Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Georgia
My father died in March of 2009 and in March of 2010 my half sister filed to have the property put in her name as sole heir without notifying me other my other half sister. I spoke with the court clerk and she said if my sister told the court that she had tried to contact my fathers other heirs without any response then the had the right to file, but I was not contacted. There was no will. Is there anything that I can do at this point? I do not have the money to fight this in court, but I wish that there was some quick way to hault any plans that she might have with the property.
2 Answers from Attorneys
There is no way to analyza a case without seeing the paperwork, and if you are unwilling to pay to see a lawyer, then you might as well resign yourself to whatever happened, as contested probate matters are really not a pro se matter.
If there is no will, then the assets of your father's estate would be equally distributed between his children, assuming that there was no surviving spouse. You need to see a probate litigation lawyer NOW in the county/state where the land is located or where the decedent lived at the time of his death. Many attorneys offer free consults. They may be willing to work with you on payments.
You do not indicate what the land is worth or the number of siblings involved. If it is going to break down to a small number then perhaps it may not be worth it. The only way to know for sure is to have this reviewed by an attorney. I would also go to the court where this was probated and make a copy of everything in the court file if there is one as this will assist the lawyer in determining whether a caveat should be filed. As noted by Attorney Ashman, this is not a matter in which you can represent yourself. You could possibly bring a civil suit against your half sister and seek to impose a constructive trust on the land and file a lis pendens so that she could not dispose of the realty. Again, this is not something you can handle on your own.
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