Estate litigation
Disputes over wills, estates and trusts are often stressful and time-consuming. We provide our clients with straightforward and timely legal guidance to try to resolve their disputes in the most efficient, cost-effective and amicable way.
Where formal litigation is the only alternative to negotiation, mediation or arbitration, we fight passionately for our clients. Our team has represented clients in all levels of courts in Alberta, and elsewhere in Canada.
If you have a disagreement over an inheritance, the validity of a will, the administration of an estate or any other estate-related matter, our team has the knowledge and experience to help you.
Who we work with
We advise:
- Beneficiaries
- Estates
- Executors
- Trustees
- Guardians
- Financial advisers
What we do
We provide advice and representation on various wills, estates and trusts matters including:
- Claims regarding the interpretation of wills and trusts
- Disputes regarding the validity of wills, trusts or powers of attorney based on capacity concerns, undue influence or suspicious circumstances
- Appointment, removal or replacement of executors, trustees, guardians and attorneys
- Claims against executors or personal representatives who do not or cannot fulfill their obligations, have mismanaged or misappropriated estate assets, or have acted negligently or unfairly in administering the estate
- Disputes regarding compensation of trustees, personal representatives and administrators
- Claims regarding the transfer of assets during a person's lifetime
- Claims by adult independent partners
- Proceedings to recover losses resulting from a breach of trust or breach of fiduciary duty
- Challenges regarding assets improperly included in the estate
- Misappropriation of estate, trust or elder assets by family members or others
- Settling estate disputes in a tax effective manner
- Advising on applications to pass accounts
What our clients say
"The team works together very well. They build on each other's strengths to provide the best path forward for resolving disputes." – Legal 500 Canada 2021
Representative work
Multi Jurisdictional Estate Challenges
Assisted an Estate facing challenges to a Will that did not provide for the Deceased's adult children or his ex-partner, from whom he had been separated for decades, but from whom he never divorced. The challenges to the Will were brought in both British Columbia – which is a more lenient jurisdiction with regards to equitable claims against an Estate – and Alberta. Representation included bringing a jurisdictional challenge to the B.C. claims and negotiating all remaining challenges.
Complex Disputes Between Estate Co Representatives
Represented one of two personal representatives who were also the sole 50/50 beneficiaries of a high-value Estate. Amicable decision-making had broken down between the personal representatives, with concerns that the other personal representative was acting in their own self-interest. BD&P was able to work to end all disputes between the personal representatives so that the Estate could be distributed and wound up.
Protecting a Common Law Spouse's Interest in an Intestate Estate
Represented a common-law spouse with respect to her late partner's intestate Estate. The Deceased had many children from prior relationships in whose lives he had never been involved, some of which came forward to claim against the Estate.
Charitable Beneficiaries Validity Challenge
Represented the charity beneficiaries of a Trust. The Trust was established days before the Grantor entered hospice care for terminal cancer. The Deceased's 21-year-old daughter challenged the Trust as a sham established by her mother to avoid the claims the daughter would have to the assets upon her death.
Practice Team
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