Case Four
Recently I took instructions from a lady who had been looking for her father. She had been able to trace the family through Heritage and finally made contact with a man she thought was her father. They corresponded and were going to have a DNA test, however he died suddenly from a heart attack before that was done.
He left a sizable estate to distant family members.
I was able to take out an injunction against the NSW Coroner to prevent the body being destroyed and have a NSW Supreme Court Judge order DNA testing.
This was done and the result was that he was her father.
We contested the Will and the matter was settled favourably to us at Mediation. If the DNA testing had not been done, we would not have been successful
Case three
In this case which was not one of this firm, the applicant in contesting the will did not declare significant assets such as shareholding a large superannuation and substantial amount in the bank, the applicant was receiving Centrelink payments and the judge on the hearing not only found against him but referred the whole matter and his financial situation to Centrelink.
This case was a timely reminder that the parties should be honest and frank in all their dealings with the court in contesting wills as the applicant would now not only have to pay all the costs but have to deal with a Centrelink investigation and possible prosecution for disputing a will.
Case two
This disputed will was a situation where a stepdaughter lived with her natural mother and stepfather though they never married.
From the age of three until she was 15 the stepfather who was the deceased brought her up as his own child but in his will he left the whole of his estate to his natural son who was a professional footballer and had married overseas to a woman who would become very rich on the death of her parents. We bought proceedings to contest the will as the girl was treated unfairly in the will as she was not mentioned.
In contesting the will we were able to achieve a very satisfactory result to the daughter to enable her to attend university in a course of three years including rental accommodation and living expenses from receiving enough resulted in her being able to change her life around significantly.
Case one
This was a will dispute involving a daughter whose mother died and the whole of her estate went by joint tenancy to the father it was a substantial estate and there were five children.
Unfortunately there was very bad blood in the family and the daughter was thrown out of the home, she decided to contest the will so proceedings contesting the will were instituted on a no win no fee basis claiming that the share that passed by joint tenancy to the father should be part of the notational estate of the mother. In the end I was able to achieve a settlement where the daughter received exactly what she would’ve received if the father had died at the same time and the estate was equally divided between the children.
If proceedings contesting the will had not been commenced there was a distinct possibility that she would have been left out of the father’s estate as she and the father did not get on and he was the one that threw her out of the house.