Estates Mediation

Mediation is an important vehicle for assisting people to settle their disputes outside of court. A mediation can be held at any time in the litigation proceedings and to help resolve disputes and less expensively. Estate planning is increasingly complex and there are many instances where a plan does not address currently accepted societal norms or evolving family dynamics.

Quite often, estates-related disputes are overshadowed by generations of family strife or outright rifts. Parties’ positions are often entrenched and result in intransigence. In these cases, legal costs can escalate dramatically and should be a primary concern of all parties. It may surprise some people to learn that the legal costs of estates disputes are no longer covered by the estate and rather, costs are awarded according to the ‘loser pays’ principle of litigation.

Similarly, where one family member is running their parents’ finances or care, either as a Guardian or Attorney, family rifts can also lead to distrust and eventually litigation over how things are being run or whether the family member is abusing their power or the bank accounts.

Mediation of some or all of these issues can be very helpful and can start the process to untying what can be a Gordian knot of grievances. Even in less contentious cases, early mediation can settle many or all of the issues at a much-reduced cost, both financially and personally, to the parties.