Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Florida

The attorney must file the file if he has the original and has been notified of death.

You might need another attorney to remind him of the statute.

Is the attorney refusing to file it, or do they not have it? There is no requirement for the attorney who prepared the Will to keep the original. In fact many attorneys do not keep the will for many very good reasons.

It sounds like you need to contact a Probate Attorney and begin the Probate. Any interested party has the authority to open the action. Since you have a copy of the Will you know who is named as the Personal Representative, so it should be pretty simple for the attorney to get started. While the Probate must be opened in the county where your father lived or in any county where he owned property, there is no requirement that the attorney reside in that county. So, if you do not live in the county where your father lived you can contact an attorney local to you. In most cases there are few if any appearances in court for Probate and it is mostly completed through correspondence, email and telephone calls.

Good luck.

Hire a probate attorney to file the Petition and then conduct discovery to get the original from the prior attorney.