Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Massachusetts

Wrongful death and Will dispute
I am looking for an attorney(s) to dispute a will, and an atty experienced in civil litigation (specifically experienced in discrediting witnesses
who lie) for a wrongful death suit against Elder services and my brother. I reported my brother to elder services when he was ''taking care'' of my mother. I went into great detail of what he was doing- which involved neglecting my mother and financially exploiting her, as was my sister. They called him and made an appointment to visit her, and found nothing wrong (duh!) and never looked into the financial exploitation. As a result she died of what I warned Elder Services about- my brother told one story to everyone- she was sick for a few days-wouldn't eat, drink, talk, couldn't walk. He called 911 to have someone come to pronounce her dead, and she was alive, but died en route to the hospital. He obviously didn't plan on being questioned by the emergency room dr. Acccording to the hospital report, he told the dr. that she was fine, ambulated normally,-never mentioning her being sick, because he knew he should have gotten medical care.

Asked on 10/01/08, 8:36 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Alan Fanger Alan S. Fanger, Esq.

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Re: Wrongful death and Will dispute

This is the profile of a case that is all too common. If your brother was in a position to financially exploit your mother, and by his actions caused your mother to change her will to benefit himself, then the will can be challenged on a legal basis known as "undue influence". As a result of some recent changes in our case law, the burden of proving the validity of the will might actually shift to your brother; that is, if certain facts could be established, the will would basically be presumed to be invalid and he would have to prove otherwise. I assume he also got himself named as executor of the will. If this is the case, you would have to have a special administrator appointed to obtain your mother's medical records (something that would be quite important), since without such an appointment, only your brother could obtain those records. Feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss this in further detail.

Answered on 10/01/08, 9:59 pm

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