The best person to handle probate situations for you is a probate lawyer. A probate lawyer is a lawyer who specializes in handling probate cases for their client. When involved in a probate cases, the duties of the probate lawyer range from advising the personal representative, the estate beneficiaries on how to settle the estate of a decedent. Typically, the probate lawyer would be actively involved in the process from start to finish. As this period usually present the deceased family with tough times and decision to make, it is appropriate to hire a professional probate lawyer.
Here are five ways you can hire a professional probate attorney:
- Seek referrals
One of the easiest ways to find your way to a very good probate lawyer is to ask friend, family or colleagues. One of them might have useful information that would help you find a professional probate lawyer. Usually when a service is good, people general refer such to their friends or family. Once you get such recommendation be sure you can get a top notch service from the probate lawyer.
- Carry out personal research
At times asking for probate attorney referrals from friend or family might not provide all the good you need. At that point you need to do your own personal research. Now the internet provide a good place to look up for any professional service. You can check out the best probate lawyers closest or around where you stay. While you don’t stop there, you check out their reviews from past clients and see if the service they offer really match what you need. With a proper research you can easily determine the years of experience of the probate lawyer, the type of service they offer and whether you can get what you want.
- What exactly do you need?
It is important to answer this question before you consider hiring a probate attorney. DO you need a probate lawyer to advise you or your estate executor or act as a personal representative? These questions should be properly answered. It might end up a disaster if you hire a probate attorney for the wrong reason or task. If the probate cases will go on for while due to the complexity of the estate pan, you need to consider a few things, which are, your location and that of the attorney; the number of places the decedent has assets; the exact service you want from the probate attorney.
- Contact and speak to a lawyer.
The next step to hiring a good probate attorney is contacting them immediately. Since you have made your research and now know exactly what you need, contact and speak to the attorney. You can easily deduce form your conversation with the attorney whether to still pursue hiring them. This could be over a phone or scheduling an appointment for a meeting. While some probate makes consultation free other might charge you for such service. Either, you should be prepared. A lot of times, the probate layer might need more time to re-evaluate your case and come with a proper strategy to address the situation. You conversation with the lawyer would build up a cordial and professional relation need for the positive outcome. Most probate lawyer exhibit good levels of empathy as they know that probate periods is usually a trying time for their client and family.
- Hire the probate lawyer after a clear agreement.
After speaking to the lawyer and you feel they are right for the job, you should hire them. However, you need to have basic agreement on the fees, what you want and how the probate lawyer plans to deliver. Ensure you both agree on how to be informed about the progress of the proceedings, the number of times the attorney would meet up with your family and other vital details. Once all these are cleared, you can go ahead and hire the attorney.
Bottom line
Probate process can be long and exhausting for all parties involved. You should understand that only when the estate plan is approved by the court, can the estate executor implement the estate plans and distribute the properties to named beneficiaries. You don’t want to lose all you properties by hiring an incompetent lawyer, else follow the above steps to ensure you get a professional probate lawyer.
