Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

can I recover legal fees in a will contest that I won


Asked on 2/22/12, 11:43 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

We do not have a "loser pays" system in America. Each party bears their own legal costs and legal fees are not generally recoverable by the prevailing party unless they are provided for in a contract or by statute

Since it is a will contest, I am assuming that you are either a beneficiary or an executor. To the exent that the beneficiaries have caused a loss to the estate, maybe an argument could be made for reimbursing the estate, but legal fees are administrative expenses and come off the top anyway, so this just means that the beneficiaries get less money. I suppose the beneficiaries who did not join in the caveat may have a gripe about paying for legal costs but that is the way it is provided that the executor had a good faith basis for upholding the will.

If you are the beneficiary and were successful, I don't think you can recover anything unless there would be some kind of fraud or bad faith that you could show on the part of an executor in propounding an invalid will. If there may be a question about that, then talk to your probate litigation attorney. I assume that you have one and I am not sure why you are not directing this question to your attorney.

Read more
Answered on 2/22/12, 1:53 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Probate, Trusts, Wills & Estates questions and answers in Pennsylvania