A resource for lawyers and the public in Massachusetts and New Hampshire for information on will contests, trust disputes, guardianships, conservatorships, elder exploitation, fiduciary duty claims, and other probate litigation disputes.
Counsel, please send us your court orders and pleadings of potential interest to the bar. We will link any posting to your website and give you full credit. Please tell us how we can improve this site to better serve you, other lawyers, and the public.
In a case briefed and argued by Alexandra Cote of our office, the NH Supreme Court confirmed the jurisdiction of the Probate Court over real estate titled in the name of a decedent at the time of death, even though the law provides that title passes to heirs or legatees upon death by operation of […]
This Order is offered as a sample for educational purposes only. References to law and rules may not be current or accurate. Counsel must evaluate whether the Order has utility in a given case. (Note: Ralph Holmes is currently retired from McLane Middleton. For information on this or other probate litigation issues, please contact […]
In Tarnawa v. Goode, the NH Supreme Court (Hicks, J.) affirmed that the Superior Court has concurrent jurisdiction with the Probate Court to partition real estate, even though the owners previously inherited it in a NH probate proceeding. Congratulations to Joshua Gordon who represented the prevailing party. The decision is in accord with the general […]
This order is offered for educational purposes only. References to law and rules may not be current or accurate. Counsel must evaluate whether the order has utility in a given case. (Note: Ralph Holmes is currently retired from McLane Middleton. For information on this or other probate litigation issues, please contact Alexandra Cote at […]
In a careful and thorough consideration of the evidence, the NH Trust Docket ruled that NH does not have jurisdiction to probate the estate of John Chakalos and consequently the pending “slayer rule” action against his grandson Nathan Carman must be dismissed. The decision is a major victory for Nathan and his legal team as […]
This order is offered for educational purposes only. References to law and rules may not be current or accurate. Counsel must evaluate whether the order has utility in a given case. (Note: Ralph Holmes is currently retired from McLane Middleton. For information on this or other probate litigation issues, please contact Alexandra Cote at alexandra.cote@mclane.com.) […]
Forum selection is an important decision in fiduciary litigation. For New Hampshire cases, we prefer the Probate Court over the Superior Court because Probate Court judges daily consider fiduciary principles, law, and practice issues. In some cases, such as a dispute over an administrator’s account, the Probate Court has exclusive jurisdiction. In other cases, the […]
This order is offered for educational purposes only. References to law and rules may not be current or accurate. Counsel must evaluate whether the order has utility in a given case. Download
I recently published an article about Estate of Kathleen Mullin, a New Hampshire Supreme Court decision in a case Ralph Holmes and I argued, which expresses some important law on the jurisdiction on trust administration. It was a published web extra for the New Hampshire Bar News. To read the full article, click here.
