Biography
Tara Britnell is the Co-Chair of the Estate and Trust Litigation department. She assists clients with the complete range of complex and challenging estate and trust cases, including undue influence and capacity claims, adult guardianship, construction and variation of wills and trusts, contentious estate administrations, and the identification and prevention of elder abuse.
Tara’s clients include executors, trustees, beneficiaries, people disappointed in a Will and those concerned about elder financial abuse. She understands the stress her clients experience in these often highly contentious disputes, and she excels at finding the most effective and efficient means of resolving these difficult situations.
Tara is also regularly engaged as a mediator, particularly in connection with estate and trust disputes, in which she excels at helping parties achieve cooperative resolutions without the need for protracted litigation. For more information about Tara’s mediation practice, please visit our Civil & Estate Mediation page.
Tara presents frequently on estate litigation topics to other lawyers and estates professionals. She has litigated at all levels of the court system and has extensive experience as counsel at mediations, having obtained her mediation certificate at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
In recognition of her excellence as counsel and her contributions to the legal profession, Tara was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2020.
Work Highlights
- Cole v. Hamel, 2018 BCSC 338
- Walsh v. Walsh, 2018 BCSC 199
- Harland v. Harland Estate, 2015 BCSC 2666
Publications
- All About Spouses: Conscious & Unconscious Coupling and Uncoupling (February 2018)
- A Litigator’s View: The Floodgates Have Opened (June 2014)
- Putting Things Right: How to Attack Financial Transactions (April 2013)
- A Wills & Estate Refresher: Cocktail Party Questions (February 2012)
- The Five Costliest Mistakes in Estate Planning – Tales From the Litigation Trenches (September 2012)
- Estate Litigation: How Plans Go Astray (July 2009)
Associations
- Fraser Valley Estate Planning Council
- Surrey Bar Association
- Canadian Bar Association, BC Branch: Wills & Estates, Elder Law, Women Lawyers Forum
- Martindale-Hubbel, BV Distinguished Designation
Speaking
- Co-Chair TLABC Estate and Family Law Conference, 2019
- Co-Chair CBABC Wills and Estates Conference, 2019
- Predatory Marriage webinar for TLABC, 2019
- Pacific Business and Law Institute Seminar, “Estate Administration
in the Courts A Review of Recent Cases”, January 2019 - TLABC, “All About Spouses: Conscious & Unconscious Coupling and Uncoupling”, February 2018
- Fraser Valley Estate Planning Council, “How to Successfully Cut Someone Out of Your Will”, March 2017
- Hollis Wealth, “Estate Planning: How to Avoid Problems”, June 2015
- TLABC, “WESA: The Floodgates Have Opened”, June 2014
- Peace Arch Hospital Foundation, “WESA Overview”, February 2014
- Surrey Bar Association, “WESA Changes Almost Everything”, February 2014
- TLABC, “Putting Things Right: How to Attack Financial Transactions, April 2013
Community
- Fraser Valley Estate Planning Council, Past President