BarbriSFCourseDetails
  • videocam Live Webinar with Live Q&A
  • calendar_month February 6, 2026 @ 1:00 PM E.T.
  • signal_cellular_alt Intermediate
  • card_travel Family Law
  • schedule 90 minutes

Proving or Defending Undue Influence in Litigation: Evidence, Experts, Remedies

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About the Course

Introduction

This CLE webinar will provide probate litigators and trusts and estates counsel insight to prove or defeat undue influence and navigate the current surge in will and trust contests. The expert panel will discuss how burdens, presumptions, and evidentiary building blocks translate to courtroom results.

Description

The faculty will explain undue influence, the dangers of no-contest provisions, and how to help clients evaluate such a claim economically. The experts will cover how to obtain the estate planning file, evaluate medical/financial records with the assistance of expert witnesses, proceed through discovery, prepare for mediation, and go to trial if mediation is unsuccessful.

Listen as our panel explores current thinking and tactics for litigating undue influence in elder exploitation disputes.

Presented By

Michael Brody
Attorney
Reminger Co., LPA

Mr. Brody is an associate in Reminger’s Cleveland Office. He focuses his practice primarily on estate, trust, and probate litigation, as well as trust and estate administration. Mr. Brody first joined Reminger as a law clerk in 2022. He has since gained extensive practical experience working cases at various stages, including pre-suit investigation, pleadings, discovery, motion practice, alternative dispute resolution, trial preparation, and trial.

Brittany Kaczmarczyk
Attorney
Reminger Co., LPA

Ms. Kaczmarczyk practices in the Reminger Co., LPA’s Cleveland office, where she focuses her practice on estate, trust, and probate litigation, and trust and estate administration. Ms. Kaczmarczyk first joined Reminger in 2021 as a law clerk, where she has gained experience all aspects of litigation, including pleadings, motion practice, discovery, trial preparation, and trial. 

Paul R. Shugar
Shareholder and Co-Chair of the Estates, Trusts, and Probate Litigation Practice Group
Reminger Co., LPA

Mr. Shugar is a shareholder and Co-Chair of Reminger's Estates, Trusts, and Probate Litigation Practice Group, Paul has statewide experience involving an array of million-dollar estate, trust, and guardianship issues such as undue influence, power of attorney abuse, and financial exploitation. An award-winning journalist who worked at daily newspapers around the country before becoming a lawyer, he employs the writing and investigation skills he developed as a reporter to maximize results in litigation. Mr. Shugar regularly lectures on estate and trust administration and litigation topics across the state of Ohio. He is an officer for the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association’s Estate Planning, Probate & Trust Law Section and a member of the Ohio State Bar Association Probate Trust and Estate Section Council.

Credit Information
  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.


  • Live Online


    On Demand

Date + Time

  • event

    Friday, February 6, 2026

  • schedule

    1:00 PM E.T.

I. Introduction

II. Undue influence: pleadings and proof

III. Burdens, presumptions, and evidence

IV. Building the record: discovery and third-party sources

V. Experts and forensics

VI. Remedies and early protective actions

VII. Practitioner takeaways

VIII. conclusion with Q&A

The panel will review these and other key issues:

  • Distinguishing undue influence
  • Selecting fact-appropriate pleadings and proofs
  • Building an effective record using the estate planning file, clinical materials, and financial institution data trails
  • Retaining and managing forensic experts
  • Pursuing timely remedies aligned with overall litigation strategy