We offer a ‘No Win-No Fee’ policy for Estate Dispute claims
After your obligation-free initial consultation and case assessment, if we consider your proposed claim has reasonable prospects of success and is economically viable to proceed, we will agree to take on your case on a ‘No Win – No Fee’ basis. We will only be paid for our professional fees for the work we have done at the end of your claim only if you win or achieve a successful outcome. A successful outcome is either a settlement or a favourable judgment award.
We do not require you to contribute to the cost of running the claim. You will not have to outlay any fees from your own pocket. We will not request payment of any kind until you have won your case. And if we don’t win, you don’t have to pay us a cent.
If you have any questions about our ‘No Win – No Fee’ policy or if you would just like to speak to someone about your claim please call us on (07) 3288 3511 or submit an Online Enquiry and we will respond to your query as soon as possible.
Want to dispute a Will?
After your obligation-free initial consultation and case assessment, if we consider your proposed claim has reasonable prospects of success and is economically viable to proceed, we will agree to take on your case on a ‘No Win – No Fee’ basis.
Can I contest or challenge a Will?
If you are a:
– spouse, (including de facto partners),
– child (including step and adopted children),
– some financial dependants (parents of the deceased person, the other parent of a child under 18 who is the child of the deceased person, or anyone under 18 who was dependant on the deceased person),
then you can make a claim if you can show that you were not adequately provided for in the Will.
If you have been left out of a Will or feel you have been left without adequate provision, an application can be made to the District or Supreme Court for further provision from the Estate.
The court will take into account all the circumstances of your life, including financial need, your qualifications, earning capacity, health, the size of the estate and the relationship between you and the deceased.
How to contest a Will?
You can contest a Will by either challenging the validity of a Will or contesting the amount of money you have been left under a Will.
Contest the validity of a Will
If you doubt the deceased’s mental capacity at the time the Will was made, consider that the deceased was unduly influenced to leave a gift to a particularly beneficiary, doubt that the deceased understood the effect of the Will, or consider the Will is a forgery or was not witnessed properly, you can challenge the validity of a Will.
To determine the validity of a Will you can make an application to the Supreme Court of Queensland. In these sorts of claims, often medical evidence and the solicitor’s notes surrounding the signing of the Will are required. The Court will then consider if the Will is the true, last valid Will and testament of the deceased, made freely and without influence.
Family Provision Application in Queensland
If you feel as though you have been unfairly left out of a Will or have been left without adequate provision, you can make a Family Provision Claim to the Court. The claim is made against the deceased’s estate for either a share, or a larger share of the estate.
Not everyone can make a family provision application. The following classes of people in Queensland can make an Application to the Court for further provision:
– A spouse of the deceased (including de facto)
– A child/children of the deceased (including stepchildren & adopted children); and
– Financial dependents who were wholly or substantially maintained or supported by the deceased (including grandchildren, parents of the deceased, members of the deceased’s household and the parent of the deceased’s surviving children who are under the age of 18).
Examples of situations which would warrant a Family Provision Application are as followings:
– If you are a child of the deceased and the deceased has left all of his/her estate to your siblings and has left you out of their Will completely or has left you less money than your siblings;
– If you are the widow of the deceased, and the deceased left the entire estate to charity;
– If you were a de facto partner of the deceased and you were not included in the Will or were not left adequate provision in the Will;
– If you were a step-child of the deceased and you were not included in the Will or were left less provision than your siblings.
What if there is no Will? Can I challenge the estate?
Yes you can.
If a person dies without a Will, they are deemed to have died intestate (meaning without a Will).
The estate is then administered/distributed in accordance with the strict intestacy rules in Queensland.
What most people fail to realise is that if a person passes away without a valid Will, their entire estate does not automatically pass onto their spouse. Instead, the Spouse will receive the first $150,000, household chattels and a share in the residual estate depending on the number of children of the deceased.
How long do I have to contest a Will?
If you delay obtaining legal advice you run the risk that estate assets have been sold, transferred or spent, and as a result there could be nothing left in the estate for you to claim against. Therefore to protect your entitlements, we recommend you seek prompt appropriate legal advice if you want to contest or challenge a Will.
Time limits for contesting a Will
Strict time limits apply to these types of claims. A Family Provision Application notice of your intention to apply for further provision from the estate must be given to the Executor of the Estate within six (6) months from the deceased’s date of death.
After six (6) months have passed since the deceased’s death, if the Executor has no notice of a claim, he/she can distribute the estate in accordance with the terms of the Will.
Therefore, although this notice is not fatal to a claim, you run the risk that there are no assets left in the estate to claim against.
Within nine (9) months of the deceased’s date of death you must then file your Application and Supporting Affidavit setting out your claim in the Court and serve it to the Executor/s.
It’s important to distinguish between an Executor and someone who holds Power of Attorney. The Executor has the power to administer an estate of someone who has died, while Power of Attorney empowers someone to make decisions on their behalf while they are alive.
To contest the validity of a Will an application should be made before a Grant of Probate has been issued from the Supreme Court, or if no Grant of Probate has been applied for within six (6) months of the deceased’s date of death.
It can be extremely difficult to progress your claim if a time limit has expired. If you are out of time, you would need to obtain leave of the court to allow you to bring your application. You must have very good reasons to explain your delay.
Be sure to get legal advice as soon as possible.
Time limits in Qld
– Notice should be given within 6 months of date of death to the Executor/s
– 9 months from date of death to file the application
For more information about Family Provision Applications or defending the Estate against such a claim, get in touch with us on (07) 3288 3511 or via our online enquiry form.
Will my claim go to court or do you settle?
It is often possible to settle a matter without the need to go to Court via negotiations. However, if a resolution cannot be achieved, it may be necessary to proceed to Court in order to ensure that you receive a fair distribution from the estate.
As part of the Court process, mediation is usually ordered. The mediation is an opportunity for both sides to present the strengths of their relative cases, and hopefully, reach a settlement. The vast majority of matters settle at mediation. If a resolution cannot be achieved at mediation, the matter will then be listed for trial.
However, it is rare for a matter to proceed all the way to trial as there are further opportunities to resolve the matter along the way via negotiation.
It is our aim to conclude a claim by settlement wherever possible.
However if it is in your best interests to take your matter to trial, the GLG Legal team at Brookwater have the necessary expertise.
In our experience over the past 20 years, very few cases end up in court. Only 1% to 2% of our cases proceed to trial or end up in a court room. This is a very small number which is good for everyone, especially our clients.
Very few Estate Litigation cases go to trial and the vast majority of these matters are capable of early resolution. This is what we aim to achieve as it keeps the legal costs down and maximises your ‘in hand’ outcome.
Regrettably, not all cases settle and we have a significant amount of court room and trial experience. In the highly unlikely event that your case does go to court, we have the skill, experience and expertise to take the matter all the way if necessary.
How long does my claim take to settle & what's it going to cost?
If we advise you that you have reasonable prospects of success and that the claim is economically worthwhile to pursue, we will send you proper written advice and a proposal. Our proposal will set out, in plain English, a realistic estimate of how long we believe your case will take to resolve and the likely cost.
Generally speaking, most claims are able to be resolved within 6 to 18 months from when the claim starts. If the case goes to trial (which is highly unlikely) this can add a further 6 to 12 months to the time estimate.
If your case has to go to court, it will cost more than if it settles at an early stage. The more work which is done results in higher fees; however, we are always doing whatever we can to keep costs as low as possible. All of this is explained in our written advice along with realistic and reliable fee estimates.
Our Fees
Our fee estimates are usually at least 20% lower than our competitors from our past experience.
In our experience 98% to 99% of cases we run are capable of resolution or settle prior to trial.
If my claim is successful how much do I get?
As every claim is different, it is difficult to estimate how much you will receive from the estate until we have your full instructions.
After you have provided our Wills and Estates team with your full instructions, GLG Legal Springfield have the expertise from their experience in estate litigation to provide you with a realistic range of what we think your claim is worth.
In making our assessment, GLG Legal Springfield will consider the following factors:
– The size of the deceased estate;
– The nature of your relationship with the deceased compared with the nature of the other beneficiaries relationship with the deceased;
– Your financial needs compared with the financial needs of the other beneficiaries of the estate;
– Your state of health compared with the state of health of the other beneficiaries of the estate; and
– Any contributions you made to the deceased estate or the deceased made for you during their lifetime.
Will GLG Legal Springfield act on a No Win - No Fee basis?
After we have investigated your claim at no obligation to you, we will then make a decision about whether we would be prepared to act for you on a No Win – No Fee basis. At that time, we will provide you with a proper written advice regarding your prospects of success and whether we are prepared to act for you on a No Win – No Fee basis.
Under our usual terms and conditions, No Win – No Fee simply means that we if take your case on, we will only be paid a reasonable fee for the legal work we have done for you at the end of the claim, and only if you win.
In the highly unlikely event that your claim goes to trial, and in the even more unlikely event that your case goes all the way to trial and you lose, we will not seek to charge you anything for all of the work we have done for you.
If we act for you on a No Win – No Fee basis, we will pay for all of the disbursements or expenses out of our own funds such as expert fees, reports, court filing fees and so on.
In the highly unlikely event that your case goes to court and you lose, while you would not have to pay us anything, it is likely that the court would order you to pay the other side’s legal costs, which could be a substantial sum. However the usual occurrence is for your legal fees to be paid out of the deceased estate, unless you have brought a claim without merit.
What our Clients Say
Cathy Vo represented me back in 2016 and was the most organised, calm, confidant and friendly Solicitor I have met. I love their fixed price conveyancing guarantee.
Nothing was too hard , always a pleasure to deal with, always answered the phone and no fob offs. Hard to beat the service we received!
Most amazing, professional and friendly staff. They handled everything so efficiently and made everything so easy! Explaining everything so I could completely understand!
My wife and I recommend Springfield Legal Service for conveyancing. Jade was fantastic and very knowledgeable.
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