Proving Breach of Fiduciary Duty

A Philadelphia proving breach of fiduciary duty lawyer will assist you with gathering the necessary evidence to illustrate that someone else is accountable for the injuries you have sustained. A proving a breach of fiduciary duty attorney in Philadelphia should have ample experience in representing clients just like you in similar allegations. The burden of proof is on you to illustrate that someone breached his or her fiduciary duty and it can be extremely challenging to determine the necessary evidence to prove a breach of fiduciary duty.

When you accuse someone else of breaking the law and failing to live up to the duty they must have to those affected by the estate, this is a big allegation. You should already have some evidence that wrongdoing has occurred before you even make this claim in court. The stronger your evidence, the easier it will be to show that someone should be removed from the case altogether. You can remove an executor or remove a trustee only when you can show to the court that a breach has occurred, so you must know the rules of evidence and procedure when starting a case like this.

First of all, you must be able to show that the person had a fiduciary duty to you or other beneficiaries. A common example of this would be a trustee who is appointed to represent the best interests of all of the trust beneficiaries. Breach of fiduciary duty occurs when an individual in this position of responsibility and trust to someone else, who has a legal job to act in the best interests of the other party, fails to do so. An executor has a fiduciary obligation, for example, to act in the best interests of the beneficiaries of the estate, but when the fiduciary chooses to instead act for their own self-interest or for some other third party, this can lead to a breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit. A proving a breach of fiduciary duty lawyer in Philadelphia will help you to determine next steps, whether it involves a personal representative, an executor, an agent under a power of attorney, a guardian, an administrator or a trustee. The most knowledgeable professional fiduciaries will choose to work directly with estate planning attorneys because of the complexities involved in managing an estate or probating an estate. However, some fiduciaries do not go this extra step and do not realize that they cannot use trusts or estate assets for their personal gain.

All decisions of a fiduciary have to free of self-dealing or conflict. It can be a grey area to determine what is for your personal gain and what is in the best interests of the beneficiary. Proving a breach of fiduciary duty begins with gathering the proper evidence. You must have more than your own suspicion that somebody carried out actions that were not in the best interests of the beneficiaries. You must be able to show that a fiduciary relationship existed, that a breach of that fiduciary relationship occurred, such as a trustee taking far too much pay for his or her role in the case, and that the breach caused financial damage that the court is capable of rectifying. Proving that breach of fiduciary duty does not have to be difficult but it is recommended that you only move forward with a case like this when you have an attorney who understands the different elements that go into proving breach of fiduciary duty and one who has a track record of illustrating this breach many times over.