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Lawyer withdrawing from probate case

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robz

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Florida My wife has a lawyer handling a probate for her due to her father's passing away in Sept. 2000. This probate only involved a $2,000.00 car $2.500.00 in stock and an ongoing asbestos lawsuit which has only netted about $6,000. We were told this asbestos lawsuit would finalize at around $14,000.00 total.We were told by my wifes lawyer that this must go through probate. Everything has been finalized except the asbestos lawsuit which we were told may last another 5 years.The asbestos lawsuit was originated by my wifes father before his death with a lawyer in N.Y. Our Fl. lawyer has had to extend this probate due to this asbestos lawsuit. The real problem we are having is our lawyer in Fl. He has withdrew from our case at least 3 times, and when we call to ask why they say something was not taken care of by us. Each time we have reminded them it was taken care of and they take the case back! This attorney has NEVER told my wife how to do anything regarding this probate, we have had to find out ourselves! His wife works for him and has handled all of our questions with an i don't know answer. We also are not able to get ANY phone calls returned to us from the attorney, no matter how many times we call! Now they have withdrew from the case again citing (irreconcilable differences) we do not understand this and we were told a few months back to send in $500.00 for continuation of the case! They have done nothing since we sent the money except send us a letter saying they are withdrawing from this case! We don't know what to do and are worried because we cannot hire another attorney because we have no money, as i am disabled and my wife has many health problems and cannot work fulltime. We are very afraid my wife will get in trouble if she does not hire another attorney, and we feel the one we have does not care, as they won't even call us back or send us any information on what we are supposed to be doing regarding this case. I must also mention my wife has (1) brother who is an aire to this whole mess and my wife is the Executor of the estate. Can we go through the rest of this without an attorney? considering all that is left is the asbestos lawsuit being handled by a N.Y.lawyer? I am sorry about all the rambling here, i am worried about my wife having legal problems with this! Thank you for any help you can give us!!! Robz
 


BlondiePB

Senior Member
robz said:
THANKS for all the replies!
There's no obligation for anyone to reply to posts. We are all volunteers not employees. Your problem requires actual, physical legal councel and cannot be solved here in cyberspace.

You're welcome for the reply.
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
Please stop stressing about this--it's really not that complicated.

Did your wife sign a fee agreement with this attorney when she hired him? Executor fee in Florida is 6% of the first $1,000 of estate value, plus 4% of the next $4,000, plus 2.5% of anything over that. It's not fair for him to have to wait up to 5 years for a settlement check that may or may not be received.

Ask him (go into the office and talk to him in person about this, NOT over the phone) if he can just finish up probate on the assets that are in the estate right now, and that the settlement check will be postponed from being in probate until it is actually received. And get a second opinion from another probate attorney to find out whether this can actually be done or not.

Then when probate is over on this, fire this attorney and use another one when the settlement check comes in. If he still won't cooperate, then file a complaint with the Florida State Bar Association and ask for a refund.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])
 

robz

Junior Member
What?

Florida--- (Blondiebp) Not quite sure why you are scolding me for thanking people for helping me with their replies to me, am i not supposed to thank them? robz
 

BlondiePB

Senior Member
robz said:
Florida--- (Blondiebp) Not quite sure why you are scolding me for thanking people for helping me with their replies to me, am i not supposed to thank them? robz
Your "THANKS for all the replies" on THIS thread was scarsm by you not receiving any replies.
 

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