Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Illinois

You can simply fire your current attorney and hire another attorney to help you close out the estate. Further, you can asked the probate judge NOT to approve her entire fee request, if you feel the estate was overcharged in fees. In that case, the judge might not approve the whole amount of her fee request.

As administrator, you are entitled to the attorney of your choice. You may switch to another attorney at any time. By the same token, your attorney is entitled to reasonable fees for services.

If all residual beneficiaries (i.e., all entitled to a percentage of the Estate) agree that the total amount of attorney fees are reasonable, then such fees should be paid. In a Cook County Estate, each such beneficiary will be asked to ratify the total amount of attorney fees before the Estate can be closed.

If any disagree, you can require your attorney to Petition the Court for approval of attorneys fees. An Estate cannot be charged for any of the work that your attorney puts in to such a Petition.

Generally, I advise against changing horses when you are this close to the finish line. The raw amount of fees might be reasonable when considering the attorney's hourly rate, experience, the complexity involved in this Estate, and other factors. However, it also might not.

Feel free to call me to discuss this. I won't charge for the phone call.