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Articles 1 - 30 of 52
Full-Text Articles in Law
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Survey Article discusses significant cases decided by the Georgia appellate courts during the period of June 1, 2022 through May 31, 2023, and significant Georgia legislation enacted in that same period that relate to Georgia probate and trust law, guardianship, and estate planning. Two of the cases described herein, Slosberg v. Giller and Hall v. Davis Lawn Services, Inc., are decisions of the Supreme Court of Georgia. Effective July 1, 2017, the Georgia General Assembly enacted O.C.G.A. § 15-3-3.1, which provides that the Georgia Court of Appeals has appellate jurisdiction over cases relating to wills and trusts. However, …
“I’Ll Give You My Trust Assets, When You Pry Them From My Cold, Dead Hands”: The Supreme Court Of Georgia Clarifies That A Mere Challenge To A Trust’S Formation Will Not Trigger An In Terrorem Clause, Kiana Johnson
Mercer Law Review
Imagine a television infomercial wakes you up from your sleep. While refocusing your vision, you faintly hear the television say: “Are you a disgruntled beneficiary?” You think to yourself, “I’m not disgruntled, but I sure wish I could have more money.” You are slightly intrigued, so you crank up the volume on the television, and the infomercial emphatically states, “Do you believe you are entitled to ‘ill-gotten gains’?” You think to yourself, “I have no idea what ill-gotten gains are.” I just want ownership over the assets I —.”
Giller v. Slosberg, 359 Ga. App. 867, 858 S.E.2d 747 …
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article discusses significant cases decided by the Georgia Court of Appeals during the period of June 1, 2021 through May 31, 2022, and significant Georgia legislation enacted in that same period relating to Georgia probate and trust law, guardianship, and estate planning.
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article discusses significant cases decided by the Georgia Court of Appeals during the period of June 1, 2020, through May 31, 2021, pertaining to Georgia fiduciary law, guardianship, and estate planning. This Article also describes the highlights of legislation contained in a comprehensive bill that revised and clarified the laws relating to wills, trusts, and the administration of estates and that became effective January 1, 2021.
Electronic Wills: Why Would Georgia Choose To Delay The Inevitable?, Jacob C. Wilson
Electronic Wills: Why Would Georgia Choose To Delay The Inevitable?, Jacob C. Wilson
Mercer Law Review
This Comment assesses the changes in Georgia’s laws regarding the formalities of wills and analyzes how acceptance of an electronic will in Georgia would be an acceptable response to the changing times. Part I analyzes how Georgia’s wills statutes have changed and discusses how the wills law came into fruition today. Part II analyzes the Electronic Wills Act, states that have passed statutes considering the Act, and a review of Georgia’s legislative approach to the Act. Part III reviews an in-depth analysis of (a state) that has passed the Electronic Wills Act that operates in a strict compliance jurisdiction. Part …
Dead Men (And Women) Should Tell Tales: Narrative, Intent, And The Construction Of Wills, Karen J. Sneddon
Dead Men (And Women) Should Tell Tales: Narrative, Intent, And The Construction Of Wills, Karen J. Sneddon
Articles
The will is one of the most personal legal documents that an individual may ever create. The will is written in first person, present tense. Yet most wills reveal little of the person, the personality, or the personal. The inclusion of the testator’s relationships with people, entities, and property does little to convey the testator’s wishes, hopes, or fears. Some may assert that as a formal legal document, the will should be impersonal and be built using standardized, formulaic phrasing. Not only does such position overstate the accuracy of standardized, formulaic phrasing, but such position also ignores the foundational principle …
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article describes significant cases decided by the Georgia Court of Appeals during the period of June 1, 2020, through May 31, 2019, that pertain to Georgia fiduciary law and estate planning. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Georgia General Assembly suspended its 2020 session and thus no significant legislation was enacted during the reporting period. This report does however discuss relevant legislation that was pending during the reporting period and describes the Governor’s Order issued in April 2020 that permitted remote notarization and witnessing of estate planning documents during the pandemic.
Fraying The Knot: Marital Property, Probate, And Practical Problems With Tribal Bans, Suzianne D. Painter-Thorne
Fraying The Knot: Marital Property, Probate, And Practical Problems With Tribal Bans, Suzianne D. Painter-Thorne
Articles
In the summer of 2015, marriage equality advocates celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which struck down state prohibitions on same-sex marriage.The Court found that “[t]he right of same-sex couples to marry . . . is part of the liberty promised by the Fourteenth Amendment.” Two years earlier, the Court had struck down parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), finding that the federal government could not discriminate against same-sex married partners. With these two decisions, the Court ensured that the marriages of same-sex couples would be recognized by the federal government and in …
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article describes selected cases and significant legislation from the period of June 1, 2018 through May 31, 2019 that pertain to Georgia fiduciary law and estate planning.
- Setting Aside Probate
- Exoneration
- Trustee's Warranties
- Payment of Guardian ad Litem Fees in Guardianship Cases
Voice, Strength, And No-Contest Clauses, Karen J. Sneddon
Voice, Strength, And No-Contest Clauses, Karen J. Sneddon
Articles
The will is a unilateral written disposition of probate property to be effective upon the will-maker's death. To have any legal effect, however, the will-maker's family, beneficiaries, and personal representatives, along with the probate court, need to implement the will provisions. To buttress the strength of the will, the language of the will is definitive, certain, and strong. But when the will relies upon standardized language, the voice of the will-maker is flattened or even non-existent. The absence of the willmaker's voice may jeopardize the legal effect of the will.
This Article argues that the over-reliance on "time-tested" formulaic language …
Probate Funding And The Litigation Funding Debate, Jeremy Kidd
Probate Funding And The Litigation Funding Debate, Jeremy Kidd
Articles
Third-party funding of legal claims is becoming more common, and increasingly more controversial. Whether in the legislative arena or in the courts, the fight over whether and how independent parties might provide funding to litigants has become heated. The fight now threatens to spill over into the probate realm, where funders have begun purchasing probate rights from putative heirs. These probate funding transactions share many characteristics with broader litigation funding but also differ in important respects. The meager existing literature tends to address the issue in a pre-biased and methodologically unsound way, making it impossible to properly assess the nature …
Clarifying The “Probate Lending” Debate: A Response To Professors Horton And Chandrasekher, Jeremy Kidd
Clarifying The “Probate Lending” Debate: A Response To Professors Horton And Chandrasekher, Jeremy Kidd
Articles
The debate over third-party funding of legal claims just got more interesting. The debate already had plot twists, such as free-market scholars lining up in opposition to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and alongside proplaintiff scholars who they oppose in tort reform debates. Now add to the mix a recent paper by Professors Horton and Chandrasekher that introduced an entirely new angle to the debate: funding of probate disputes. Now that this parallel area of funding has been identified, comparing and contrasting probate funding with litigation funding should illuminate the incentives that funders/recipients face in both scenarios. By pointing out …
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article describes selected cases and significant legislation from June 1, 2016 to May 31, 2017 that pertain to Georgia fiduciary law and estate planning.
An Advance Directive: The Elective, Effective Way To Be Protective Of Your Rights, Krysta Rae Tate
An Advance Directive: The Elective, Effective Way To Be Protective Of Your Rights, Krysta Rae Tate
Mercer Law Review
Death is an eternal theme within all cultures; the Grim Reaper coming to collect a person's soul, death riding in on a pale horse, mythical characters like Hades and Thanatos. A seemingly inescapable proposition emerged over time: the nature of death is unpredictable and unavoidable. Eventually, due to changes in technology, the world's perspective on the nature of death shifted. Advancements in medical technology introduced a plethora of life-sustaining procedures, and death was no longer completely beyond a human's control.
A breakthrough in the medical means used to control the dynamic nature of death occurred when the Georgia General Assembly …
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article describes selected cases and significant legislation from the period of June 1, 2015 through May 31, 2016 that pertain to Georgia fiduciary law and estate planning.
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article describes selected cases and significant legislation from the period of June 1, 2014 through May 31, 2015 pertaining to Georgia fiduciary law and estate planning.
Not Your Mother's Will: Gender, Language, And Wills, Karen J. Sneddon
Not Your Mother's Will: Gender, Language, And Wills, Karen J. Sneddon
Articles
“Boys will be boys, but girls must be young ladies” is an echoing patriarchal refrain from the past. Formal equality has not produced equality in all areas, as demonstrated by the continuing wage gap. Gender bias lingers and can be identified in language. This Article focuses on Wills, one of the oldest forms of legal documents, to explore the intersection of gender and language. With conceptual antecedents in pre-history, written Wills found in Ancient Egyptian tombs embody the core characteristics of modern Wills. The past endows the drafting and implementation of Wills with a wealth of traditions and experiences. The …
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article describes selected cases and significant legislation from June 1, 2013 through May 31, 2014 pertaining to Georgia fiduciary law and estate planning.
Memento Mori: Deaths And Wills, Karen J. Sneddon
Memento Mori: Deaths And Wills, Karen J. Sneddon
Articles
Death. The mere mention of the word sends a shiver down the spine or provokes a nervous giggle. Modern reactions to death range from avoidance, as shown by the abundance of death euphemisms, to fascination, as shown by the number of movies and television shows centered on death, including Twilight's vampires and The Walking Dead's zombies. Estate planning is the legal environment in which a person con.fronts his or her mortality and participates in the formulation of his or her legacy. Contextualizing the experience as a memento mori experience promotes the function of the estate planning process, specifically …
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article describes selected cases and significant legislation from June 1, 2012 through May 31, 2013 pertaining to Georgia fiduciary law and estate planning.
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article describes selected cases and significant legislation from the period of June 1, 2011 through May 31, 2012 that pertain to Georgia fiduciary law and estate planning.
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article describes selected cases and significant legislation from the period of June 1, 2010 through May 31, 2011 that pertain to Georgia fiduciary law and estate planning.
Speaking For The Dead: Voice In Last Wills And Testaments, Karen J. Sneddon
Speaking For The Dead: Voice In Last Wills And Testaments, Karen J. Sneddon
Articles
I do now hereby give, bequeath, and devise all items of tangible personal property that I own or may own a right thereonto, which includes, but is not limited to, objet d'art, furnishings, automobiles, and silver, to my surviving issue per stirpes.
A will is arguably the most important and personal legal document an individual ever executes. As the language above illustrates, much of the typical language in a will removes all traces of the individual. This personal legal document is ostensibly the individual's-the testator's-document. For a testator, contemplating the creation and execution of a will is the contemplation of …
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article describes selected cases and significant legislation from the period of June 1, 2009 through May 31, 2010 that pertain to Georgia fiduciary law and estate planning.
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article describes selected cases and significant legislation from the period of June 1, 2008 through May 31, 2009, that pertain to Georgia fiduciary law and estate planning.
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article describes the significant Georgia cases and legislation from the period of June 1, 2006 through May 31, 2007 that pertain to Georgia fiduciary law and estate planning. Specifically, this Article covers cases and legislation on matters relating to wills, trusts, the administration of decedents' estates, and the guardianship and conservatorship of minors and incapacitated adults.
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article describes the significant Georgia cases and legislation from the period of June 1, 2005 through May 31, 2006 that pertain to Georgia fiduciary law. Specifically, the Article covers cases and legislation on matters relating to wills, trusts, the administration of decedents' estates, and the guardianship and conservatorship of minors and incapacitated adults.
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article examines the major cases decided and legislation enacted during the period from June 1, 2004 through May 31, 2005. The cases and statutes discussed cover the substantive law relating to decedents' estates, trusts, and guardianships, and to the fiduciaries who administer these entities.
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary K. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary K. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article examines the major cases decided and legislation enacted from June 1, 2003 through May 31, 2004. The cases and statutes discussed cover the substantive law relating to decedents' estates, trusts, and guardianships, and to the fiduciaries who administer these entities.
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford
Mercer Law Review
This Article examines the major cases decided and legislation enacted during the period from June 1, 2002 through May 31, 2003. The cases and statutes discussed cover the substantive law relating to decedents' estates, trusts, and guardianships, and to the fiduciaries who administer these entities. The cases also explore procedural rules that apply in litigation arising from the creation and ongoing administration of these legal relationships.