All the standard boilerplate about professional services applies here. I’m just looking for some ideas to start with.
My grandfather died about five years ago. He worked as a pin-spotter in a bowling alley when he was a kid, bought me my first Legos, wouldn’t go into San Francisco on Wednesdays (because the restaurants didn’t bake fresh bread), was the head of his Elks’ lodge, a tremendous racist, and the best friend a cat ever had. They don’t make 'em like him anymore.
His estate went into a trust for my step-grandmother (his second wife, although he was married to her since before I was born). She just died about a month ago, and the trust is being distributed to their heirs.
Apparently I’m one of them. I got a letter from the lawyer handling the estate basically asking me to sign a document stating that I would not contest the will. (It was barely a paragraph long, probably the shortest legal document I’ve ever seen.) I can’t imagine why I’d contest it; for the last five years I didn’t even know about it. If he wanted to leave everything to the SPCA (he raised a lot of money for them while he was alive), I figure that’s his business.
But, I don’t want to just charge into this blindly, so:
What’s the best way to find a good lawyer? I’ve never needed one before, and don’t know when I’ll need one again. I just want to talk to somebody for about 15 and make sure everything’s cool, but I’d like it to be with someone who knows what he’s talking about.
Is it SOP to send something like this out; asking me not to contest a will that I haven’t even seen? I mean, how do I know if I want to contest it when I don’t even know what’s in it?
I am not your lawyer, you are not my client, I can barely find Mass. on a map, and I’m not certain that I can spell it. I am not licenesed there, and all the usual caveats about taking advice from someone you’ve never met on the Internet applies.
I think that it is odd that the first thing that was sent out was a waiver. Something about that strikes me as shady. It could be a standard thing elsewhere but I have never heard of such a thing and I’ve seen some pretty shady dealings.
Martindale Hubbell is a pretty good resource for finding an attorney. I would find somebody not just in the state but if at all possible in the county where the estate is being handled.
I would ask for a copy of the trust. Do you know who the trustee is?
This wasn’t the first I’m hearing of this. My mother called me a little after things happened and told me to expect to hear from the lawyers. I don’t think it’s shady at all; my grandfather was a straight-up kinda guy, kept things simple, and the family all gets along. I think this is just a formality. I still want to do it right, though.
The estate is out in California. Do I want to get advice on the matter from someone there or here?
And they spelled my name wrong, so I should probably get that cleared up, too.
Yes! Yes you do! I advise you to give it all to me.
My condolences on the loss of your step-Grandmother, if in fact, they are warranted. I would definitely speak to a lawyer that really knows his CA law. This state is really weird when it comes to some legalities, to the point where it may as well be its own country sometimes.
I can’t even spell laywer. But I do want to ask if you would still consider this a formality if you later learned, once all of the waivers were signed, that most of the value of the estate was left to the attorney overseeing the estate? Not that this has ever happened, I’m sure.
I agree with the previous suggestions that it would be best to speak with a lawyer who is (a) licensed in the state where the estate was probated, and (b) knows estate law.
As I said, that would be best. That’s not so easy to do if you are 2000 miles away. Still, if you have no local attorney that you already have a relationship with (and the estate is of any size), that’s what I’d do.
I would talk to an attorney in CA. An attorney in MA isn’t going to know much about CA law. There may be a perfectly logical reason for the waiver, but I can’t think of one.
In my opinion signing a waiver of any rights that you might have isn’t a formality. Get a lawyer to review the documents and explain the process to you. Maybe there is a perfect valid reason for the waiver but I don’t know what it is. At the very least, you should know what is going on before you sign anything.
Isn’t it interesting about the jobs our grandparents had? My grandmother died very recently. In her obituary, it said she was a “Watcher and Shuttler” (before she got married and had kids, her REAL job) in an embroidary factory. I had no idea.
No advice for a laywer, sorry. My parents were divorced, my dad fell out of favor with his parents, and to make a long story short, he was not included in the will.
I am not your lawyer; you are not my client. This is, quite patently, not legal advice. Read on at your peril.
You’ve said that this is California-centric. California’s State Bar maintains a webpage that lists the state’s Certified Lawyer Referral Services; you just need to know the county to look in. If San Francisco, for example, you could contact their local bar association’s LRIS. A consultation is $25. I should point out, however, that there likely is no need to hire a San Francisco lawyer even if the estate is in SF. A San Diego, Bakersfield, or LA lawyer would likely do just as well. (I say “likely” because there may be unusual circumstances where a local lawyer would be more helpful.)
