Practice area
Estate Litigation
Estate litigation involves legal disputes that arise after a person passes away, often concerning wills, trusts, or the management of an estate.
Our firm represents personal representatives and executors as well as heirs and beneficiaries to individual and family estates. We provide clear, steady legal support to help families and beneficiaries resolve complex inheritance conflicts, challenge invalid documents, and protect their rightful assets during difficult times.
We handle contested wills, trust disputes, claims of undue influence, lack of capacity, and breaches of fiduciary duty by trustees. The firm assists clients in petitioning for a court-appointed personal representative to manage the estate assets for all interested parties. Our team works hard to reach a fair settlement outside of court, but we stand ready to protect your rights before a judge when a trial is necessary to achieve justice.
What we handle
Died Without a Will or Trust
When someone dies intestate — without a valid will or trust — Utah law decides who inherits, and the answer often surprises the family. A long-term partner may take nothing. Children from different relationships may take unequally. Someone must be appointed to gather assets, pay debts, and distribute what remains, and that appointment itself is frequently contested. We petition for appointment of a personal representative, contest appointments that should not stand, and resolve the disputes that follow when relatives disagree about who is entitled to what. Where an asset was promised informally during life, we litigate whether that promise is enforceable.
Personal Representative Representation
A personal representative or executor has to marshal assets, deal with creditors, keep beneficiaries informed, and distribute an estate correctly — while people who stand to inherit watch every step. We represent personal representatives through administration and defend them when their conduct is challenged. That includes disputes over asset valuation, the sale of estate property, the handling of a family business, and allegations of delay or partiality. Where beneficiaries cannot agree, we seek court direction so the representative is protected by an order. We also act for those seeking to remove a representative who is not doing the job.
Will Contests & Disputes
A will can be set aside if it was not properly executed, if the person signing lacked testamentary capacity, or if it was procured through undue influence or fraud. We litigate both sides of these claims. The evidence that decides them is usually documentary — the drafting file, medical and pharmacy records, financial movements around the signing, and the circumstances in which witnesses were assembled. We also handle disputes over which of several documents controls, ambiguities in wording that leave beneficiaries at odds, and no-contest clauses that raise the stakes of bringing a challenge at all.
Estate Assets Valuations & Distributions
Even where everyone agrees on who inherits, they rarely agree on what things are worth. A closely held business, farmland, mineral interests, a collection, a property with sentimental weight — each invites competing appraisals, and each valuation moves real money between beneficiaries. We litigate disputed valuations, challenge appraisals that do not withstand examination, and resolve fights over in-kind distribution versus sale. We also handle the practical end of it: partial distributions while a matter is pending, reimbursement between beneficiaries, and the accounting that closes an estate so that it is genuinely finished.
Tell us your story, and we’ll protect your inheritance
Tell us what has happened. We will tell you plainly whether there is something worth pursuing, and what it would take.