Mom changed her will and added a codicil (rocket lawyer online, witnessed and notorized at UPS store-videoed) 9 months and a year after my son and I moved in with them (6/1/21), 94-yr-old dad with ALZ passed in home-hospice 12/26/21. Mom 84 passed 10/24/22, also home hospice, from dementia and Parkinson’s. I’m 65 on SS and my 41 yr old son on permanent SSD after injuries from a car accident in 2005. Mom told her sister as well as, myself and son, she wanted us taken care of bc we gave her and my dad 24/7 care. Siblings didn’t visit or call for 2 years. I’m being told bc we were caretakers, unpaid with an agreement, we would get paid from estate $2000 month. Sad but true that if you are a caretaker you can be sued for intimidation or fraud. The peace I have is that I gave my parents comfort and safety during their last days. Btw we are talking about an estate of a $350,000 home. I having no savings and my siblings have $ and each have several homes. I was warned by other caretakers and families that this would happen. Any suggestions?
I'm not sure what the real issue is here. You're getting sued by your siblings? Or you want to contest the will because you didn't get paid $2000 a month from mom's estate?
Probate litigation, however, speciality work. Most probate attorneys do NOT do litigation. It’s referral work & not ever “low cost”. Off hand I’d say 10K with 5K upfront to represent you at a minimum.
But bigger questions to me are:
what is status on probate, like, right now?
You are asking abt “contested will”, so codicil being challenged?
OR
codicil thrown out?
Is there a valid will recognized? Who are heirs as per this will?
if this (old) will is accepted instead of Rocket codicil….
Who is it’s Executor? & have Letters Testamentary been issued?
Has NOCs / Notices to Creditors been placed?
And what exactly is your, your wife and your child/children’s “standing” & have you file any claim(s)?. If you have standing, you should be able to use that to placeholder a partial on atty fees.
If you are not Executor, is Executor wanting you out of the home & soon?
It’s been 6 months since her death, normally probate waits 6-8 months for bills to filter through (especially healthcare ones) to open probate and then clear out property to place up for sale. It sounds like y’all are living there??? If so, You should expect to be asked to leave or pay rent, so don’t be surprised if this happens.
Out of curiosity, are you getting a vibe that your siblings are wanting to have you removed from any Estate distribution due to “undue influence over a vulnerable adult” (that whole Rocket legal codicil & 2K a mo you did with you mom)? If so, imho, you need to have a solid experienced attorney that’s with a firm that does litigation and criminal as this could snowball into quite serious issues for you if you have any oversight on your disabled son or handle his finances.
As I understand it you have this codicil and this will, and you are the executor of this estate? If that is so I would think that you have a good chance of winning unless there was dementia involved for your mom at the time she did this will. I hope, if you do find an attorney, that court costs in the event you win can go to those contesting a legal codicil to a will.
I sure wish you the very best of luck.
So they can't have been challenging the will: you can't challenge a will until it's time to execute it. What proceedings did they begin, then?
Did your mother tell them about her new will and its codicil herself?
Your mother took actions to make sure you didn't get burned on the money that she wanted paid to you for caregiving.
Your siblings are contesting this because they don't think you should be get paid. Many sibs think that because a person moves in the free room and board is suffcient compensation for being enslaved 24/7. It is not.
I don't think your siblings will win in court when the estate is settled. You are not making an unreasonable and outrageous demand. You're attempting to collect $32,000 ($2,000 a month) which was owed to you and no more.
I fail to see how the probate judge could not rule in your favor.
In the meantime, you would do well to have a free consultation with a lawyer. Ask them to draw up a sworn statement from your aunt. Good luck to you and I hope it goes well.
probono legal clinics affiliated with law schools do exist and do take clients at a sliding scale for payment. We have them in my city for 2 law schools (Tulane & Loyola). But their practice areas are narrow, like rental law/ eviction, expungement, adoption, voter rights, disability rights, elder / vulnerable person rights, some environmental. Things that tie into federal laws & it’s a lot of paperwork & docket filing done by law students.
HOWEVER,
What you are dealing with is probate law and real estate law and that imo is not done by the probono clinics. It’s really gets into the weeds on however NJ state laws read, so you have to have an NJ attorney in private practice who knows how the probate judges run their court. Your siblings have their attorney’s & if you don’t have your legal own show up, your siblings will get whatever they want “ordered” by the court.
Again I will suggest that you get an attorney and with a firm who does criminal work as well IF you have handled your disabled son’s finances in any way in the past. My concern is that your actions with your mom might be considered “undue influence over a vulnerable adult” (by your doing those changes to her wills) and I’m guessing you also handled mom’s household expenses as well. Your siblings attorneys can find something amiss in those expenses….. if it goes to forensics. So if you did this to your mom, you could do the same to your disabled son. Probate court might have to turn over “findings” to APS on your son. This is why you want a law firm with a criminal defense attorney in it at the ready. This could go real bad, real fast.