This is my post for #freewriters 2475 prompt dishonest treasurer hosted by mariannewest
When my sister hired a law firm to handle my Mother's probate she told me that they said they could do nothing about her property in Alabama, they said we had to handle it and hire a law firm in that state. I wanted to do the probate on that property first and let the house here wait since my sisters were living in it but the one who hired the lawyer wanted to do the house first and she had the money to pay the lawyer.
About 2 months ago I told my daughter that I was tired of waiting for the house probate to go through and was going to hire another law firm to do the Alabama property. I found out that the sister who named herself as executor of mom's estate had to be the one who files in Alabama and her lawyer had to file what they call an ancillary. And we have to get an Alabama attorney to file it up there. This had to be done before the probate closed down here. I told her all of this.
Ancillary probate is a secondary legal process that takes place in a state other than the original probate proceeding when a person dies with assets in more than one state. It's required because each state has different property laws, so a probate proceeding must be completed in each state where the deceased owned property.
https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+an+ancillary+probate&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS914US914&oq=what+is+an+anchillary&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqDAgEEAAYDRiLAxiABDIGCAAQRRg5MgkIARAAGA0YgAQyCQgCEAAYDRiABDIMCAMQABgNGIsDGIAEMgwIBBAAGA0YiwMYgAQyDAgFEAAYDRiLAxiABDIMCAYQABgNGIsDGIAEMgkIBxAAGA0YgAQyCQgIEAAYDRiABDIJCAkQABgNGIAE0gEKMjAwODdqMWoxNagCCLACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
She never did anything and now I think the probate here is closed, but I am not sure about it since we can not get the lawyer here to return any calls. When I check the court records it says ORIGINAL DISPOSED and we received paperwork from the court that says all interested persons have been served proper notice of the petition. None of us knows if this means it is closed.
I called several Alabama Law Firms and every one of them told me that it should not have closed down here without the Alabama property being handled in court, it is part of Mom's estate. The one I think I am going to hire came right out and told me that the law firm here should have known about an ancillary and should have had us or him contact a law firm in Alabama. They also told me that they hate to talk badly about other lawyers but that is something her lawyer should have known.
When I tried to explain this to the sister, all she kept saying to me was that her lawyer could not do anything about the Alabama property, she sent me a text telling me that she gave them permission to talk to me and gave them my phone number. The Alabama law firm also said that if probate has been closed, the lawyer here needs to try and get it reopened. What a headache all of this is. This is all like hiring someone to be a treasure and finding out you hired a dishonest treasurer.
It might cost me more money but if I do not hear from her lawyer by noon tomorrow I will tell the Alabama lawyer I will pay him extra to contact them and try to light a fire under his ass. I am tired of it, Mom will be gone 3 years in 5 days and there is no reason it should have taken this long.
photo is mine It is a baby rattler that one of the dogs got. I think some lawyers are snakes.
