Posted: Wednesday, 25 June 2025 @ 07:58
Obtain
as Much Key Evidence As You Can and Seek
Present It Compellingly - The nature of
being in an inheritance dispute is there can be a lot of information
which is not
within your current knowledge. This can include evidence of the
Deceased such as
bank statements, medical records and other financial information.
A key skill
which can make a significant difference
to long term outcomes is the ability to obtain useful (possibly pivotal)
evidence which you should be able to do at low cost. The more the beneficiary
does this prior to instructing the lawyer the better the outcome. Mastery of evidence and an ability to present this in a compelling
and interesting
way is a skill which can not only save time and cost in helping your
lawyer be
informed but also can influence the other side and a Judge.
Keep Emotions
In Check - The nature of
inheritance disputes often contains family history, and this makes it
easy to make
overly emotional decisions in dealing with your inheritance
problem. This
can lead to poor judgment calls and making rash decisions which
can hurt you
later such as making a judge unimpressed with your conduct. How
you (and your
solicitor) behave can be a critical component of how successful you
will be if the
matter goes to Court. Generally, in the face of provocation it will
serve your
interests to be calmer and it help you and your lawyer make better.
Narrow The
Issues -.
From experience
we find on elderly fraud case we find a lot of information emerges and
sometimes a number of issues emerge. Despite the client pressure to argue
points what your objective is to narrow the issues of dispute and not expand
them. This helps you keep control of the case.
On elderly fraud
cases what I am always trying to do is to identify the core issues (typically
no more than five or six.
Make
Thoughtful Open Offers
One of the most
important skills a solicitor can make is to make tactical offers
which may go
before the Court. Traditionally lawyers like to make solely Without
Prejudice offers
which are not seen by the Judge until after the main issue is
determined at Court. I am a firm believer that
where you are dealing with an
inheritance
dispute you should try to put as much as pressure as possible on the
opponents by
making offers to resolve your inheritance case which you want the
Judge to see if
the matter goes to Court.(e.g. highlighting your reasonable
approach). For
an example, even on fraud cases you should be seeking to explore mechanisms to
narrow issues. Such an approach can lead to costs awards
being awarded in
your favour and protecting your client financially.
Select
Negotiation and Legal Methods Carefully
As we have
demonstrated when you have inheritance problems
there are often
in fact a number of legal and tactical options which you can use.
Sometimes errors
can be made about which is the best method to select. It can
be very tempting
to jump in to what on the surface looks an appealing option
when in fact
what you should do is take a different course. The key step which will
enable you to
make a better decision is doing the Evaluation process thoroughly
and then trying
to work out what legal and negotiation step is going to get you
where you want
to be given your situation. That requires good background
knowledge of
legal and negotiation steps within this arena and an open mind.