Estate Litigation Lawyers in Melbourne

When an estate fight gets real

You have tried the family meeting. Now the letters between lawyers are getting sharper, the executor has stopped answering, or you are the executor and a sibling has just served you with court documents. Estate litigation is what happens when an inheritance dispute needs a judge’s authority behind the outcome, and it works nothing like an exchange of stern letters.

In Victoria these matters run in the Supreme Court, which holds the probate jurisdiction. That is where wills are proved and set aside, executors are removed, provision claims are decided and trustee disputes are heard. We litigate there, both for claimants and for estates defending claims. If you have just been served, or you are about to serve someone, call 1800 130 120 now. The first call is free and it will change how you handle the next 48 hours.

The claims we run in the Supreme Court

Validity challenges come first: a will signed during dementia, produced under pressure, forged, or witnessed badly. If the will falls, an earlier will revives or the intestacy rules apply. Our wills and estate disputes page covers those grounds in depth, and this is where we run them once they are contested.

Then there are family provision claims that do not settle. Most of them resolve at mediation, and the rest are decided by a judge, with the six-month clock still governing when they have to start. See contesting a will for how a claim begins.

We also run executor and trustee fights, which means orders for accounts, removal of an executor, and personal costs orders against an executor whose conduct caused loss. The usual flashpoints are set out on our executor disputes page. And we act in contested grants, where rival wills, caveats and competing would-be administrators are fought out before any grant issues.

Where the asset everyone is arguing over is land, a caveat lodged against the grant is not the only protection available. Someone with a genuine interest in the title can also lodge a caveat on property, which stops the house being sold out from under the dispute while the estate fight runs. Whether your interest supports one is a question to ask early, not after a contract of sale is signed.

How a matter actually runs

The pattern is consistent. Court documents are filed and served. Both sides put on affidavit evidence, the solicitor’s file and the medical records are subpoenaed where validity is in issue, and the court sends the matter to mediation. Most disputes end there, because by mediation day both sides finally know what the evidence really says. The minority that continue are heard by a judge over two to five days, with judgment to follow.

These matters are decided by the quality of the evidence assembled in the first two months, far more often than by anything that happens in a courtroom. That is why coming to us early is worth more than coming to us angry.

What it costs, and who ends up paying

Litigation costs real money and we will not pretend otherwise. What we can do is scope it, starting on the free first call, with a written assessment of your prospects and a frank map of who is likely to bear the costs: the estate, the other side, or you. The costs rules in estate matters have traps in them, particularly around offers, and rejecting the wrong offer at the wrong time can turn a win into a loss. You will know the risk before each stage, in writing.

Get a litigator’s view, free

Call 1800 130 120 or use the form on this page and press GET FREE ADVICE. Twenty minutes with someone who runs these cases in the Supreme Court’s probate list will tell you more than another month of family speculation.