Articles

While most bankruptcy cases proceed smoothly from start to finish, some cases require bankruptcy court proceedings to determine issues relating to the bankruptcy case. Adversary proceedings and contested matters are the two types of bankruptcy litiga… Read More

The Minnesota Trust Code, found in Chapter 501C of the Minnesota Statutes, imposes specific fiduciary duties on a trustee. If a trustee breaches any of those duties, a court may grant relief to a person who suffers harm. In determining whether a trus… Read More

Estates increasingly include assets that pass to the owner’s heirs outside the probate process through use of beneficiary designations. With the expanded use of this approach come a myriad of issues and a growing number of court cases involving ben… Read More

The dramatic increase in hospitalizations due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) has many unanticipated complications. Family disagreements about medical treatment for a loved one are not unusual. For some families, differences among family members about… Read More

A specific Minnesota statutory provision governs any court challenge to a revocable trust based on lack of capacity of the settlor. In a November 2018 decision, the Minnesota Court of Appeals reviewed the statutory standard and the prior court cases… Read More

In a bankruptcy case, the trustee has authority to recover payments made to creditors within a specific period preceding the bankruptcy. Trustee claims of this type are called preferences or avoidable preferences. A creditor who receives a preference… Read More

Bankruptcy is a court-supervised procedure through which the petitioner asks for debt to be alleviated. If all goes well, the bankruptcy court’s discharge order alleviates the debt. The bankruptcy case itself is not litigation. However, bankruptcy… Read More

The Minnesota Probate Code prevents a spouse from unilaterally disinheriting his or her spouse (intentionally or accidentally), by providing a surviving spouse with the ability to exercise the right to an elective share of a deceased spouse’s estat… Read More