I’m trying to figure out what my legal options are! Mother passed away 18 yrs ago, dad moves in a ‘lady’ who has 3 grown daughters and 3 grandchildren! Pushes my brother and myself out of the picture! Brother is a ‘3 striker’ was in and out of prison, of course had no one and I was the only family he had! (Husband, Myself and my 2 sons) I kept in contact (although strained) with my father, hoping some day he’d actually be my ‘dad’… After mom passed, he told me and a few others that the house and everything would be mine, except for what tools my brother would want in the garage. After my brother living with us for about 10 yrs, and continued on his drug lifestyle, started stealing from me after my husband passed away, I finally had enough and found another place to live. Being angry and hurt I told him he was dead to me! As I had to get the Police to help me get my things that were in the garage, sadly he’d almost cleaned out over 4k worth of my merchandise I was selling! Approximately, 2-3 yrs before my father passed, they were in contact. Needless to say my father signed an unrevocable trust 2 weeks before, having 4 stage lung cancer! My brother got everything! He’s also the ‘trustee’, we were the only ‘bio’ children! Of course there’s SO much more to this story… After 10 yrs of being molested by my father, taken out of the home by the courts. NOW living with depression, anxiety/panic attacks, agoraphobia, ‘little girl’ syndrome. I feel like I got the ‘ultimate FU’… The house sits empty, I’m homeless and I just feel so wronged and betrayed! Do I have any legal options, even though it’s been over 2 yrs?
[moderating]
Legal advice threads on the SDMB go in the “In My Humble Opinion” forum. I have moved this thread there from GQ.
[/moderating]
Also, please note what the SDMB Registration Agreement says about legal advice:
You need a lawyer and also a therapist.
Contact your doctor and ask the office about referrals for mental health counseling. They’ll be able to tell your about local options of low-cost therapy.
After you get that set up, contact a lawyer that specializes in wills & probate.
Look up legal aid in your town.
This right here.
I agree with the above posters, and will only add that I’d recommend that you try to get away from any expectation that life will be “right/fair,” as much (most?) of the time, it probably won’t be.
maybe this is a small point…but I notice that this is your first post on this site.
It’s a pretty serious post, which assumes that we are the kind of people you know well enough to ask advice from.
Are you a long-time lurker?
Or how did you happen to find us just when you need help?
I can’t say whether it would convince a judge, but when the beneficiary is a convicted criminal who has already stolen from you once before, it certainly sounds dodgy as all hell.
Really?
Well, and then there’s the matter that the deceased molested her. So I wouldn’t put it past him to continue to mistreat her.
You have no “right” to inherit anything from your parents. Move on with your life.
Maybe this is more of an ATMB comment, but doesn’t it seem like we’ve had an unusual number of these kooky OPs from first-time posters in the past few months?
Not to mention, most of them can’t write worth shit. Say what you will about ummkay, she could at least write well enough that having our collective leg pulled was at least interesting. Not that I’m saying this OP is making anything up, but it seems like an awful lot to dump on a bunch of strangers on the Web in your first post on a particular MB.
I wonder if it’s really a scam of the following form:
[ol]
[li]Scammer posts some sob story to a MB[/li][li]Message Board denizens post a dozen sympathy messages[/li][li]Scammer posts some hogwash how they found a lawyer but can’t afford them[/li][li]One or two of the sympathy posters offer to help out with the legal fees[/li][li]Scammer laughs all the way to the bank[/li][/ol]
Of course, the Dope being full of skeptics, the scammer doesn’t get past item two, and therefore are never seen again.
That may be your opinion but it’s not legally true in all jurisdictions.
eta: ‘little girl’ syndrome?!?
Well, I can see the appeal of saying something to a bunch of total strangers instead of people who know you. That being said, I do often wonder whether there’s an “Agony Aunt” tag on the board somewhere.
Bingo.
It is not a “bingo”. Laws vary and some places you do indeed have a right to a share of inheritance.
CarnalK - Could you specify those jurisdictions wherein a child has a right to inheritance in the circumstances described above?
Yeah, if you strip out all of the drama it sounds like the Dad purposefully left 100% of his estate to the OP’s brother, his son. People are allowed to cut children out of their will in pretty much any jurisdiction, right?
What was dad’s mental health state at the time he signed the trust? It is suspicious that the brother was the one in contact, brother who as stolen from her before.
You need a lawyer and a therapist.