Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

The typical case to compel a trustee to do what he or she is supposed to do is to file a petition with the probate court for an appropriate order. This is not a form you can file with the court; you must draft the petition, observe all the procedural rules, and (if the trustee disputes the claim), essentially have a trial on the issue.

The probate attorney is usually quite the stickler in making sure all formalities are complied with; in a trust matter that I just settled, opposing counsel had to modify his petition several times over the course of 4-5 months before the court would allow him to proceed to the merits. My client and I simply waited, collected our evidence, and started our discovery plan while the other side tried to comply.

I respectfully disagree with your description of the payment terms of limited scope representation.. I know of virtually no attorney who will do any significant amount of limited representation work without at least partial payment up front from a new client. In disputed litigation matters, my experience is that clients (a) overestimate their chances of success; (b) underestimate the time it will take them to accomplish a particular task. It does, however, work in some situations quite well.

I hope you find this helpful.

I agree with Mr. Perry and would like to point out several items.

1. This is not the "find an attorney" portion of the website. This portion is for people to anonymously ask important legal questions and get a variety of answers, opinions, and pointers from attorneys who specialize in a particular area.

2. Attorneys are required by law to have written fee agreements with a client when it appears that the costs and fees to the client will exceed $1,000.00. Attorneys call those "retainer" agreements. It appears that you do not want to pay an advance fee, but when you state that you do not want a retainer with an attorney, you are making it sound as though you are asking the attorney to do everything without a written agreement. This isn't helping you much.