Probate actions and family provision claims—costs


Produced in partnership with Adam Draper of Shoosmiths
Practice notes

Probate actions and family provision claims—costs


Produced in partnership with Adam Draper of Shoosmiths

Practice notes
imgtext

STOP PRESS: The Supreme Court has unanimously allowed the I(PFD)A 1975 appeal in Hirachand v Hirachand and excluded from the order in favour of the daughter any sum for the success fee. The Supreme Court found that in determining the appropriate relief to be awarded in a I(PFD)A 1975  claim, a judge cannot include directly or indirectly any allowance for a success fee. See News Analysis: Supreme Court unanimously allows appeal (Hirachand v Hirachand and another). This Practice Note is under review following the Supreme Court decision.

The legal costs position in probate claims is often misunderstood.

This Practice Note looks at:

  1. •

    the costs in probate proceedings relating to the validity of the Will, and

  2. •

    claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (I(PFD)A 1975)

The starting point—the general rule

The most common misconception is that the costs of the litigation will be paid by the estate. This is not correct.

CPR 44.2 applies to probate proceedings and I(PFD)A 1975 claims. Costs follow the event.

An unsuccessful litigant can expect

Powered by Lexis+®
Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Related legal acts:
Key definition:
Probate definition
What does Probate mean?

The process of proving (ie establishing the validity of) a Will by the executor. Once the Will has been proved, the court will issue a grant of representation. The Scottish law equivalent is executry.

Read more

Popular documents

Probate actions—citations

Probate actions—citationsA citation is issued under the seal of the Principal Registry of the Family Division or a district probate registry. It contains the reason for its issue and the interest of the party extracting it (the citor). The citation calls upon the party cited (the citee) to enter an

Intermeddling in an estate

Intermeddling in an estateWhat is intermeddling?An individual who performs certain duties which a personal representative (PR) would perform to administer a deceased’s estate intermeddles in the estate. By performing these duties, the individual holds themselves out to be a PR and is deemed to have

Will successfully challenged due to undue influence following long history of litigation (Rea v Rea)

Private Client analysis: The High Court Chancery Division recently delivered judgment following a five-day contested hearing in a dispute involving the estate of the late Anna Rea who died in 2019. The dispute concerned which of two Wills made by the testatrix, in 1986 and 2015 respectively, should

Trust disputes—asset tracing

Trust disputes—asset tracingIn some circumstances a beneficiary will want to recover a specific asset. Tracing as a remedy will be the preferred option as the claimant seeks to establish a proprietary right to the asset.It is important to make the distinction between tracing the asset that was