F@#K Attorneys - A cautionary tale.

[mikeyis4dcats.]

This is the story about how my parents lost a $500,000 inheritance through no fault of their own.

My grandmother (RIP) had a boyfriend of over 20 years. They'd have ben married but for the impact on social security and all that. My grandmother died in 2010, and her boyfriend lived on. For the last 4 years my parents took care of him as blood after Grandma died. They shuttled him to the VA for all his appointments, cooked for him, did anything that was needed. In 2012 his health deteriorated and he went into the hospital and it looked grim. The tough SOB gutted it out and pulled through. At that time it was determined that he could no longer live alone in rural Douglas County, so my parents spend a good sum of money and turned part of their basement into an apartment for him. He thrived and his health improved.

He had been a bachelor and had no children, only distant cousins and nephews who ignored him and did nothing to aid. He told my parents numerous times that he was so blessed to have them to take care of him. For the last 2 years he lived in their home, rent free, and they fed him, provided for him. All along he made it known that his entire estate would be theirs, including several valuable antique autos and tons of other assets.

Sadly in August of last year, he passed away in my mothers arms after having a stroke. My parents were executors and sole heirs to his estate. They entrusted the small town attorney that had drafted his will to handle the probate. Over the ensuing months my family and parents (who are in their 70s themselves) have worked hundreds of hours to clean and organize his home as he was a hoarder. We hauled off over 20 tons of trash from the home, tirelessly combing the contents for anything of value to put in an auction. We didn't get to the numerous outbuildings before winter, which are chock full of antique autos and parts.

Early estimates from trusted experts and auctioneer placed the conservative value at $400-500k at auction, which was to be held this spring.

Over the past 6 months my parents have contact the attorney numerous times and were assured everything was being handled. They took a month long vacation to Florida in February to get some relaxation time before my wife and I's second child arrives tomorrow.

They hadn't heard from the attorney all month long, and the estimated 6 months of probate was up. Finally after not getting any kind of response again, my mother became concerned. She contacted the county clerk and inquired as to when the date was set for the execution of the probate and was told nothing had been filed.

For 6 months the attorney assured my trusting parents that it was being handled. She strung them along, ultimately lying to them on Wednesday about being in court all day and unavailable. My parents drove to the small town on a whim and stopped at her office. No answer to the knocking. They left and drove around the block, and the attorney came out to leave. My parents confronted her and she confessed that in 6 months she had neglected to file the will with the county. Something that takes a matter of a few hours work. There is a 6 month limit to do so after death. The will is invalid, and the estate will revert to the same distant heirs which ignored this man his entire 90 years of life.

A second attorney consulted yesterday believes my parents can get reimbursed by the estate for any expenses they incurred while acting in good faith as executors. They have paid out thousands in utility bills and maintenance on the property, in cleaning it up for sale, in travel expenses.

The attorney is a one-person office. No malpractice insurance. Probably not a dime to their name.

So the moral of the story is, don't just TRUST that someone is acting professionally on your behalf. Demand to see hard proof that action is being taken and that you are being served by those you are paying to act on your behalf. My parents appear to have ZERO recourse for what was done to them.

My stomach is in knots. I feel badly for my parents. They have pensions and live comfortably, but this could have provided them with added security. They had also indicated of course that my sister and I would receive a substantial amount of this as inheritance, which was going to essentially pay for my childrens education. Now, that is not going to happen.

TL;DR. **** attorneys. My poor parents. FML.

[Lzen]

Well, that sucks, Mike. Like in all professions, some are just terrible at their job.

[Eleazar]

They need to talk to a real attorney about the damages they have incurred from her malpractice.

[Chiefnj2]

File a complaint with the state board of bar examiners. There might be malpractice insurance.

[Canofbier]

Dang, that's very unfortunate. That attorney has no right to be handling people's wills if that's the kind of care she puts into them.

I agree that your folks should have some means of getting that money after all, but it's a damn shame that they need to pour additional hours into it.

[Fire Me Boy!]

Wow. That sucks, dude. Agreed with Cochise; they need to talk to a real attorney about malpractice.

[TribalElder]

My attorney has saved my ass so many times



Get a good lawyer bro

[BigMeatballDave]

Damn. That **** should be disbarred.

[DeepSouth]

The real Moral of this story is, don''t hire a female lawyer.

[KChiefs1]

How do you know if you have a good or bad attorney?

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

How do you know if you have a good or bad attorney?

Are you in jail? Should you be in jail?

[mikeyis4dcats.]

Originally Posted by Chiefnj2

File a complaint with the state board of bar examiners. There might be malpractice insurance.

no malpractice insurance.

double edge sword - if she gets disbarred as she ought to be, there goes any income source.

[Prison Bitch]

Sounds like she lived in sin with this guy.

As for your parents they didn't get $$$ reward but the got the satisfaction of being good people to someone in need. Who otherwise would've been in a bad spot. Their reward is satisfaction of knowing that.

[Amnorix]

I'm truly very, very sorry to hear that.

First, engage a real attorney. The new one can help you make an application against the estate for the costs incurred on behalf of the estate.

The pathetic POS attorney you previously had probably won't have enough $$ to bring a malpractice claim, but you should still file a complaint with whatever organization in your state regulates the bar so she can, hopefully, be appropriately sanctioned and potentially disbarred (especially if this is not her first offense).

I know that at least some states have funds that can be used to compensate victims of lawyer fraud. Not something I'm terribly familiar with, but a competent attorney in your state should be aware of whether something like that exists.


My own rant, which won't help you one damn bit: THERE ARE TOO MANY ****ING LAW SCHOOLS GRADUATING TOO MANY MEDIOCRE ****ING ATTORNEYS WHO SPEND THEIR TIME BEING ****ING INCOMPETENT AND MAKING THE REST OF US LOOK BAD.

[mikeyis4dcats.]

Originally Posted by Canofbier

Dang, that's very unfortunate. That attorney has no right to be handling people's wills if that's the kind of care she puts into them.

I agree that your folks should have some means of getting that money after all, but it's a damn shame that they need to pour additional hours into it.

additional hours @ $250/hr a that.

but no, they have been told by a very good probate attorney here that the $500k is gone. He said there is an extremely small chance they could argue that the repeated assertions by him over the years that since they were taking care of him he was leaving him his estate was a verbal contract, but that is very tenuous. He said they might hope to recover south of a $100k for reimbursement of executor expenses, and perhaps some funds from a state fund for people screwed over by lawyers, but that is also slight.