My father passed away June 2009, he had a credit card bill for $22,000 another one for $8000. After he passed, I contacted both cc companies to inform them of his passing. They both asked for a copy of his death certificate & I sent it to them, that was in aug 2009. In dec I received a letter from the card company he owed $8000 to, it said they were forgiving his debt... zero owed. My lawyer set his estate up in feb 2010, I gave him the info on the $22000 cc bill & he said he would take care of it. The notice ran in the newspaper for 3 weeks. Time went by & I hadn't heard anything from them about it. Then in jan 2012 I get a call from my lawyer saying he was sending the cc company notice to make a claim against my dads estate. I was stunned, I told him you was supposed to do this 2 years ago, his response was he lost the creditors info but found it now he had to do it. And just so happens, at the same I get informed from the same lawyer that my fathers estate was awarded a settlement in a lawsuit that my father was involved with for 8 years. The amount was almost the same as the cc bill. So did my lawyer do the wrong thing? Can the credit card company still make a claim? Will the estate still have to pay? Is it my fault because I let the lawyer handle the estate? Any insight will be greatly appreciated.

Why is the estate still open after all these years , or did he have to reopen because of the settlement.

But all bills due have to be paid from the estate before anyone else is paid.

Apparently one card decided to let the debt go and the other one got a judgment - their choice. The lawyer left the estate open pending the results of the lawsuit. He can't not tell a creditor about the change in assets. This sounds legit to me, unless you think the dollar amount is too coincidental. Ask for a copy of the lawsuit settlement, and his fees for handling this.

Are you saying that the statute of limitations would have run on the claim had the lawyer sent the notice to the cc company in February of 2010? Which state is this?

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Originally Posted by AK lawyer

Are you saying that the statute of limitations would have run on the claim had the lawyer sent the notice to the cc company in February of 2010? Which state is this?

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This is in Alabama. According to Alabama law regarding claims against estate, it says all creditors must be notified within 6 months of grant of letters & have 30 days from being notified to make a claim. So if my lawyer had notified the creditors like he was supposed to do & said he would do, either the statute of limitations would have ran out in aug 2010 so the creditor would be barred from making a claim or the estate would have been insolvent being there was no assest to pay the creditors.

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Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

Why is the estate still open after all these years , or did he have to reopen because of the settlement.

But all bills due have to be paid from the estate before anyone else is paid.

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The estate never closed. My thinking is statute of limitations ran out in aug 2010, which bars the creditors. If he had to wait to see how the lawsuit turned out then the estate shouldn't of been opened until the 1st of this year. Alabama law states that all creditors must be notified within 6 months from grant of letters, so since he opened the estate in feb 2010 the statute of limitations have ran out. Am I right or wrong?