Life Insurance Beneficiary Being Contested

[swicket]

What is the name of your state? PA

A friend of mine was divorced and estranged from his family for four years. About a year ago he was diognosed with terminal cancer. Upon hearing this, the insured changed his beneficiary to me and also made me his Executor in his will. One week, prior to his death, the insured suffer a stroke which resulted in a coma and ultimately, death. His grown children did see him, while he was in the coma. However, did not come to his funeral.
After his death, his children banded together and retained an attorney to contest the Life Insurance Beneficiary. According to their attorney, the insured was not fully cognizant at time he change his Life Insurance beneficary. Since the Life Insurance was with his place of employment (Federal Govt), this dispute is currently being adjudicated by the Federal District Court.

My question is, since the estate attorney is handling this issue, he wants to pursue a hearing. However, I have spoken to government attorney(s), informally and have been informed to submitt a motion for summary judgement. Which way should I go?

 

[ALawyer]

Whether the kids attended the funeral is irrelevant.

To defeat a summary judgment motion, the other side has to show there are facts in dispute. If you have real strong evidence that he was at work, highly functioning, etc. and not under duress, you may win. But if they have anything to cloud the issue, the motion would fail, and you'd have to go to trial anyway.

Or the lawyer may want to just get a look at the evidence.

Different lawyers have different approaches, and often a choice is based on a combination of the facts, what you can prove, the judge, the adversary and prior experience. I could not possibly guess from here.