Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Illinois

Is there anything we can do without paying so much to the lawyer? My wife's mother died about 5 months ago. My mother in laws daughter, my wife's sister, who lived with her mother for 30 years has made herself the executor of her mother's estate, and not is letting another person in the family see the wills, which there were five, or the deed to my wife's mother�s home. My wife did a search and found that she and her other sister was on the deed filed in 1971; however, the county or we cannot found the original deed. They stated that it was on an old system. We also tried Chicago Land and Trust (downtown Chicago), which is the entity that holds all deeds for Cook County. We talked to a lawyer and he said that there is nothing we can do to resolve this matter without paying 10s of thousands of dollars, personally, I believe there is something we can do. For example, I would like to find the original deed and put everything in probate until my sister in law product the documents from the insurance companies and deed. My wife's sister has remodeled the house using a loan and she has not had a job in years. We are afraid that she is using the house as collateral, and in the end, we will have to pay. Every lawyer that we talked to is saying that we have to have a lawyer to find the papers and file court paper.


Asked on 3/12/10, 1:18 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
David Labovitz Labovitz Law Firm, P.A.

First of all, there can't be five wills! There can only be one last will. Regarding the deed, you can pay an attorney a small amount to have a proper title search run on the property. That will tell you the ownership of the property. Depending on how it was owned, the property may not need to go through probate. For example, if it was held in joint tenancy with a right of survivorship, the house would automatically pass to the survivor at death. Depending on what other assets are in the estate and the current status of the title to the home, you may or may not require a probate. Your best bet is to hire a competent probate attorney to do some initial research. By the way, most estate-related expenses (including attorneys' fees) are payable out of estate assets.

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Answered on 3/17/10, 4:20 am


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