Practice Area: BC Estate and Trust Litigation Lawyers | Vancouver, Canada |

Jessica Park

Jessica is a member of Legacy’s Estate and Trust Litigation Group. Jessica's practice focuses on estate and trust litigation. She regularly appears before the British Columbia Supreme Court in matters involving wills variation claims, the validity and interpretation of wills and trust instruments, passing of accounts, the removal of personal representatives, committeeship applications, and disputes arising from or relating to incapacity planning documents, including powers of attorney and representation agreements. She is committed to providing practical, effective representation to all of her clients. Jessica…

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Betony Rowland

Betony is a member of Legacy’s Estate and Trust Litigation Group. She represents clients on a variety of complex estate and trust matters including the validity of wills, wills variation claims, contentious issues with the administration of estates, and disputes involving trusts and gifts to adult children. She also assists clients with Committeeship applications as well as other elder law and incapacity proceedings. Betony draws from her broad experience in private practice and in-house counsel to provide knowledgeable, yet practical solutions for her clients. Betony has trial experience in both the British…

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James Zaitsoff

James Zaitsoff is a Principal and is the head of Legacy’s Estate and Trust Litigation Group

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All Trusts, All the Time – Implied, Resulting and Constructive Trust Claims

I.     Introduction The concept of who actually owns an asset arises frequently in the areas of both family and estate law. Families often transfer ownership to real estate and other assets without considering the legal consequences of the transfer. The transfer of an asset may be from one spouse to another, from a parent to a child, or even just the promise of a transfer in the future, leading to a course of conduct on the part of the person believing they will be a future owner. Whether the issue of ownership arises upon the dissolution of a marriage, or a marriage like relationship, or the death of a…

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The Final Step: Passing the Accounts in a Contentious Estate

I.       Introduction A.     Then and Now: The Duty to Account All personal representatives and trustees (throughout this paper the term “trustee” represents both a true trustee and personal representative) have a duty to account to persons with a beneficial interest in the estate (Deutschmann Estate v. Fallis, 2011 BCSC 1009 at para. 53, affirmed 2011 BCCA 404). The origins of the duty to account are traced, as with much of the law in the area of wills and estates, to the Ecclesiastical Courts of England. In his paper “The Last Word: Passing the Accounts in a Contentious Estate”, Scott Kerwin…

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