Posted: Friday, 16 February 2024 @ 13:23
We reference this within our Guide To Resolving Inheritance Disputes but the most important step to solving your case is going through an Evaluation process.
This is much harder than you think for disputing parties to do due to the emotional nature of inheritance disputes.
This difficulty is compounded by the fact that parties often have limited information and it is very easy to misinterpret what is going on.
Thus a series of questions for you to ask in any inheritance dispute include:
- What evidence is there something untoward has happened?
- To what extent are my views of this matter clouded by my emotions?
- Am I taking a fair stance in making steps to resolve this problem?
- How does any evidence stack up?
- Is there missing evidence I need to have a full picture?
- What are my legal and negotiation options?
- What are the costs/ benefits of the different options I can take?
- How the other side going to react what is going on?
- What is the emotional cost of going through a legal process?
- What is the emotional cost of doing nothing?
Some additional questions for your lawyer to consider include(which should be done as part of an initial case assessment) include:
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the case?
- What is the likely outcome of this case?
- How long will a Court case take?
- How will a judge see this if this did go to Court?
- Is the there key information we are missing?
- How much is a contested case going to cost the client?
- How much money is at stake?
- What is the outcome if the client is passive and does nothing?
- Is legal action likely to give the client satisfaction?
- Can this case be negotiated?
Once both you and your lawyer have gone through this Evaluation process you are in a much stronger position to decide and you should never stop going through this process during the case. It should be re-visited time and time again.