Trust Litigation

One of the most common reasons to contact a Pennsylvania trust litigation lawyer is because you believe you have a breach of fiduciary duty case. Any litigation or concern related to the administration or creation of a trust could prompt you to hire a trust litigation lawyer in Pennsylvania. As a trust litigation attorney in Pennsylvania can tell you there are a few important components to determine early on if you intend to proceed with a lawsuit.

The most experienced professional fiduciaries, i.e. those who are appointed in the role of trustee will hire knowledgeable lawyers to assist them with this process. This helps to ensure that they minimize their chances of ending up in a lawsuit. Hiring an advisor is an excellent way to protect yourself because you can reach out to a knowledgeable attorney to assist you if and when you had any obstacles in the process of administering the trust.

Furthermore in the event that a beneficiary files a lawsuit against you, you’ll have someone to help protect your interests. Fiduciaries have legal responsibilities known as fiduciary duties. This means they cannot use trust or estate assets for personal gain. Their decisions must be free of self-dealing and conflict.

The elements of a successful breach of fiduciary duty case must show to the judge that there was a breach of a fiduciary relationship that existed and that the breach led to financial damage that the court could rectify in their response to this matter. If you are a trust beneficiary and you believe that the trustee has been involved in a breach of fiduciary duty, you have the right to retain a trust litigation lawyer in PA who will get a court order to force the trustee to complete a full accounting.

In this formal accounting the trustee must show every action taken on behalf of the trust and every expense that was paid. If the trust has been in place for many years, then the trustee is responsible for gathering all of this information across all those years. Likewise, if a judge determines that a breach of fiduciary duty did lead to harm, this means that the judge could surcharge the trustee.

If the trustee is unable to recover the funds on their own, the trustee would then have to turn to their personal funds to repay the trust. There are a number of different other kinds of resolutions for a breach of trust case including trustee removal, getting an order that enjoins the trustee from acting in breach, getting an order from a judge that compels the trustee to carry out specific duties, removing certain assets into the hands of another trustee or reducing the compensation paid to the trustee.

In all of these circumstances, it is essential to have the support of an experienced lawyer at your side. It is very serious to allege that a trustee has violated their fiduciary duty and as a result, you will need to be prepared to have an attorney in your corner to help advise you about these circumstances and tell you more about what you can anticipate. The support of a lawyer is instrumental in assisting you with each aspect of your claim and in minimizing the possible confusion and frustration that you might experience. No trustee is going to respond positively to being accused of breaching their fiduciary duty, which means that you should be knowledgeable about making these allegations and should be fully prepared to protect your own interests.

It is essential to ensure that you understand what it takes to allege breach of fiduciary duty and the possible outcomes that could be associated with a case like this. Do not wait to get help when you find yourself in these circumstances. It’s a good idea to instead have the support of an attorney already in place to make it that much easier for you to take action when necessary.