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Conflict of interest? Any advice much appreciated.
My mother passed recently and we were told by her, that her property would pass to her children after her new husband (step father) passed - or chose to leave ( a life interest trust).
It turns out that in fact the will did not leave a life interest trust even though that is what my mother told us, and step father agreed.
It did in fact leave everything to him (very dubious as we beleive he was responsible for its preparation - but can do nothing about it). It was left down to his honesty that he would leave the property to us which of course he is now not agreeing to.
The solicitor who drafted and executed the will is now acting for said step father and rather than protecting our interests and ensuring the estate is distributed as per her wishes, is proceeding to invalidate the will and ensure that we are cut off.
My sibling is in the process of trying to claim under the inheritance act for what we believed we had been left in the will. I cannot claim this way due to my income and assets.
I am looking to sue the solicitor independently for negligence in regard to the drafting, and execution of the will.
My question is :
Was there a conflict of interest, where the solicitor had a duty to ensure all parties received their entitlement, but they have chosen to act for my step father to ensure the opposite.
More importantly - if I choose to sue them for negligence in the Will drafting, would there be a conflict of interest with them still acting for my step father and protecting themselves?
am not sure they could act in my step father's best interests if we were suing for our share of the estate which is lost, yet they had to advise him accordingly during my sister's inheritance act claim.
Would there be a conflict of interest with my sister's inheritance act claim and my negligence claim?
Thanks for any help
My mother passed recently and we were told by her, that her property would pass to her children after her new husband (step father) passed - or chose to leave ( a life interest trust).
It turns out that in fact the will did not leave a life interest trust even though that is what my mother told us, and step father agreed.
It did in fact leave everything to him (very dubious as we beleive he was responsible for its preparation - but can do nothing about it). It was left down to his honesty that he would leave the property to us which of course he is now not agreeing to.
The solicitor who drafted and executed the will is now acting for said step father and rather than protecting our interests and ensuring the estate is distributed as per her wishes, is proceeding to invalidate the will and ensure that we are cut off.
My sibling is in the process of trying to claim under the inheritance act for what we believed we had been left in the will. I cannot claim this way due to my income and assets.
I am looking to sue the solicitor independently for negligence in regard to the drafting, and execution of the will.
My question is :
Was there a conflict of interest, where the solicitor had a duty to ensure all parties received their entitlement, but they have chosen to act for my step father to ensure the opposite.
More importantly - if I choose to sue them for negligence in the Will drafting, would there be a conflict of interest with them still acting for my step father and protecting themselves?
am not sure they could act in my step father's best interests if we were suing for our share of the estate which is lost, yet they had to advise him accordingly during my sister's inheritance act claim.
Would there be a conflict of interest with my sister's inheritance act claim and my negligence claim?
Thanks for any help
