Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

I have a half brother who never left home until he passed away with cancer at 32. He never payed our mother in 14 yrs. rent for living with her. He received a settlement in car accident and gave my mom and stepfather 80,000 dollars to help them move to a different house w/7 acres and house. He died of cancer 7 mos. after the move. My stepbrother had a child whom my mom was raising at the time of his death. My stepbrother was never put on the deed to house. There were 5 children my mom had. Each of us were raised together and My sister and stepbrother had the same father different than us other 3 siblings. My halfbrother and halfsister had the same father than us 3 older siblings. My mom had remarried since their father. My brother left no will, for anything he did to help my mom and stepfather at the time of their move. He more or less owed 14 yrs . of not ever paying monthly expenses, and putting up $80,000 towards them moving, is now an issue since my stepfather died in 2000, and my mom 5yrs later put my halfsister on deed of house. My mother and Stepfather had 2 separate properties, stocks, 5 childrens life ins .policies, Approximately 300,000 dollars after retireing ,selling business, and home , to move to this last place of residency. Recently, my mother passed, and my halfsister was in the care of my mother . My mother went into hospital 9 mos. ago and finally asked that she be taken off any life support and gave up fighting for her life. Now with all of her ailments., Us older 3 siblings tried to travel 500 miles to where my mother was in the hospital, and our halfsister took control of all my mothers affairs. She was offered help by me to bring my mother closer to where her other 2 siblings and I live so I could be with her daily and physically help her with her health. My sister declined, and it was very hard to communicate with our mother because she had a traechotomy done and was on a respirator the last 7 months out of 9 she had been hospitalized. My Halfsister and have not seen eye to eye and she has been very mean in every aspect over these months. I traveled to see and be with my mother in Oct of 2010 to be with her and help her with physical therapy she had refused daily while being alone and so far away, only to have to return, because I found out 3 days into my stay, that she went into shock , and had to be hospitalized, because she had 1 working kidney only. Information new to me of her overall health which my halfsister has kept from the rest of us siblings. Grant you , 2 yrs before this my half sister never called and told any of us other 3 siblings my mother had visited her and was fighting another cancer ailment., she was having tx on. This has brought so much turmoil between her and us other 3 siblings, up until my mother finally passed away 3 weeks ago, because she no longer wanted to stay alive. In a 24 our period she went from doing fair , to needing dialysis for kidney failure and refusing tx.My sister did not even give us siblings the decency to be told , and at the last moment , not having been prepared for this and traveling 500 miles were left to drop everything and rush to her bedside, where in a 24 hour period my sister made a decision to shut her down. In otherwords my one brother and my daughter and I got there in this 24 hr period to find my mother just waiting to pass on not coherent to talk to because of morphine induced state, and cutting off all life support at the last minute. My mother could have been kept alive long enough for her grandaughter and us 3 siblings to be there before she was shut down. I have since to have my sister be name calling and hurtful to anything I try and ask her about my mother and not sharing any of her business with us. She has kept us in the dark. I finally had to go online and find out without a will, what our legal rights are to the estate left behind. Now 3 weeks later , trying to have a peaceful grieving period, has been hell. My halfsister has threatened my other 2 brothers about past tit for tat things my mother has helped them with in the past, and said she is going to pay herself and give to our nephew first any proceeds she receives from our mothers estate. I have to retain a lawyer, I have just in the last few days finally confronted her with what I and other 2 siblings feel our mother would have wanted and that's to divide her estate 4 ways and that's it. She claims she did everything for my mother and only acknowledges her and my halfbrother that died, that proceeds go to our nephew before any of us siblings. Now I have foung out my mother had gotten into deep debt with a gambling problem, one which my sister has watched and not alarmed any of us other siblings about. So bad and sever that after investigating this I found the last 10 yrs she has cashed in on 5 life ins policy, sold 2 separate properties she owned, cashed in on $7000.00 of stocks and looks like all her charge cards are up to $16,000 of which I have come across 6 so far. My sister is waiting for bankruptcy court decision which she filed right before my mother passed. I have yet to get a straight answer out of her until I learned I have legal rights to know of my mothers situation. My sister has ran my moms account with her I know of the last 6yrs.She has been so uncooperative and mean when you ask about any of my moms affairs, that I finally asked her one last time to share her knowledge on my mothers account with us other 3 siblings. I asked that she share this info or I would seek an attorney to contest the deed and my mothers estate. I also have yet to have a day to greive, make a websight and have an onsight memorial for our mother, not been bombarded with only the mention of her , and her immediate family. I would have never in a million yrs. thought us 3 living siblings besides her would go through such strenuous circumstances. I am alone and 11 yrs older than this halfsister that has acted out so bad , and has been so hurtful to us 3 older siblings left here to deal with my mothers affairs. She has divided us by not sharing all with the rest of us siblings and if there is anything left from selling her estate, she plans to enter a nephew and her before us in what may be left after selling 7 acres and a house. Also right before my mom went into hospital and went to my sisters 400 miles away, I found paper work of her ready to get a loan for another 120,000 dollars. I don't think I mentioned she owned this property outright and payed $203,000 cash to out right buy it and not have a mortgage. Only to find out she does owe also a $50,000 dollar home equity balance to date. All of which this looks like she was gamebling severely. My sister is a nurse, which my mother was able to afford helping through college. She is married to a Dr. where they both live in a 8,000 sq ft house. I feel her hatefulness has driven her to greed and the rest of us 3 silblings more or less have worked very hard and live a very moderate life. Her not accepting my help to bring my mother closer to us other 3 would have been so much more financially better, because it would have been so much easier for her to travel here with her income , than leave my mother to be so alone in hospital . I am positive the influence of my mother took it's toll. At one of my trips to travel my mother tried to express this to me , but my sister wouldn't have it. I feel sickened by all of this !!!! What would you recommend?

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