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Estate Litigation

Marietta Estate Litigation Attorney

Comprehensive Marietta Estate Litigation Guidance Backed By Decades of Experience

When a will is challenged, a trustee mismanages assets, or family members disagree over how an estate is distributed, the case doesn’t resolve itself. It gets filed in Cobb County Probate Court in Marietta, Georgia, and it requires an attorney who knows how those proceedings actually work. We’ve handled will contests, fiduciary removal proceedings, and trust disputes in Georgia Probate Court for over 30 years.

We represent beneficiaries, heirs, personal representatives, trustees, and creditors in contested probate matters across the Atlanta metro, including Fulton, DeKalb, and Cobb counties. Robert Meyring leads this work, drawing on extensive experience and a commitment to keeping clients informed at every stage.

If you’re dealing with a contested estate matter in Marietta, GA, call (678) 257-3332 or reach out to us through our contact form. We can discuss your situation and your options.

What Estate Litigation Covers in Georgia

Estate litigation can involve a range of disputes concerning wills, estates, fiduciaries, trusts, and the distribution or administration of assets.

Examples include:

  • Challenges to a will’s validity
  • Removal of a personal representative
  • Breach of fiduciary duty by a trustee
  • Disputes over how assets are distributed from an estate or trust

Georgia law uses the term caveat for the pre-probate challenge process, a term specific to Georgia that other states may call a will contest. If the decedent owned real property in a county other than where they lived, ancillary proceedings in that county may also be required. Since our practice covers the full Atlanta metro, we handle multi-county matters without requiring clients to engage separate counsel.

How We Approach Complex Estate Disputes

In cases involving alleged mismanagement of estate assets, the financial picture is often as important as the legal one. We coordinate with forensic accounting professionals to document the scope of any mismanagement when pursuing personal representative removal proceedings, making the case concrete and defensible in court.

Trust disputes follow their own timeline. We handle them from the initial demand for an accounting through contested hearings in Probate Court. Most of our clients didn’t anticipate litigation; they came to us because something went wrong. Our long-term approach means our estate litigation lawyer serving Marietta stays with them through every phase while the matter proceeds.

Filing a Caveat: Grounds for Contesting a Will in Georgia

A caveat is a formal challenge filed before a will is admitted to probate. Anyone who is an heir at law or beneficiary under the prior will is able to file.

Grounds for filing a caveat can include:

  • Lack of testamentary capacity: A testator must be at least 14 years old and of sound and disposing mind and memory when the will is signed. Evidence may include medical records, witness testimony, and documentation concerning the testator’s condition at the time of execution.
  • Undue influence: The testator was enfeebled in body or mind and was surrounded by individuals with an interest in the estate. Establishing undue influence may require testimony, medical evidence, and documentation concerning the relationship between the testator and the person alleged to have exerted influence.
  • Fraud in the execution or procurement of the will: A will may be challenged when fraud affected the circumstances under which the will was executed or procured.
  • Improper execution: A will may be challenged if it was not executed in accordance with Georgia’s statutory requirements, including applicable signing and witnessing requirements.
  • Forgery: A will may be contested when there is evidence that the document or the testator’s signature was forged or otherwise fraudulently created or altered.
  • Existence of a later valid will: A caveat may be based on evidence that a later valid will exists and supersedes or revokes the will currently being offered for probate.

Breach of Fiduciary Duty & Trustee Removal

Trustees in Georgia owe duties of loyalty, impartiality, prudence, and full disclosure to trust beneficiaries. When a trustee violates those duties, whether through self-dealing transactions, a refusal to account, or persistent mismanagement, beneficiaries can seek remedies such as surcharge, removal, and disgorgement of any profits the trustee gained through self-dealing.

Georgia’s Trust Code permits a court to remove a trustee for: 

  • A serious breach of trust
  • Unfitness to serve
  • Persistent failure to administer the trust effectively

Beneficiaries who discover a potential breach should act without delay. Under Georgia’s Trust Code, a beneficiary who has received a written report adequately disclosing a potential breach generally must bring a claim within two years of receiving it. If no such report was provided, the beneficiary generally has up to six years from when the breach was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered.

Distribution Disputes

Not every estate dispute requires challenging the will itself. Distribution disputes can arise when beneficiaries believe the personal representative or trustee misinterpreted the governing document, incorrectly valued assets, or improperly allocated specific property. A beneficiary can accept the will’s validity in full and still bring a claim over how the distribution was carried out.

These disputes can involve hard-to-value assets: real estate, closely held business interests, and retirement accounts are common flashpoints. When the governing document is silent or ambiguous on how a particular asset should be treated, the personal representative’s judgment isn’t automatically final. We represent beneficiaries who believe a distribution was handled incorrectly and personal representatives who need to defend the decisions they made.

Speak with a Marietta Estate Litigation Lawyer

Estate disputes move on court timelines, not your own. If you’re facing a contested matter or have concerns about how a trustee or personal representative is handling an estate in Cobb County, it’s important to act promptly. At Meyring Law Firm, we handle these cases from the first filing through final resolution.

Call us at (678) 257-3332 or use our contact form to tell us about your situation. We can explain what the process looks like and what steps may make sense for your Marietta estate litigation matter.

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Why Choose Meyring Law Firm?

  • Lifetime Support
    Our legal help is not a 'one and done' deal. Your future legalities are encompassed in these documents that need to be constantly updated. We are here to provide you with lifetime support.
  • Affordable Fees
    We have an initial document prep fee that will give you access to our attorneys through phone, email or any other medium without being charged extra.
  • Straightforward Guidance
    Our goal is to provide you with guidance you can understand and trust. We want you to feel secure and supported every step of the way.
  • Phone Evaluations

    We offer phone evaluations to help clients find the right path forward. We treat no two cases the same, setting our customer service apart from the rest.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here to Help Every Step of the Way
  • What does “heir” mean?
    An heir is one or more of the nearest living relatives of the deceased person at the time of death. Sometimes the heir is only the surviving spouse or child. Other times the heirs are any number of siblings, nephews and nieces, or cousins.
  • What happens if a will is not probated?
    In Georgia, there is a legal mandate for the holder of a will to submit it to the court for probate per O.C.G.A. § 53-5-5. If a will is not filed with the court, any heir or beneficiary can petition the court to direct the will holder to file the will with the proper court. Wills are meant to be public documents once the grantor has passed away. Sometimes if a will is not filed with the court, beneficiaries and heirs cannot take legal possession of assets specified in the Last Will and Testament.
  • How long does it take to receive an inheritance? When can I get what was willed to me?
    The probate attorney can accurately answer how long it would take to receive an inheritance from an estate that has no will. The experienced attorney can estimate the time it would take to receive a gift from the decedent's will or trust.
  • What does “executor” mean?
    Executor is the person named in the last will and testament that's appointed by the probate court to administer the estate of the decedent according to the will.

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