{"id":12520,"date":"2026-08-13T08:54:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T12:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/?p=12520"},"modified":"2026-08-13T08:54:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T12:54:29","slug":"legal-fees-reduced-to-local-rates-and-to-exclude-surcharge-defenses-pa-super-np","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/?p=12520","title":{"rendered":"Legal Fees Reduced to Local Rates, and to Exclude Surcharge Defenses (Pa. Super. NP)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was neither an error of law nor an abuse of discretion for the Orphans&#8217; Court to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Reduce legal fees charged to an estate to an hourly rate more consistent with local rates;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Surcharge the executor for interest and penalties incurred by filing late income tax returns for the estate;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reduce the commissions claimed by the executor when the executor presented little evidence of her services and the claimed &#8220;complexity&#8221; of the administration of the estate was mainly due to the executor&#8217;s own lack of diligence;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deny legal fees paid by the executor to defend the legal fees paid by the executor; and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Require the estate to pay the legal fees of the beneficiaries whose objections benefitted the estate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>In the Matter of the Estate of Walter Weseman<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pacourts.us\/assets\/opinions\/Superior\/out\/J-A07037-26m%20-%20106862827367414685.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">961 MDA 2025<\/a> (Pa. Super. 7\/23\/2026) (non-precedential), <em>aff&#8217;g<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/?p=11441\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2 Fid.Rep.4th 395<\/a> (Susquehanna O.C. 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[Note: A citation to this opinion has been added to the article &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/?p=8709\">Non-Reimbursable Legal Fees of Fiduciaries<\/a>.&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was neither an error of law nor an abuse of discretion for the Orphans&#8217; Court to: Reduce legal fees charged to an estate to an hourly rate more consistent with local rates; Surcharge the executor for interest and penalties &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/?p=12520\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[146,300,164,161],"class_list":["post-12520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions","tag-attorney-fees","tag-counsel-fees-and-costs","tag-executor-commission","tag-surcharge","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12520"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12533,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12520\/revisions\/12533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}