Our client’s father was a very strict and abusive man. As our client was growing up our client was beaten and belittled by his father and was not allowed to attend social engagements. Despite these difficulties our client contributed money to his father’s farm and attempted to remain in contact with his father. After our client’s mother passed away his father got remarried and began distancing himself from his children. Our client’s father transferred his property to his second wife, and thus left very little property to be divided amongst his children. Our client contact Gerard Malouf and Partners to see if there was something he could do. GMP commenced a contesting will litigation and were able to secure provision from his abusive father’s estate.
Our client’s health had suffered as a result of his strenuous relationship with his father. He suffered from both physical and mental health problems. Our client was also in poor financial standing. He was unemployed and financially dependent on his wife.
Our client was keen to settle his matter out of court to save time and money. However, the executors of the estate were not responsive to our offers and we filed a Summons in the Supreme Court on behalf of our client in order to commence a contesting a will claim against the estate.
We were able to ensure that our client’s claim was thoroughly documented with evidence of his attempts to maintain a relationship with his father as well as his current personal circumstances.
As a result our client was in a very good standing and at mediation. Our client was to resolve his will dispute claim for $90,000. This offer was much higher than our client had originally anticipated as the estate was relatively small.