“honest lawyer”
That’s your problem, right there..
Any news or commentary or is this just a face book post?
BTTT for later read..... can’t help but curious. Good luck.
Oxymoron
Mark Levin. If you can pull him away from the Cruz campaign.
I don’t know any in Richmond, but I can refer you to a good one in Williamsburg. Send me a FReepmail for info.
Patrick Henry... if you’ve got a shovel, and a few hours to kill.
ML/NJ
Move.
There is a lawyer rating company you should be able to find.
Also, sometime the local Bar Association has ratings.
Finding someone from church or synagogue is also good.
I’ll ask my leprechaun and unicorn friends if the mythical honest lawyer exists.
Finding a good estate attorney and a good accountant can be a nightmare. Some of them will take your money and do nothing for months. Unfortunately I know this from experience.
You can't rely on Internet reviews, good or bad.
One possibility is to call up your own local attorney, or just call the office of an attorney whom you respect, and ask for a referral. Any referral is better than none.
That's probably going to depend pretty much first on the signature card at the bank (if it is a US account), not the will or the wishes of the putative heir. And any need for an ancillary proceeding (or a de novo probate) in the US is going to greatly increase the probate costs.
I don't practice in Virginia, and won't touch a probate matter with a 10 foot pole, so good luck. But someone should probably check and see if the amount that was in the banking count is going to be significantly more than the additional legal fees and costs.
How to find a good lawyer when you have no clue:
1. Determine what kind of lawyer you need: probate, litigation, etc. You may need to speak with a lawyer to figure this out.
2. Call the State’s Bar Association and get three referrals.
3. Call the three referrals. Be sure to let them know who referred you (very important). Immediately discard any that do not return your phone call.
4. Talk to the lawyers and tell them about your matter. If they don’t or can’t help, ask THEM for a referral. There’s no better way to find a good lawyer than to ask other lawyers. When you call any lawyer, I can’t express how important this is, ALWAYS tell them who referred you. Saying that you googled looking for a lawyer is okay, but it’s ALWAYS better to be referred and to let the lawyer know who referred them.
5. Talk to three lawyers. You’ll get a feeling for it after a while.
6. I can’t stress enough, if the lawyer doesn’t answer his phone or is never in or doesn’t return phone calls, walk away immediately. If they’re responsive at first but then become hard to get in contact with, get rid of them. It’s a huge red flag.
Forgive me but why do I think the term “honest” really means “free”? It’s not hard to find a GOOD lawyer which is what’s needed. Jokes are fine but no reason to think a lawyer representing your friend would not be honest.
Sounds to me like a complicated and expensive case. You have a foreign probated will, and in this country the money is gone or taken by someone who had the ability to withdraw it. The honesty of his own lawyer is the least of your friend’s problems.
“After he passed... a care giver cleaned out his bank account.”
Take evidence of that to the police, district attorney. Sounds like a criminal not civil matter.
The top attorneys are down on East Main and Cary. A ‘sizable estate’ may be worth the best.
(Gee, this got me to look up a top attorney I knew long ago only to find his obituary.)
Probably be easier to find a 70 year old virgin.
Honest/Lawyer?
Oxymoron...
Sad about the dishonest “caregiver”