Last week’s post on this blog discussed in general the various legal reasons that families or other interested parties may have for challenging a will. Legal reasons aside, there are also emotional reasons that family members engage in will contests, even when doing so involves suing one’s own relatives.
For instance, many will contests are in reality just the latest battle in an ongoing family war that may go back to something that happened years or even decades ago. For this reason, Minnesota families might not be willing or even able to make litigation decisions based on financial common sense.
Although our attorneys always respect our client’s decisions, we pride ourselves on helping our clients see the possible costs of challenging a will. For instance, we discuss with our clients how much taking a case to trial will cost a person and compare this cost to what it would cost to work out a negotiated settlement early in the dispute. Moreover, we also will point out the emotional toll that various legal options might take on our client, particularly with respect to our client’s ongoing relationship with his or her family.
While we do help our clients carefully evaluate all of their legal options and the costs and benefits of both taking a case to trial and negotiating a settlement, Saint Paul residents rest assured that once our client makes his or her decision, we pursue that decision wholeheartedly. This means that we zealously represent our clients at trial and during pre-trial preparation.