what to do

[summer9910]

Recently i wrote a message titled no will. well i hired an attorney to help me out i thought and he wrote a letter to my deceased fathers wife and ask for her attorneys name . the attorney i hired called me and told me he had recieved a letter from her attorney that stated that there was no will, no assets or no money. i ask to see a copy of the letter and supposedly he has lost it some where between his office and his house. this was about 2 weeks ago. i just called and he still has not found the letter so i have this letter with personal information in it,floating around. so what can i do to get this straightened out? or is he lying and he never recieved a letter. isn't there some kind of ethical code for attorney's? should they be so careless with client's information? what can i do???????

 

[advisor10]

2-19-2002

DEAR SUMMER9910:

Your posting is confusing--exactly which letter are you trying to get back? The one you wrote at first? That is not what you need to be concerned about.

How much did this attorney charge you?

The main thing you need to do is go to the courthouse to see if a probate file has been opened for your father's estate. The attorney's name and address would be in there if they have filed paperwork to begin opening his estate to claim his monies and properties and to pay his outstanding bills.

If there is no estate file, then they decided not to file one in order to keep everything secret.

You need to pay $200-$300 to a private investigator to have a financial background and asset check done on your father to find out what his bank accounts were worth, did he own any homes or land (you could even look that up yourself at the property tax section of the courthouse), have any insurance policies, CD's, stocks, bonds, etc. It seems the family is LYING to you--there is no way he would have NO assets if he was a wealthy man.

Until you find out what he has, you have no way to claim anything in probate court. The family will need to open an estate for him in probate court to LEGALLY claim his monies and properties, so if they don't open an estate, you will need to ask your attorney to open an estate for this man so the assets can be recorded officially.

SINCERELY,

advisor

 

[summer9910]

advisor

the letter i am concerened about is the one my attorney was supposed to have gotten from her attorney. i am about 8 hours away from jefferson parish but i call just about every day to the clerk of courts there in jefferson parish and there has not been one opened. i know my father paid taxes on the home they were living in and it was valued at $92000.00. i have already called the tax assessor there and he also had a business there he paid taxes on. he also had 2 businesses in mississippi but i don't know the names of those and have no way to find out unless i do hire a private investigator, which is probaly what i will have to do. what i was asking about the attorney i hired here in my home town was, is an attorney supposed to have some kind of ethical code as to protect my private information? he is the one that lost the letter that the attorney in jefferson parish sent to him.

 

[advisor10]

2-20-2002

DEAR SUMMER:

Send me an e-mail message (to the address shown below) that mentions your father's name, month and year that he died, and city/state he died in, and I can check some databases to see if his businesses come up.


SINCERELY,

advisor (e-mail: [email protected])