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Perjury and will suppression by lawyer - is this actionable?

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nmandy

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? NY

My father died 2 years ago. At the time, my father's brother (who is now deceased as well) went to a lawyer to assist him in finding and gathering my father's assets. The lawyer in turn contacted my father's accountant, who informed him he had a copy of my father's will, and sent it to him. However, I (and apparently my uncle) were notified that only a partial copy had been obtained from the accountant, which lacked both the signature page(s) and the back where the law firm that made the will 's name was written (not this lawyer but another firm), thus making it impossible to trace the original will from the copy.

At that point, we concluded the will was either untraceable and/or destroyed, and I commenced administration proceedings to gather and search for assets of my father's. In the process - it being almost a year later - this lawyer was subpoenaed and deposed under oath, when he suddenly turned up with a FULL copy of the will, which he claimed my uncle brought into the office several months earlier but after I'd started the administration proceedings. he said he'd misplaced or gotten rid of the other, partial copy - but that the other copy he had was certainly a partial one. He claimed he left a voice mail with my lawyers, which was never responded to, so he gave up contacting me regarding this will and only brought it in when forced to by the subpoena.

I've since spoken to my father's accountant (who had the copy he sent the lawyer) and he is confident that what he sent this lawyer was a full, conformed copy of my father's will, complete with the back AND a cover letter from the lawyer who composed it. If my uncle's lawyer had bothered to make ONE tiny phone call, he could have tracked down the original within minutes, and would have had gotten it as my uncle and I were to be co-executors.

Also, under the will, my uncle was to have been a beneficiary, but in an intestacy proceeding (which I started because I couldn't track down the full copy or the original will) I would have gotten it all. So the lawyer wasn't exactly furthering his own client's best interest either.

How do I go about disciplinary action against this lawyer, and what kind of a penalty can I expect him to get (e.g., a slap on the wrist, suspension of license, disbarrment, etc.)?
 
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nmandy

Junior Member
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, but are these kind of offenses likely to get this lawyer in seriously hot water with the NYS Bar Assn.? The man has an AV Martindale-Hubbell rating, by the way.
 
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R

ResIpsaLoquitur

Guest
Probate problem

When you applied for letters from the probate court to commence administration, did you tell the judge about the partial copy controversy? Because if you did, the attorney AND the accountant should have been questioned by the probate judge before letters were issued.

If this had happened, when/if the attorney received the full copy from your uncle, he would have been bound to come forward with it.

Because your uncle is now deceased, there are an awful lot of unanswerable questions: like did he really bring the will to the lawyer or did the lawyer have it all along.

Pursue the matter with the bar association, by all means. My guess: the attorney will not be found to have done anything unethical.

I wish you the best in straightening this mess out with your uncle's heirs.

:(
 

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