Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New Jersey
My sister and I have been somewhat estranged from our dad.
His wife, our stepmother, passed away 4 weeks ago. My sister was notified of her passing and was told my dad (who has been dying of lung cancer) is being cared for by my stepbrother.
Two weeks after this incident, my sister was notified through e-mail by a cousin (and not our stepbrother) that my dad had passed away. This notification was made after the funeral had already taken place and, therefore, we were not given the opportunity to participate in or attend his funeral services.
There is no recoving from the emotional harm done to us by this obviously mean-spirited gesture. If it were a crime for my stepbrother to have done this, I would have him thrown in prison without a second thought.
Beyond this, the only restitution I assume we have, being my dad's only surviving first-degree relatives, is to pursue a portion of his estate.
I understand that my stepbrother is the executor of my dad's will, which is currently in probate (he lived in Roselle, NJ). However, I live in another state (Florida) and my sister lives overseas.
How do we hire someone in New Jersey remotely to represent us in this matter?
Thank you kindly,
Deborah Solin
3 Answers from Attorneys
call me, please, 201 820 3460.
what you describe is just completely miserable. so sorry to hear it.
as an attorney, I can find out what your father's Will says, and then advise you, and represent you.
Likewise, I can help you. You can contact the Union County Surrogate, as there is where the Will should have been submitted for probate. You can get a copy of the Will sent to you, for a small fee. Depending what it contains, you then can contest its contents, but there is a limited time period to do this, so you need to act quickly. Of course, if you gave me the name and date of death, I could obtain a copy, scan it and send it to you with my suggestions. I must tell you two things. (1) You say you were estranged from Dad, and I suspect you may have been disinherited as a result. This has to be done properly to be effective, so having a NJ attorney review the Will can cover this aspect. (2) Will contests can be time consuming and very expensive. If the estate is not that large, it might not be worth spending the time and money, as the costs can run into thousands of dollars or significantly more. I have been involved in several contests where the legal fees alone ran into hundreds of thousands of dollars and took over 3 years before there was a decision.
This situation unfortunately is all too common in cases where a parent has remarried and the new spouse has children not of that marriage. The new spouse expects to be treated as a spouse, but many times also expects that his/her children will be treated more favorably than the other spouse's natural children, especially if they are somewhat estranged.
I served a Deputy Surrogate of Union County from 1981 for about 11 years and I know the court system well. After leaving that office I devoted my practice to probate matters including contested probate litigation, whether it involved wills, administration of estates or transfers of assets during the decedent's lifetime so as to deplete the estate.
You may contact me at 908.472.1509 to discuss the matter further. I look forward to helping you with this difficult problem.
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