Benjamin Fox | Sacramento Estate Lawyer

Ben makes a habit of achieving excellent results for his clients. As an attorney in Huber Law Group’s trust and estate litigation team, Ben uses his prior experience in civil litigation and with the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office to fully analyze his cases before taking them to trial. While attacking the factual elements of each case, Ben also enjoys using his technical legal experience from his time with the California Attorney General’s Office and the U.C. Davis California Supreme Court Clinic where he drafted briefs for cases pending before the State’s highest court. Ben also draws from his knowledge of internal court workings from his time as a judicial research clerk in the Superior Court of Santa Cruz County. These multi-layered experiences provide Ben the ability to deftly handle the most complicated sets of facts and law presented in trust and estate litigation. Furthermore, Ben’s representation of both beneficiaries and trustees allows him to analyze each case from a global perspective. In addition to litigating cases, Ben enjoys writing about the nuanced aspects of trust and estate litigation and has been published in the California Trusts & Estates Quarterly and the Daily Journal’s California Lawyer. Ben was admitted to the State Bar of California after obtaining his Juris Doctor degree from the University of California Davis School of Law. Prior to law school Mr. Fox received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Bethany University where he graduated summa cum laude. California Super Lawyers® selected Ben to its Rising Stars list for 2017 and 2018, a distinction held by only 2.5 percent of attorneys in California. Ben is a member of the Sacramento County Bar Association, the Probate and Estate Planning section of the Sacramento County Bar Association, and is a member of the Trusts & Estates section of the California Lawyers Association. Ben is also involved with his local community as a member of the Rotary Club of Arden-Arcade. When not serving clients, Ben enjoys time with his family, hiking, mountain biking, community development, literature, and playing the guitar.

Lawyer.com Member Questionnaire

Please describe a case(s) in the last year or two where you made a big difference.
1) My firm and I assisted a grieving family quickly resolve a dispute regarding their mother’s estate plan. The mother had re-married shortly before her passing and the surviving spouse was seeking to obtain more than what the mother had desired to give him. Working proactively with our client to obtain witness declarations, we were able to favorably resolve the matter in just a couple months compared to the years’ worth of litigation that could have occurred.

2) My firm and I assisted a surviving spouse in estate litigation against children from a prior marriage who sought to invalidate a Will their father had completed years before his death. By investigating the facts and gathering all the evidence, we forced the contesting children into a very favorable resolution for our client.

How did you build a successful practice?
I build a successful practice by putting my client’s interests as the number one priority. I am honest with clients, which sometimes means telling them what they need to hear and not always what they want to hear. A reputation for being a thorough and honest attorney is a necessary foundation for a successful practice.

What should clients look for in a lawyer?
When searching for an estate or trust litigator, it is necessary that clients look for an attorney who has practiced in that area. Many litigation attorneys do not do estate litigation and many estate attorneys do not do estate litigation. Estate litigation in the probate department of a court is slightly different than civil litigation in the civil department. Clients should look to hire an estate litigator to do estate litigation.

How important is local knowledge to the success of your cases?
My firm practices up and down the state of California, which makes us well versed with the unique local rules of each county. Local knowledge is helpful with the nuances of cases, but there is no substitute for having robust experience and knowledge in the general application of law to facts in the area of estate litigation.

What information can you provide in a free phone consultation?
When speaking to potential clients in a free phone consultation, I will have already reviewed the pertinent documents if provided to me. Based on those documents and a general description of the case, I’m able to learn more details and then provide an assessment of whether we can assist and how we would do so.

What information do you need in a free phone consultation?
An intake specialist from our office conducts a short in-take call to gather basic information about the case such as the relevant people involved, dates of death, the terms of the Will or Trust, an estimate of the amount in dispute, and a basic summary of the case.

What differentiates you from other lawyers in your community?
There are few attorneys who do estate litigation in the probate department. Estate litigation is slightly different than general civil litigation. Many estate planners in our community refer estate litigation cases to our firm because they trust our work and they are not interested in disputed matters.

What is the most rewarding aspect of your job?
Protecting a person’s desires after he or she has passed away is a very rewarding challenge. The results of our work could very well affect generations to come.

What are your other interests in addition to law?
I enjoy music quite a bit, both playing and writing music. I try to stay physically active by exercising and taking hikes with my wife and kids.

Are you involved in your community?
I am a member of my local Rotary Club. As a Club, we donate time and money to many local organizations, such as schools, children’s homes, and other non-profit organizations.