Mediation of Probate Matters: Leaving a Valuable Legacy
6 Pages Posted: 11 Nov 2013
Date Written: 2001
Abstract
Mediation has many advantages for resolving probate matters. It has the power to bring parties to a different level of understanding about their underlying situations and about each other, to re-establish family harmony and to resolve both monetary and relationship issues that probate matters generally involve. To realize these advantages, this paper makes two suggestions. First, attorneys should urge testators to consider dispute resolution provisions in their will. Second, attorneys and mediators operating in the probate arena should tap mediation’s full powers to address all the negotiable issues the parties may have (not just the legal causes of action), so that mediation’s full potential to resolve the entire universe of issues presented by a conflict is not constrained by the adjudicative process.
Keywords: Mediation, Dispute Resolution, Probate, Dispute Resolution Clause, Wills
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