against them as fiduciares by beneficiaries and family members. Our attorneys have litigated numerous claims related to the validity of estate transfers, including claims where there have been concerns with proper execution of documents, testamentary capacity, undue influence, fraud, mistake, attorney's conflicts of interests, prohibited transfers, and forgery. The firm has experience in:

• • Will and trust contests
  • Defense and prosecution of breaches of fiduciary duty, such as asset mismanagement claims and trust allocation disputes
  • Undue Influence / Lack of Testamentary Capacity claims
  • Actions to remove fiduciaries
  • Forgery / Void deeds

Controlling litigation costs in Estate cases is a necessity. Consideration must be give to the costs of litigating claims in light of the size of the estate and the alternatives available for resolution of disputes. Consideration must also be given to whether the estate or other parties will be responsible for paying the costs our clients incur in these cases. We address how to preserve and protect fiduciaries' ability to have a trust or probate estate pay their legal expenses or, when representing beneficiaries, preventing the estate's fiduciaries from depleting the assets of the estate by incurring excessive attorney's fees.

View our Representative Cases section for more information on the firm's work in this area, and contact us to set up a time to meet with you and evaluate your potential claim(s).