Estate Litigation

Estate Litigation

Mr. McBride and McBride Law Offices, P.C. regularly files lawsuits and negotiates for those who have been victimized by trustees, executors, administrators or caretakers. These legal matters arise after a fiduciary (often a trustee or someone controlling an estate) illegally takes money or assets from a trust or estate through fraud or undue influence.

These illegal schemes take on many forms. If you are a beneficiary of a trust, Mr. McBride holds trustees to account, insuring they act with the highest duty of good faith and loyalty. If the trustee has breached his/her fiduciary duty and not acted in good faith, the trustee may be liable for damages, including any trust assets he/she wrongfully took from the trust.

If you are an heir or listed as a beneficiary of a Will, others may take advantage of a close relationship and succeed in having a Will changed through illegal means. Often times, the person who is being taken advantage of is ill, weak, and/or may lack the mental capacity to legally make the change to the Will or Trust.

Due to the short time frames for filing a Will Contest, a Trust Contest, or for breach of a trust, you should contact a lawyer at the earliest moment to address these legal issues.

Update: On July 6, 2018, Mr. McBride persuaded a Cook County Judge to recognize the “fiduciary duty exception” to attorney client privilege. This is the first time the exception has been applied in Illinois. Relying on U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Mr. McBride argued the Supreme Court of Illinois will adopt the exception when presented with the issue. The Cook County Judge agreed, and ordered a trustee to turn over documents to the Court for review, while overruling the trustee’s attorney client privilege objections for the moment. Mr. McBride is very pleased with the development and believes application of the fiduciary duty exception will prevent unscrupulous trustees from hiding fraud through assertion of attorney client privilege.