Can Legal costs be reclaimed for family disputed will

SpanishLady1

Hi everyone. 

My disputed father’s will has now finally been carried out after 3 siblings have incurred a legal bill of £20k. We are 4 siblings of which one sibling who originally was on board with the legal proceedings, then walked away 1/2 way through and as a result has not paid a penny towards these legal fees.  Our solicitor states we cannot deduct £5k as his share of the legal fees before dividing up the estate and indeed this sibling has refused our requests to pay this £5k.  What to do? It seems grossly unfair that when this very minuscule  estate is shared out that this sibling will get £5k more than us! Anyone any ideas/advice or experience of this situation please.

cattie

But if the sibling walked away from the dispute, why should he/she have to pay. Perhaps they realised that fighting legal battles usually proves expensive & decided to walk away. Sometimes legal costs can swallow up practically every penny of a deceased estate.

If the estate is minuscule, why oh why decide on legal action in the first place? I think this is something that you & your 2 siblings will have to chalk down to experience.

[Deleted User]

Who employed the solicitor to fight for the miniscule estate? It's that person(s) who needs to pay the bill.

SpanishLady1

The 4 of us siblings all agreed to defend the will, one of which was the executor. We had no choice but to take legal action. 

SpanishLady1

If we hadn’t taken legal action then the will would not have been carried out/resolved and we would have ended up without a penny. 

Sea_Shell

How "miniscule" was the estate?

SpanishLady1

£90k between 4 siblings. 

Keep_pedalling

Normally legal expenses carried out by the executor or beneficiaries defending a challenge would come out of the residual estate, unless less costs were awarded against the person challenging rage will, so all residual beneficiaries should be effected equally, what were the details of the case?

SpanishLady1

A live in carer challenged the will by refusing to leave the house saying that they were promised that they would be able to remain in the house and had witnesses to testify this. It never got to court as we reached a settlement with the carer just before it reached a court trial and this is how we racked up a £20k legal bill. The sibling that walked away did so because they didn’t believe we would ever reach a settlement. And now we have, the sibling wants all their money without contributing to the £20k legal fees we have incurred through no fault of ours. 

Keep_pedalling

SpanishLady1 said:

A live in carer challenged the will by refusing to leave the house saying that they were promised that they would be able to remain in the house and had witnesses to testify this. It never got to court as we reached a settlement with the carer just before it reached a court trial and this is how we racked up a £20k legal bill. The sibling that walked away did so because they didn’t believe we would ever reach a settlement. And now we have, the sibling wants all their money without contributing to the £20k legal fees we have incurred through no fault of ours. 

Thanks for the explanation, I guess because the one who walked away was not party to the agreement that they are not responsible for the bill, although it’s difficult for me to grasp how an agreement could be made without their consent.

TBagpuss

I think you need to peak to your solicitor and ask why the legal costs are not being paid out of the estate before it is divided, which would be usual.
The estate would then be divided after those costs had been deducted so the net estate would be smaller, and the amount payable to each beneficiary smaller, than if the will had not been challenged.

If the solicitor is saying that the costs cannot be taken from the estate then I think you need to ask them for an explanation as to why - it is possible that the terms of the settlement are relevant - was it something all beneficiaries had to agree?