Do we act in inheritance disputes? Yes, although until now we have rarely written about them. Perhaps because they involve so many "unpleasant" aspects – in court you see everything, from differing moral views to having to refute claims that the deceased was not really buried or that relatives pulled out his gold teeth, and so on.
This case concerned whether the deceased could really have spent all of his money before his death. He had been seriously ill, so our clients were accused of having appropriated the money or spent it for their own benefit. They were also accused of having exerted psychological and economic pressure on him, so that in difficult circumstances (illness, age, etc.) he took decisions that were against his own interests.
Cases of this kind are complicated by the fact that the person has died and can no longer be questioned. What remains are witnesses and various direct and indirect evidence. In this case we managed to convince the court that, judging by his lifestyle before and after his illness, the person really could have spent such a sum, and we were even able to show by calculation how this could have happened. Of course, most of the evidence was held by third parties, but intensive work on gathering evidence can achieve a great deal.
The doctors treating the person can also give the court very valuable evidence in such cases, but questioning them is not as simple as it might seem. Since we have been handling cases concerning compensation for harm to patients' health for many years, this knowledge also serves us well in inheritance disputes in court.
Cases of this kind call for experience not only in inheritance disputes, but also in real estate and, in some cases, divorce, corporate governance and criminal law (yes, these are needed quite often too).
Because these cases are emotionally very difficult and the parties are linked by family or other close ties, the representative must be the person who helps to "switch off" the emotions and be guided by common sense and logic.
Will-making and the appropriation of money are usually very carefully planned, so tracing the sequence of actions and the gaps in such a "plan" takes more than one sleepless night.
There is one golden piece of advice here: if you help someone "spend" their money or quietly appropriate it, there is a high chance of facing a lawsuit after that person's death. And allocating the burden of proof – who, how, to whom, for what, why, whether they could, whether they really understood – requires the knowledge of a "jeweller-lawyer".
The case was won and the claim was dismissed by the court in its entirety.
