But that was the reality facing Melbourne journalist Mimi Kwa, when her larger than life father Francis took her to the Australian Supreme Court over his sister's estate.
It was that moment that started a journey for Kwa to better understand her father and reflect on her sometimes painful family history.
The result is an extraordinary memoir called House of Kwa, that begins in the 1880s and tracks her family from Hong Kong to Australia, detailing the eccentricities of her father - one child of 32 - and her mother's mental health battle.
Kwa joined Francesca Rudkin from Melbourne to discuss what she learnt about her family, why being sued wasn't personal, and why she wrote the story like a novel.
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