Monthly Archives: January 2016

This is the third in a three-part series of blog posts on “no contest” clauses. In this post, I’ll discuss some of the key points in the dissenting opinions in the recent Virginia Supreme Court ruling in the Rafalko case (777 S.E.2d 870) relating to no contest clauses. In Rafalko, the Virginia Supreme Court confronted the issue of whether certain actions violated a trust’s no contest clause. Part two of this series discussed the main takeaways from the majority opinion: (1) mere discourse relating to a challenge of a trust containing a no contest clause does not trigger the no …

This is the second in a three-part series of blog posts on “no contest” clauses. In this post, I’ll discuss some of the key points in the recent Virginia Supreme Court ruling (777 S.E.2d 870) in the Rafalko case relating to no contest clauses. In part three, I’ll discuss some of the key points in the dissenting opinions. In Rafalko, the Virginia Supreme Court confronted the issue of whether certain actions violated a trust’s no contest clause. The facts and procedural history of the case are lengthy and detailed, so in my discussion below I’ve only highlighted some of the …