Although payment is a common cause of distress for many (if not all) lawyers, obtaining timely and consistent payment of monthly bills is particularly challenging for litigators with trust and estate cases. The reasons are numerous: illiquid estate assets, a recalcitrant personal representative, outstanding trust or estate liabilities, disputes with the IRS, or perhaps pending litigation or required court approvals. Each of these can cause major delays or total roadblocks in receiving distributions from the trust or estate to pay legal fees. Or, perhaps a beneficiary wishes to bring a contest in a jurisdiction where the trust or estate corpus cannot be used for legal fees until the claims are proven. Read More
