Large and Complex Estates in Fort Worth

An estate is hard to litigate because of what it holds, not just how much it is worth. The difficult cases involve assets that can’t sit still while the family argues: an operating business, mineral interests, rental property, a trust running alongside the probate, or several beneficiaries who each have their own lawyer.

In those cases the schedule can do as much damage as the dispute itself. The Tarrant County rules below are the ones that most affect that schedule.

Why size makes a case harder

A small contested estate usually has one question and two sides. A large one has several questions moving at different speeds, and the slowest one sets the pace. You can be right about the will and still lose a year because a business valuation wasn’t finished before trial.

• More parties. Each beneficiary with a lawyer adds another schedule and another person entitled to be heard before a date is set.
• Assets with their own problems. Closely held businesses, real estate and trust assets don’t wait for the will contest to be resolved.
• Expert work takes time. Valuations and forensic accounting can’t be rushed, and the court isn’t required to wait for them.
• Partial settlements. Large estates often settle in pieces, leaving a smaller case that still has the original trial setting.
• Two probate courts. Tarrant County has two statutory probate courts, and in a complex case you may appear in both.

Parker, Wise, Johnson and Hood counties don’t have a statutory probate court, so a contested estate there is heard by a county court at law or the district court.

Either judge can hear your matter

Government Code Section 25.2224(e) allows the judges of the Tarrant County probate courts to sit and act for each other in probate matters. When several applications in a large estate need hearings at once, that can make a hearing available sooner. It also means you should be ready on short notice, because the judge who hears your matter may not be the one assigned to the case.

Tex. Gov’t Code § 25.2224(e).

You get one backup trial setting

Under the Tarrant County probate courts’ local rules, a lawyer can ask for one, and only one, additional setting as a second setting. It is reached only if the case set first that week can’t go forward.

In a large estate this rule matters. Use the second setting on a week your experts, out-of-state beneficiaries and appraisers can all attend, because you won’t get another one.

Tarrant County probate courts’ local rules, Rule 2.03(b).

Is the fight worth it?

Not every large estate should be litigated, and the size of the estate isn’t the size of the dispute. What matters is the amount actually in dispute compared with the cost of experts, depositions and a trial. We take cases where the amount in dispute justifies that cost. If yours doesn’t, we can usually tell you on the first call.

Work we don’t take

We handle contested cases: will contests, removal of executors and administrators, breach of fiduciary duty, contested heirship, dependent administrations, inherited property disputes and trust litigation. We don’t prepare wills, set up trusts, or handle uncontested administrations. If a large estate has no dispute in it, it needs an administration lawyer and a good accountant.