Hearne, TX Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

That depends on the court. In larger counties (Dallas, Tarrant, Harris), where there are statutory probate courts, the courts have more staff and resources and the court administrator or other staff may provide instruction. It is ultimately your responsibility to know your duties and your attorney should be your first resource on that. Your first responsibility is going to be to file an Inventory and Appraisement of the estate, which is due 90 days from when you receive letters of administration.

First, your father's estate must be probated by a Court heirship proceeding, small estate affidavit or Affidavit of Heirship, passing his interest to your mother (if all his children are her children). Second, if your mother lacked legal capacity to contract when she "sold" the lots to your sister, report elder exploitation to Adult Protective Services. Third, if the person who purchased from your sister did not know all this, your remedy is to sue your sister for the money she got from selling the lots. You may be eligible for free representation through Volunteer Legal Services or discounted representation through the Modest Means program of Lawyer Referral Service in your area or through a clinic at a nearby law school.

Do some research on the internet. If your estate is valued at $150,000 or more, you may want to consider a trust or have an attorney do it. At James Law Group we make every effort to respond to you quickly and efficiently. This means we may be responding to you from a mobile device. As you know, responding on these devices can result in typographical errors that my otherwise not occur. In order to provide this extra service, please be aware of this and excuse any errors that may be caused by responding in this forum.