Suing a Trustee for Breach

The Barnes Law Team is an expert in protecting trust beneficiaries and has a track record for winning when suing a trustee for breach.  If you are a beneficiary and believe a trustee is failing to account for trust assets, the Barnes Law Team can help protect you.  

The path for resolution greatly depends on the severity of the breach and how poorly the assets have been managed.  With that in mind, the following goals are achievable through trust litigation.

Suing a Trustee - Goals:

Removal or Replacement of a Trustee | Removing a trustee is an excellent goal if you identified a breach of duty early or prior to a significant financial impact.

Reorganization of Distribution | Reorganization of distribution is typically sought when a trustee is improperly distributing funds, a trust has experienced a significant improvement in funding, or a beneficiary is experiencing financial difficulty that could be resolved through expediting distribution.  

Termination of a Trust | Trusts are terminated when the value of assets diminishes or the goal of the trust can no longer be met for reasons unforeseen at the time of organizing it.  A court might also terminate a trust if it is proven to be wasteful or impractical.

Recovering Civil Penalties | The last line of action in trust litigation involves recovering civil penalties from the trustee.  Trustees are required to “account” for assets in a trust. A failure to do so can result in a trustee being held personally liable for lost or mismanaged funds.  It is even possible to sue for civil penalties from a law firm in circumstances where a trust corporation was created, owned, and managed by a firm’s partners.

If you have been negatively impacted by trust fraud, contact the Barnes Law team,   (213)-318-0234.