The best Vancouver Unfair Will Variation Contingency Fee Lawyers help clients involved in unfair wills disputes correct unfair wills, on a contingency fee basis, so they can obtain their fair estate share. A contingency fee basis agreement between a lawyer and client typically means our BC estate litigation lawyers only receive a fee from the successful monies collected from a court action or settlement. The BC estate litigation dispute client in a contingency fee estate litigation dispute pays only disbursements until judgment or settlement. Our Vancouver Unfair Will Variation Contingency Fee Lawyers believe clients who would otherwise be denied justice, have the huge benefit of our top-rated family and estate dispute lawyers helping to level the playing field. Finally, by hiring Vancouver Unfair Will Variation Contingency Fee Lawyers on a contingent-fee arrangement you can be confident our unfair will dispute lawyers believe in your case and that we will do the work necessary to obtain a positive result.
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Vancouver Unfair Will Variation Contingency Fee Lawyers Explain Costs Rules
A recent BC court decision that allowed for a variation of a Will in favour of a wife in a long marriage also dealt with whether beneficiaries should have to pay legal costs personally or whether the money for legal costs of the successful wife would come from the estate itself.
Vancouver Unfair Will Variation Contingency Fee Lawyers 1-877-602-9900
Vancouver Unfair Will Variation Costs Lawyers like the short explanation from the case of Unger v Unger Estate decision:
[65] In Steernberg v. Steernberg, 2007 BCSC 953 at para. 21, Martinson J. provided a helpful statement of the principles governing the issue of costs in estate litigation:
[21] In Vielbig v. Waterland Estate (1995), 121 D.L.R. (4th) 485, 1 B.C.L.R. (3d) 76 (C.A.), the British Columbia Court of Appeal approved the following summary of the law made by Master Horn in Lee v. Lee Estate (1993), 84 B.C.L.R. (2d) 341 (S.C.), with respect to costs in estate actions and actions under the Wills Variation Act:
An order for costs in favour of a completely unsuccessful party against a completely successful party is a most exceptional order. The general rule is that costs follow the event and, while a court may depart from this rule, any departure is usually in the way of depriving a successful party of costs and not of awarding costs to an unsuccessful party. In either case, the usual rule should not be departed from simply because an unsuccessful party did not expect to lose… .
In probate or administration actions or in proceedings for the construction of wills, the rule may be more frequently departed from. In such cases where the validity of a will or the capacity of the testator to make a will or the meaning of a will is in issue, it is sometimes the case that the costs of all parties are ordered to be paid out of the estate. This is upon the principle that where such an issue must be litigated to remove all doubts, then all interested parties must be joined and are entitled to be heard and should not be out of pocket if in the result the litigation does not conclude in their favour. The estate must bear the cost of settling disputes as a cost of administration… . The question to be asked in such case [sic] is whether the parties were forced into litigation by the conduct of the testator or the conduct of the main beneficiaries.
But the case is different where the litigation does not relate to the validity of the will or the capacity of the testator or the construction of the will. Actions brought under dependants’ relief legislation presume the validity of the will and the capacity of the testator and that his intentions are clear. There are not doubts to be settled. The remedies provided by such legislation are directed to the maintenance and support of the dependants of the testator and are based on public policy. The legislation does not invalidate the will, it merely permits the court to vary the provisions made by the testator. So an unsuccessful action under such legislation cannot be said to have been caused by a testator, or to have been necessary to enable the estate to be distributed. The action does not benefit the estate.
Costs From Estate When Beneficiaries Innocent
[66] The rule in Steernberg – that beneficiaries acting in their personal capacity in wills variation actions will be personally liable for costs – is often applied by BC courts: see e.g., Doucette v. McInnes, 2012 BCCA 235 at para. 28. However, the court has discretion not to follow the general rule and has departed from it on several occasions, notably where beneficiaries have been drawn into the dispute because of the testator’s conduct and failure to make adequate provisions: see e.g., Todd v. MacDonald Estate, 2009 BCSC 537 at para. 6; Griese v. Syvret, 2013 BCSC 1601 at para. 80.
[67] In my view, the situation in this case warrants a departure from the general rule. The testator’s decision to provide nothing through the Will to his spouse of 34 years made a claim for variation very likely, if not inescapable. Further, although the family law claim is distinct from the current wills variation action, they are strongly connected. They concern the same property and address the same public policy issue, namely the maintenance and support of the spouse. As a result of this connection, I am persuaded that it is appropriate for the Court to exercise its discretion. I therefore conclude that the costs of legal fees to convey one-half of the Matrimonial Home, for probate, and to prove the Will in solemn form should be paid out of the estate upon the passing of accounts by the executrix.
[68] The family law action was resolved and a consent dismissal order entered on January 23, 2017, which dismissed the action without costs to any party. It is not clear on what basis the executrix is seeking to have actual legal fees incurred in dealing with the family law action paid for out of the estate in light of that consent order. I am not persuaded, based on the limited submissions and case law cited, that the legal costs should be paid out of the estate. However, I am going to provide leave to the parties to make further written submissions in respect to these legal expenses.
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