Family Will and Legal Malpractice
Five years ago my father unexpectedly passed away. He had a retirements accounts and life insurance policies and a will. The policies listed me as the beneficiary but he was remarried to an evil woman. This woman refused to sign over her rights to these policies and when he passed away she sued me for his retirement and insurance proceeds.
My father was abused by this woman and had repeatedly, unsuccessfully tried to divorce her. His attorney wrote him a will shortly after his marriage was on the rocks leaving everything to me.
Fast forward five years, the estate has finally settled. I spent almost $100,000 in legal fees to only receive a small fraction my father’s estate. I was unable to financially continue and I was scared what a judge may determine in court since the divorce was never finalized—despite her documented attempted affairs, abuse, and death threats towards my dad and his continued attempts to divorce her.
My question is do I have a malpractice case against the attorney who wrote his will for not properly setting up a trust/will/protection means?
Re: Family Will and Legal Malpractice
Did you contract with the attorney?
to the insurance:
what do you mean she would not sign over her rights? an insurance policy is passed outside of probate and subject to different rules and laws. Unless she had some rights to sign over, the insurance should have simply been given to the bene (you).
for her to contest and have it go beyond an initial review, there is more to the story.
Re: Family Will and Legal Malpractice
No, I did not contract with the attorney. He had his partner try to represent me in the civil suit but I quickly hired a different attorney.
As for her rights, the policies required that the spouse (if there is one) give up her rights to make a claim on the policy. I think I said that right. Basically, the bene info was filled in but a signature from the spouse was needed and it wasn’t given. The insurance policy was also included in probate.
There were a few vehicles that she chose not to elect on. If my memory serves me correctly she had the option to elect on the will or pursue the policies.
Re: Family Will and Legal Malpractice
The estate may have had a claim, but I'm not aware of any state where the statute of limitations would go back even five years for professional negligence. It's also really difficult to try to bring a malpractice case against a lawyer who did not represent you. I'm not going to say impossible, as you chose not to follow the instruction to identify your state (laws are different in each state) and we don't have all the facts.
Re: Family Will and Legal Malpractice
Oops, my mistake. We're in PA.
Re: Family Will and Legal Malpractice
Quote:
=harley_d;341879]No, I did not contract with the attorney.
The had no duty to you to act in any given manner.
anyway, I see the problem. He attempted to disinherit step mom. That is a no no in Pennsylvania. Since he didn't leave her anything, she had a legal right to seek her spousals elective share which would be a 1/3 interest in the estate.
from the sound of things, you might look to your attorney for his quality of counsel to you. Sounds like you spent a lot of money and never learned that she was legally entitled to a spousal share due to the lack of inheritance.