I live in Ohio and mother in law passed away in August 2006. Having problem with attorneys and judge in probate court. Mother in law left Revocable Living Trust along with a pour over will. Judge is making ruling on property held strictly in the Trust which has never been filed with the probate court (he has never seen trust to our knowledge) is this in error that he is making decisions on a document he has never seen or read?

Hello 4:

It would be my guess that the attorney you're having trouble with, doesn't represent YOU. If he does, ask him. If he doesn't, hire your own. If he represents you, and won't answer your question, fire him.

excon

One attorney represented the Estate in Probate Court. Estate attorney withdrew after 1 year and he assisted the Executor of the pour over will to remove and hide asset and file extensions to avoid filing the inventory and accounting. Inventory was filed but did not include any major assets and the accounting has neve been filed to date. The other attorney which I hired to represent my interest of inheritance listed in the revocable living trust and he promised to preserve this interest did not do the job he was hired to do and then when I questioned him on why he was not doing his job and he had only wrote letter for a fee of $5000.00 and I still not getting any answers a hearing was held and he did not show up and he could not be reached via phone by the probate judge and 2 weeks later when I called his office to speak with him to see what he planned to do in this matter my calls were not returned and I received a email informing me that he felt compelled to resign and that I owed him an additional $2,500.00 in fees and the if paid prior to 11/15/2007 he would give a 50% discount. I have contacted other attorneys for representation but they are either unwilling to get involved with this matter that is already in the probate court or they want big retainers and inform me that this has been filed in the wrong court to begin with since what has already been filed was not even probate issues but they involve the property which is owned by the revocable living trust which is not part of the probate since the will was set up to pour over only assets which were not listed in the revocable living trust. We have tried to speak with the judge for reasons as to why he is hearing trust issues but we are informed that he will not speak with us and we should hire another attorney. If this keeps up the Trust will be bankrupty which is what the Executor want to happen.

Hello again, 4:

I don't know how big the estate is, so I couldn't advise you whether it's worth it to hire another lawyer.

I agree with you, the lawyers will keep on piddling around as long as there are funds, against which, to bill. I don't know what YOU should do.

However... If it were me, I'm not a guy who lies down for anybody, and I don't advise people to do so.

IF, however, you're going to proceed in this endeavor, YOU need to LEARN how to MANAGE your attorney's. He's just like anybody else you hire, even though he wears a suit and tie. If you don't tell the leaf blower at your house WHERE to blow the leaves, he's going to blow them where HE likes. So, you need to tell him what to do, and watch him to make sure he does it!

IF, however, you're the kind of person who just pays the retainer and expects the lawyer to do his job unfettered, then I wouldn't go any further. Unless, of course, you can hire one who WILL do his job. But your success rate at hiring the right guys isn't very good.

excon

The estate is approximately 193 acres of farm land with 3 house one for each of her children and we are listed to receive approx 103 acres. The attorney was not doing his job and when I demanded that he file a motion that is when he sent the email stating he was resigning. The attorney was only writing letters to the other attorney and trying to not file with the court and when after 8 month's we were still withot answers or progress in getting this matter settled that was when I told him that we need to get something filed with the court to stop the delay's and now we are without an attorney and no action and a judge that will not speak with anyone but an attorney.