Legal Costs

Legal costs in family provision cases are at the discretion of the judge. Normally if an order for provision is made for an applicant in that event the applicant’s costs would be paid out of the estate.

If however an applicant’s case is dismissed and no order is made in his or her favour the applicant may be ordered to pay the costs of the estate/executor defending the proceedings. However in that case the judge continues to have discretion and sometimes (rarely) a judge may order no provision for an applicant but no order that the applicant to pay the estates costs.