Estate Litigation
When an estate cannot be settled by agreement.
Will contests, trust disputes, and executors who will not account for what they have done. We represent the people bringing these claims and the fiduciaries defending them.
Where these start
Almost nobody plans to end up here.
Estate disputes usually begin with something small and specific. A will that turns up different from the one everybody had been told about. A sibling who moved in during the last year and now holds power of attorney. An executor who stops returning calls. An account that was worth one number a year ago and a much smaller number now, with no explanation.
What makes these matters hard is rarely the law. It is that the people on the other side are your family, the person who could settle it is the person who died, and the grief has not finished doing its work yet. That is worth saying plainly, because it shapes what a sensible next step looks like.
So the first conversation is not about filing anything. It is about what happened, what you actually want out of it, and whether there is a way to get there that does not require a courtroom. Frequently there is.
What we handle
Contested estate and trust matters
Will contests
Challenging a will, or defending one, on grounds like undue influence, lack of capacity, improper execution, or fraud. Often the question is whether a document signed late in life reflects what the person actually wanted, or what somebody near them wanted.
Trust disputes
Disagreements over what a trust says, how it is being administered, whether a beneficiary is being paid what they are owed, and whether amendments made late in life are valid.
Executor and trustee misconduct
A fiduciary is required to act for the beneficiaries rather than for themselves. When one is self-dealing, spending estate money on themselves, ignoring the terms, or refusing to communicate, that is a breach and there are remedies for it.
Accountings and removal
If you are a beneficiary and you cannot get a straight answer about what the estate holds or where it went, you can compel a formal accounting. Where the conduct warrants it, a personal representative or trustee can be removed.
Heir property and land disputes
Family land held in common after generations without probate, where the owners disagree about selling, using, or dividing it, and someone has filed to force the question.
Defending fiduciaries
The other side of the same work. If you are the executor or trustee and you are being accused of something, you are entitled to a defense, and being sued does not mean you did anything wrong.
The part that is genuinely urgent
Deadlines here are short, and they do not bend.
Most of estate work rewards patience. This part does not. Alabama sets specific windows for contesting a will, and they depend on where the estate already is in the process. They are measured in months, not years.
A claim can be perfectly good on the facts and still be over because of the calendar. If something about an estate is bothering you, the cost of asking early is one phone call, and the cost of asking late can be the whole matter.
Common questions
The things people actually ask
I do not want to sue my family.
Most people do not, and that instinct is usually right. The large majority of estate disputes should be worked out rather than tried, and a first conversation is often about whether a letter, a formal accounting request, or a mediated conversation can get you what you need. Litigation is what is left when the other side will not engage or the conduct is serious enough that a court has to decide. We will tell you honestly which one your situation looks like.
How do I know whether I even have a case?
You often do not, at first, and that is a normal place to start from. Being unhappy with what a will says is not by itself a case. Being disinherited in a document signed weeks before death, by someone who was dependent on the person who benefited, is a different situation. The facts that matter are usually about timing, capacity, and who was in the room. Bring what you have and we will tell you what it looks like.
Is it too late?
Maybe not, but this is the question to move quickly on. Alabama sets deadlines for contesting a will, and they are short and strict, and they vary with where the estate is in the process. A claim that was strong last month can be gone this month purely on timing. If you are wondering whether it is too late, call before you finish wondering.
The executor will not tell me anything. Is that allowed?
Generally no. A personal representative owes duties to the people who inherit, and that ordinarily includes keeping them reasonably informed and accounting for what they have done with the estate's property. Silence is one of the most common reasons people call us, and it is frequently the first sign of something else.
What does litigation cost?
It does not work like the flat fees we quote for planning, because neither side controls how long a contested matter runs. We will talk through the likely shape of the cost, and what the realistic range of outcomes is worth, before you commit to anything. Part of that conversation is being honest about when a dispute is not worth what it would cost to win.
Tell us what happened.
Fifteen minutes, no charge. If this should not be litigated, we will say so.