If I’m a legal heir but the courthouse has not made known who the personal representative is, even after more than a month of the hearing date, what should I do?
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If I’m a legal heir but the courthouse has not made known who the personal representative is, even after more than a month of the hearing date, what should I do?
Thus far all requests to be informed of the status of the estate have not been answered.
Asked on April 29, 2014 under Estate Planning, Washington
Answers:
S.L,. Member, California Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 10 years ago | Contributor
You can go to the court and ask the court clerk to let you see the file. You will need the case number in order to ask the court clerk for the file. If you don't know the case number, you can look for the name of the case in the court's computer to obtain the case number.
You can't remove the file from the court, but can ask the court clerk to photocopy the file or the part of the file you need. Since you are just looking for the name of the personal representative, you might not even need to have the file photocopied.
FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 10 years ago | Contributor
The best way to ascertain the status as to who the representative for the estate that you are writing about is to go down to the court house and pull the file to see if one has been assigned to date. If not, you need to file a request with the court for all notices to be sent to you.
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