Protect Your Interests While Lending a Helping Hand

We went to court, and the judge treated me like a city slicker and made the daughter the personal representative for the estate. My lawyer proved in court that she thwarted every effort to settle the estate, and also that this woman was reckless and irresponsible. But her husband's father is hunting buddies with the judge. One year after the death, she still has not even filed an official inventory of the estate with the court.

Is there some way to remove what I consider to be a dishonest judge from a case he has mishandled? Also, is there a way for the children's interest in the property to be protected from anyone living on the property due to liability issues?

You can file a motion to have the judge withdraw from the case if there is a conflict of interest or if there is any other valid reason for a judge to be taken off the case.

If a judge fails to consider the motion, you can bring the motion before another judge in the jurisdiction or move for appellate review of the order of denial. But getting to that point is getting ahead of ourselves and may not be the right way to do things.

While your circumstances are somewhat exceptional, it seems you have a contested estate, and the legal wheels take time to spin in both small towns and large cities.

From what you've written, it is probable that the handwritten will was not valid. You imply that there was only one witness to the will. Some states require two witnesses to sign a will, and still others require three. If the will is not valid, the judge would have discretion in deciding whom to appoint to handle the affairs of the estate.

The person the judge appointed lives in the town where the deceased lived and where most of the assets are. That information alone may be enough to justify naming the other woman to handle the estate. The judge may have determined that you live out of state and may not have the same contacts with the family and estate that she has. The judge probably has wide latitude in deciding how to handle the estate.

If the other woman is in fact reckless and irresponsible, you have the right to have the judge reconsider his order to appoint her and to designate somebody else to take care of the estate. But there's no guarantee that he would appoint you. It could be a local trust officer of the bank, who would then charge the estate for his time and costs.

You may need to work with this other woman to get the estate settled. If she ignores you, the only thing that you can do is make sure that the estate assets do not get misspent and that she reports to the court the assets of the estate and proper disposition of all of the assets.

Sometimes the system doesn't work the way you would like, and sometimes it doesn't produce the results you want. But you'll have to work with the system we have in the best way you can to make sure there is a just result.

As to liability issues with property, you should make sure that the other woman purchases insurance for the real estate just in case someone is injured on the properties. Without insurance, an injury sustained by someone at one of the homes could wipe out any money left in the estate.

Ilyce R. Glink is an author and nationally syndicated columnist. Her latest book is "100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask." Samuel J. Tamkin is a real estate lawyer in Chicago. If you have questions for them, write Real Estate Matters Syndicate, P.O. Box 366, Glencoe, Ill. 60022, or contact them through Glink's Web sites,http://www.thinkglink.comandhttp://www.expertrealestatetips.net.

© 2008 Ilyce R. Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin

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