Florida Probate Blog

once the expenses became a charge against the Estate pursuant to section 768.21(6)(b) of the Wrongful Death Act, the personal representative had the exclusive authority to resolve those claims in a reasonable and equitable manner and in accordance with section 733.707 of the probate code.”

FLORIDA PROBATE AND PATERNITY Wait! Don’t Throw that Away! Do A Decedent’s Next Of Kin Have A Protected Right In The Decedent’s Blood Samples, Tissue, Organs And Other Body Parts That Have Been Removed And Retained By A Coroner For Forensic Examination And Testing? I recently encountered a dispute in the context of a paternity proceeding in a probate estate as to who has the rights to a decedent’s blood samples that were drawn during an autopsy. The answer was critical to the establishment of my client as the decedent’s biological child and important in assessing all the parties’ ultimate rights to the Decedent’s Homestead Property. The Florida Supreme Court has never directly dealt with the issue, which implicates not just the parties involved in the dispute (in my case, the Decedent’s sister, was the Personal Representative and my client was the biological son attempting to establish paternity) but also […]