Any Lawyer money saving tips re Will contest_

jane1960

Thank you all very, very much, I really appreciate you taking the time to reply and to offer ideas and help. It is a really nasty situation and I am still finding it hard to digest it all. I will follow your advice and hopefully will be able to go some way to righting this wrong.

Jane

Rikki

Make a list of questions you would like your brother to answer.
POA, Will 2007, Divorce, Divorce money, Bank details etc ..........and why!

Ask you step father for the divorce information. How he was approached, by whom, why it was necessary and the conditions of the divorce.

Find out if the copy of the will does have to go to probate. If so you have your first step in place. (my fingers are crossed this is so)

Check your house insurance legal cover just in case you do have to involve a solicitor down the line.

Call Action on Elder Abuse for information and advice.

I suggest you print off your posts on here as they express your concerns clearly and will make a good reference each time you have to repeat the circumstances.

Ask what you can do to about POA and not being informed by the solicitor. Suspicious over the divorce and the monies paid as a consequence and the where abouts.

Your head is probably spinning at the moment so make notes and when you are less fuzzy read them through and make sense of it all.

whitewing

Jane,

I am slightly sozzled on tia maria at the moment, so may have missed this. Where was your mum living exactly? I just wondered if (some of) the money could actually have been used up in nursing home fees - they would be very expensive..

jane1960

:beer: Hi Whitewing, I wish she would have spent her money on a nursing home! No, my brother took her out of her own home in 2005 (where she lived with her husband) to live with him and his girlfriend "temporarily" - he immediately organised the PoA to be released, paid his untrained girlfriend a salary of 1,200 GBP per week to care for my mum, paid for neighbours to come and help look after her and others to come to the house to shower her.

She was also at a day centre from 9 til 5 - 4 times a week. He always spent plenty of time on the phone to me telling me what a burden she was and how much it was costing him to have her in his home but he wouldn't allow her to go back to her own home - he claimed she had been neglected by my stepfather - and he wouldn't allow me to bring her over to stay with us in the Canary Islands. It wouldn't have been a problem because my mother-in-law, who over the last few years definitely had dementia, used to come over every winter with my sister-in-law until she died 6 months ago aged 94, we often looked after her to give my sister-in-law a break - and it was fine. Mybrother wanted total control over my mum and her money so she was kept isolated from her lifelong friends and her husband for the last 3 years of her life, I had to be very careful with my brother because I was scared he would also stop all contact between my mother and I also. When she first went to live there she would only dare phone me and her husband when my brother and his girlfriend went out to the pub, then the phone calls stopped, which was most unlike her, I would call loads of times in order to speak to her and no-one would answer the phone, I would just persist and eventually manage to get to speak to her, but none of it felt right.

jane1960

Ooops sorry, not a salary of 1,200 gbp per week!!! I mean per month.

whitewing

Sounds wicked to me. I can understand why you couldn't push it when your mum was alive. I think you need to get to the bottom of this. Help the Aged may be another good charity to get in contact with. Is there any way you can have a confidential chat with your mum's gp?

whitewing

If the girlfriend was being paid that much, then presumably she would be liable for tax? Inland Revenue?

Masquerade_2

There are many lawyers that will come to an 'arrangement' with you in respect of their costs. Many will take on a case if they know you have a good chance of winning it and will subsequently be in a position to pay their costs at a later date.

You will need to shop around but make sure you go to someone reputable. Many solicitors will offer an initial consultation free of charge so they can tell you whether they think you have a case worth pursuing. I would suggest this would be your first port of call.

Citizens Advice Bureaus will be able to give you a list of good solicitors in your area.

jane1960

I have written to my mum's health centre that cared for her for many years up until 2005 - I have known the doctors and staff for years, so that's not a problem, however my brother changed her GP after that because his home was about 50 miles away, I have written to the health trust in his area to ask for information but I don't know if they will give it to me.

jane1960

I would assume that his girlfriend was paying tax because she is now claiming unemployment now that my mother has died.