E230 How Poor Communication Hurts Probate

<p>Sometimes the biggest problem in probate is the people, specifically when there are <em>too many</em> people involved.</p> <h2>When there are too many lawyers</h2> <p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-10718" src= "https://anthonyspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/When-theres-too-many-lawyers-300x169.jpg" alt="When there’s too many lawyers" width="300" height="169" /></p> <p>You may be wondering: “Why would anyone want too many lawyers involved?” Sometimes there are situations where everyone lawyers-up: the executor has his, the heirs each have their own, and so on.</p> <p>We recently had a situation where two of the heirs had multiple lawyers. There was a language barrier because the heirs were not English speakers. They had lawyers from their own country and those lawyers had translators in the United States. That translator didn’t have any probate experience, so the family friend contacted us to explain what the probate lawyer is saying. Now, there are three layers of lawyers between the heirs and the actual work that is being done.</p> <p>Sometimes heirs have multiple lawyers for other reasons. Sometimes a <a href= "https://anthonyspark.com/e203-why-you-need-an-experienced-probate-lawyer/"> relative or family friend is a lawyer, but do not specialize in probate</a>. They may act as a back-seat driver to the hired probate attorney.</p> <p>None of these situations are great, because in most cases, everyone is billing. Just imagine: three lawyers multiplied by one email is now 3 billable increments. Or if you have four lawyers and the average billing is $400 an hour, that is now $1,600 an hour. Not to mention paralegals and legal assistant who are billing in addition to the attorneys. It adds up fast!</p> <h2>When there’s too many layers</h2> <p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-10719" src= "https://anthonyspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/When-theres-too-many-layers-300x169.jpg" alt="When there’s too many layers" width="300" height="169" /></p> <p>As mentioned above, there was an is