![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.goodlawfirm.com\/attorney\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Bleakhouse_serial_cover.jpg\")
<\/a>PROBLEM<\/span>:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 One would imagine that the last thing on the mind of someone\u00a0 faced with a recent loss of a family member is a protracted contested estate litigation.\u00a0 And yet,\u00a0stories of capacity and undue influence over someone who signed a will are what\u00a0 great novels have been made of, from the beginnings of history.\u00a0 In his Bleak House<\/em>, Charles Dickens depicts\u00a0a horrific estate litigation stemming from wills written and promises made.\u00a0 For a 100 years, \u201cJarndyce and Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of a suit has, in course of time, become so complicated that no man alive knows what it means\u2026 Innumerable children have been born into the cause; innumerable young people have married into it; innumerable old people have died out of it.\u201c \u00a0At the end there are no assets left, except for the enormous bill for legal fees.<\/p>\nA natural heir, who feels wronged by a deceased family member\u00a0who failed \u00a0to provide for him financially often believes that\u00a0the decedent lacked capacity, had dementia or was unduly influenced by the one person to whom he has decided to leave his entire estate.\u00a0 Such was the case of Mr. Cirnigliaro, who died on January 1, 2016. He executed a will on September 4, 2013 in which he left $10,000 to his son, Peter and the rest to June, his companion of 50 years, who was also designated as Executrix of the Estate. It is now more than 2 years later, and\u00a0on January 16, 2018 the court finally\u00a0makes a decision on a motion for summary judgment<\/a>\u00a0holding that the issue of capacity cannot be resolved because of \u201cquestions of fact\u201d and the case will need to proceed even further.\u00a0 2 years of legal fees paid to at least 2 sets of lawyers, 2 years of hold-ups on collection and distribution of assets\u2026 And now\u2026 it will \u201cdrone on\u201d\u00a0 as both sides will struggle to prove whether Mr. Cirnigliaro actually understood and meant what he was doing in 2013.<\/p>\n SOLUTION<\/span><\/strong>:<\/strong> At the time when he signed his Will in 2013, Mr. Cirnigliaro\u2019s could have had\u00a01 mediation meeting.\u00a0 Just one. The participants would have included Mr. Cirnigliaro, his long time companion, June, his son Peter and other potential beneficiaries.\u00a0 During that mediated meeting Mr. Cirnigliaro, maybe even in the presence of his attorney, doctor or homecare assistant, would have announced to everyone that he has made a will and, in general terms, what his wishes were.\u00a0 The mediator would have facilitated the meeting and helped make the atmosphere bearable, and the parties would have confirmed in writing that this meeting has taken place.\u00a0 One such meeting in 2013 costing under $1,000 would have clarified Mr. Cirnigliaro’s intent, alleviated the hostility among family members and eliminated the prohibitive financial burden of legal fees in 2018.<\/p>\n If you, or someone you know needs help with Wills and Estate Representation or Mediation , please contact us<\/a>\u00a0and we will be glad to help you.<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PROBLEM:\u00a0\u00a0 One would imagine that the last thing on the mind of someone\u00a0 faced with a recent loss of a family member is a protracted contested estate litigation.\u00a0 And yet,\u00a0stories of capacity and undue influence over someone who signed a will are what\u00a0 great novels have been made of, from the beginnings of history.\u00a0 In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" A natural heir, who feels wronged by deceased family member\u2019s failure to provide for him financially often believes that a decedent lacked capacity, had dementia or was unduly influenced by the one person to whom he has decided to leave his estate.\u00a0 Such was the case of Mr. Cirnigliaro, who died on January 1, 2016. He executed a will on September 4, 2013 in which he left $10,000 to his son, Peter and the rest to June, his companion of 50 years, who was also designated as Executrix of the Estate. It is now more than 2 years later, where on January 16, 2018 the court finally made a decision on a motion for summary judgment<\/a> stating that the issue of capacity cannot be resolved because of \u201cquestions of fact\u201d and the case will need to proceed even further.\u00a0 2 years of legal fees paid to at least 2 sets of lawyers, 2 years of a hold-up on collection and distribution of assets\u2026 And now\u2026 it will \u201cdrone on\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0as both sides will struggle to prove whether Mr. Cirnigliaro actually understood and meant what he was doing in 2013.<\/p> SOLUTION:<\/strong>\u00a0 At the time when he signed his Will in 2013, Mr. Cirnigliaro\u2019s could have had one mediation meeting.\u00a0 The meeting participants would have included Mr. Cirnigliaro, his long time companion, June, his son Peter and other potential beneficiaries.\u00a0 During that meeting Mr. Cirnigliaro, maybe even in the presence of his attorney, doctor or homecare assistant, would have announced to everyone that he has made a will and, in general terms, what his wishes were.\u00a0 The mediator could have facilitated the meeting and helped make the atmosphere bearable, and the parties could have confirmed in writing that this meeting has taken place.\u00a0 One such meeting in 2013 costing under $1,000 would have alleviated the hostility among family members and eliminated the prohibitive financial burden of legal fees in 2018.<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,1205],"tags":[1211,1209,254,1207],"class_list":["post-26260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-mediation","category-wills","tag-contested-estate","tag-court","tag-mediation-2","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodlawfirm.com\/attorney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodlawfirm.com\/attorney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodlawfirm.com\/attorney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodlawfirm.com\/attorney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodlawfirm.com\/attorney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26260"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodlawfirm.com\/attorney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26272,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodlawfirm.com\/attorney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26260\/revisions\/26272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodlawfirm.com\/attorney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodlawfirm.com\/attorney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodlawfirm.com\/attorney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>PROBLEM:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 One would imagine that the last thing on the mind of someone who is faced with a recent loss of a family member is a protracted contested estate litigation.\u00a0 And yet, issues of capacity and undue influence of someone who executes a will dominate inheritance and succession from the beginning of time, throughout history and well into our present. In his Bleak House<\/em>, Charles Dickens depicts the horrific litigation of an estate lawsuit for a 100 years, \u201cJarndyce and Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of a suit has, in course of time, become so complicated that no man alive knows what it means\u2026 Innumerable children have been born into the cause; innumerable young people have married into it; innumerable old people have died out of it.\u201c \u00a0At the end there are no assets left, except for the enormous bill for legal fees.<\/p>