Gerard Malouf and Partners were approached by a client who explained that he was a biological child of a Chinese national. During his life in Australia, the deceased acquired a significant amount of wealth exceeding $5 million.
Unfortunately for our client, the deceased had remarried later in his life. He was married for a period of approximately 7 years prior to his death. At the time of his death, the deceased had prepared a will leaving his entire estate to his wife, to the exclusion of all other persons.
Our client contacted our office initially to ask questions on how to contest a NSW will, what the grounds for contesting a will are and whether or not this particular will dispute would be successful.
Mr Garbis Kolokossian of our office, saw this client in conference and provided him with some preliminary advice about contesting the will. Our client, as an adult child who had acquired a significant amount of wealth independently and would not have ordinarily fallen within the category of a “needy” person. With this said, Gerard Malouf and Partners, vigorously pursued this claim on behalf of our client.
The estate was not prepared to negotiate early on and in order to bring the matter to a head, we were forced to put on our evidence and commence proceedings in the Supreme Court of New South Wales
The parties attended a private mediation and were able to successfully resolve the matter on the basis that our client was to receive $800,000.
Our client was over the moon to receive such a fantastic result in the circumstances.
If you are an adult child and have been left out of a will and you would like information about contesting a Will, how to contest a will, or simply want to talk to a contesting wills lawyer, please contact our office and speak to one of our experts.