Hello

The winnings depend on whether yor not you take the matter to court.

If you do not take the matter to court, the winnings will be 75% for you and your brother (2 brothers at 37.5% each) and the stepfather will get 25%.

Just like the law.

However, if your stepfather opposes to the 25% and would like more, a judge will have to decide.

If the stepfather can prove that he invested 30% in legal fees, then it gets complicated, because the judge will want to know how much the mother paid in legal fees before death.

If you all can come up with and agreement it would be better. Your lawyers will put the money in a special account while waiting for you three to comme up with an agreement or until the court will have decided who gets what percentage.

I already wrote and gave you what the law is. If you do not take the matter to court, the winnings will be 75% for you and your brother (2 brothers at 37.5% each) and the stepfather will get 25%. This is the law.

I already answered what the the likely out come would be if it went to court. If the stepfather can prove that he invested 30% in legal fees, then it gets complicated, because the judge will want to know how much the mother paid in legal fees before death. then the judge will need to know at what point the mother died during the court case. Theses cases lasts for years and years and years. Your likely outcome is that the stepfather will get what he wants if he has proof and all the parties will have lost a lot of money in legal fees or , if the stepfather have no proof (evidence) then he will loose and the judge will apply the law.

For example, if your mother started the legal case 5 years before death and the case ended 3 months after deaths and you all paid just the last bill, the judge would calculate the percentage of 5 years and the percentage of the last bill. Or the judge can search to see if there was an agreement (even oral) to give each party 30%.

Or the judge can consider that the percentage of the case that you all paid has no influence on the division of of the winnings according to the law.

France is not a common law country like the UK. This means that courts do not have to follow the decision made by other courts. Each court decision is different and depend on the individual judge. Your lawyer will have to convince the judge.

The outcome will depend on the evidence the parties have. French judges make their decision based on the evidence they have. Therefore, there can be all sorts of outcomes.

Well, I would need to see what was written in the agreement what was signed between them.

also, signing an agreement and actually paying 33.3 % are 2 different things.

If there is a disagreement in the way the agreement is to be interpreted and there is a lot of money involved, then this question will have to be answered by a French judge.

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