Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Georgia

Dear Attorney's At Law; I am going to try and explain this as simple as I can. My father died in February of 2005. He left a Will. Our Stepmother was the Executor. She tried to pull a PETITION FOR YEAR'S SUPPORT (in the Petition, she had "there's will not to be probated"). Well,she had everything our Father left us listed in this petition and realize it was going to take everything from us if we agreed to it. So, we put a stop to it,but not until the next week. The Petition was done the day of the "reading of the Will" so we didn't have a stop put to the Petition until the following week. She gave us all a copy of the Petition, but failed to give us a copy of the Will that day. She told us she would "send us one in the mail." She never did. In the meantime, after we put a stop to the Petition for year's support,my sister called her and told her to go probate the Will like Daddy told her to. She said she would. My brother and I told her we wanted to be at the Probate of the Will.She said she would call us, she never did. One morning we call her and shes on the way to Probate the Will. We live in Atlanta, she's in Macon. We did not have time to drive to Macon for the Probate. But, we found out that a man named Jim Bradley was with her. This person is *supposedly* a half brother. But, I do not know him at all. I also know that my daddy had "rekindled" a relationship with him , but he did NOT put this man in his Will. Well, three weeks went by after the probate of the Will and we finally got a copy of it. IT WAS NOT OUR FATHER'S WILL. It was ANOTHER WILL that SHE FORGED and this JIM BRADLEY WAS IN IT. At that point, when she went to distribute the funds from the IRA that our father had left us, she gave JIM BRADLEY 1/5 of it. HE TURNED AROUND AND GAVE IT BACK TO HER. The IRA was 100,000.00. So we each got approximately 20,000.00. BUT, she got 40,000.00. In our Dad's Will, this woman was to get A CHILD PORTION,. just like everyone else. THIS INCLUDED HIS BANK ACCOUNTS. Well, our daddy had over 150,000.00 in his BANK ACCOUNTS. When she got done, we all got 4,500.00. We asked her what happened to all of the money and she gave us this trumped up computer generated receipt for the money spent. NOW MIND YOU, the HOMEPLACE is ALSO OURS but daddy had asked us to pay it off with this money in the bank accounts so that she wouldn't have anything to pay but the utilities and upkeep. Naturally, we did that. We used 88,000.00 to pay it off. We had one other property that had to be sold and we all agreed to sell it for 25,000.00 to get it off our shoulders. We each got about 2,500.00 for that. She got a life estate, but the house goes to US if she dies and if she decides to sell it,she has to divide the monies up between all of us or REINVEST IT into another house. She did not put the house in the Estate name either.So, my brother and I had an attorney draw up a motion for the probate court. We motioned the court for an accounting, to put the homplace in the Estate name and to REMOVE HER AS EXECUTOR. We went to court. The judge got angry because the attorney told him that the paperwork on the homestead was done properly and when he handed the paperwork to the judge, the judge threw it back at him and said IT IS NOT DONE, IT IS NOT EVEN SIGNED, YOU WILL DO THAT TODAY AND I WILL NOTARIZE IT. So, the homeplace got done. He then told her that she had to bring him receipts for everything on that computer generated paper of deductions. She sent him NOTHING. We got a letter from the judge after court that day, that went to her attorney, telling her attorney AND US that a trust had been attached to the estate, ordering her to put back all the money that she withheld for "unforeseen estate expenses" and that her "so called accounting" was inexcusable and that she was BARRED FROM THE ACCOUNTS BY ESTOPPLE DUE TO HER OWN ACTIONS. After that court day, we also sent the PROBATED WILL off to a forensic document examiner and it came back FORGED. Which we knew it was anyway. We sent the judge all of that information along with the monies that were missing out of the bank accounts where she closed daddy's accounts and moved monies into her own account, etc.etc. WE STILL HAVE NOT HEARD FROM THE JUDGE. We got a family attorney to try and help us. BUT, he is not helping us at all. He is dragging his feet and continually dropping the ball with us, not really helping us at all. He is a LITIGATOR, not a probate attorney. He got mad because we sent him an email giving him some Ga. Code laws. HER attorney called us and wanted to know what it would take to settle the estate.Our attorney sent a letter to him telling him what it would take, and he sent a letter back saying they had "changed their mind, that she had a right to survivorship" .. which she DOES NOT. There is a probated will and she has to follow it. PERIOD. The house nor the bank accounts were left to her as a right to survivorship.PERIOD. And so now, we need to know which way to go. Do we go and motion the probate court again, seeing how the JUDGE has not even RULED yet on anything that we've motioned for ?? Or, can we go ahead and file a CIVIL LAW SUIT? If we file a civil lawsuit, what do we file for? Do we file for FRAUD, FORGERY, AND THE MONEY AS WELL AS TO CLOSE THE ESTATE? Or what? And if we motion the probate court, what do we motion for? CAN WE DO BOTH? If so, can you tell us what to do with BOTH courts? The thing is, this idiot stepmother of ours, has done nothing but lie steal and cheat since day one. When the judge ordered her to put the monies back that she spent for unforeseen estate expenses, and attached the trust to the estate, she went down there and put 1,000.00 dollars in it. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? THIS WOMAN NEEDS TO GO TO JAIL. If it had been ONE OF US that had done what she's done, WE'D BE UNDER THE JAIL!!!! PLEASE HELP US. We are so distraught, she has caused so much heartache and pain and stress in this family, it is NOT even funny. The thing is,she's already inherited a large sum of money from her OWN family, including property with 122 acres of farmland in Dublin,Ga. WE NEED THE MONIES OUR DADDY LEFT US AND WE WANT HER OUT OF THE ESTATE , gone, done , over with. We seem to find plenty of attorney's that tell us we have a right to a lawsuit, we have a case, but as soon as they talk to HER attorney,they don't want to help us. What happened to justice and doing the right thing? What happened to upholding the law? ARE THERE ANY ATTORNEY'S OUT THERE AT ALL ANYMORE ..WHO CARE??? Bewildered and hurt. Tremendously. SSmith/Carrollton, Ga.


Asked on 7/16/11, 8:41 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Glen Ashman Ashman Law Office also dba Glen Ashman Attorney

First of all, contact LawGuru and ask them to remove your post. You posted your name which LawGuru does not allow.

Second, you say you have a lawyer. No other lawyer can ethically advise you when you already have counsel.

Third, since you have a lawyer, you cannot file your own pleadings.

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Answered on 7/16/11, 9:15 am


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