Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Mississippi

Probate Question

The state in question is Mississippi. My question, would any family member legally be able to know what is in an escrow account before the probate is complete and if so how can you find out? Also can the attorney bill you according to what is in your account? Last but not least, does an attorney have to provide an itemized billing that list the amount of time spent to complete different tasks?

My situation:

My grandfather owned land that he passed down to his heirs. When he was alive he was receiving royalty checks from an oil company that used his land as a pathway to get to several oil pumps surrounding his land. For the last 15 years (after his death) money had been issued and put into an escrow account because probate was never completed. The family was not aware of the account until the company need to directly drill from there land to retrieve any further oil.

Please can some on help me with this we are going in circles. Answers to part of the questions would help. We have been dealing with getting this probate done for the past 2 1/2 years. We have already paid a bill for $3000.00 and the attorney is requesting an additional $7000.00 to complete the probobate, this lawyer is charging $150.00.


Asked on 9/10/05, 11:39 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jan Butler Jan R. Butler

Re: Probate Question

The attorney is the attorney for the administrator/executor. The proper procedure in the usual case is for the administrator/executor to petition the court for approval of attorney fees. At that time the attorney should present an itemized statement of time expended with explaination of what was done during that time frame. All interested parties should be given a copy of the attorney fee statement before it is presented to the court.

$150.00 is reasonable in most areas of the state.

You can ask the court to require an accounting at any time. Unless it was waived for some reason, the executor/administrator should file an accounting every year with copies to the other interested parties. This is generally when attorney fees are requested also. Any fees paid from the estate without approval of the court is subject to being taken from the Executor/administrator bond.

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Answered on 9/11/05, 3:12 pm


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