I Think my Port Charlotte Will was Forged. Is there Anything I can do?
You went into your lawyer’s office to review the portion of your will that speaks about the guardianship of your special needs child and something did not seem right. While you are not a lawyer, you can recognize conditions in your own will that look out of place. As you review past changes, you notice elder law provisions that you do not remember and you even question the authenticity of the initials that claim to be yours.
Your Next Step
It is not unusual for a client to ask for a copy of their will from their attorney, so be sure to get a copy before you leave. After you have your copy, you may want to ask your attorney about the suspect passages in the will and when they were added.
Hire A Reliable Estate Planning Attorney
There is no worse feeling than suspecting your trusted attorney of fraud, but you must act quickly if you do detect an attempt to cheat your estate. The moment you leave your attorney’s office, you must hire a reputable and reliable estate planning attorney to help you. Before you make an appointment with a new attorney, you should gather up all of the legal documents you have ever created with this current attorney so your new attorney can make comparisons.
Find Your Most Recent Will
If you are correct and your current will has been altered, then you will want to also bring a copy of the last will you signed before the forgery incident. In most states, the forged will is going to be discarded and the will that was signed prior to the forged will is going to become the will in place.
Get The Will Analyzed
A handwriting professional will be able to confirm whether or not the initials and signatures on the will are all yours. If there are forged signatures on the will, then the handwriting professional can point them out to your attorney for use in court.
Find Out If The Forged Will Has Been Put Into Probate
In some cases, dishonest lawyers will hold onto forged documents and then submit them either right before or right after the client passes away. This prevents the client from being able to contest the documents. Once you and your new attorney have determined the will has been forged, your new attorney should check to see if the will has been put into probate. While it is not impossible to remove a fraudulent will from probate, it will take time and you want the error corrected as soon as possible.
The Asset Protection lawyers at our firm can help you to detect and take care of a forged will. Trust our professionals to work hard to get you out from under the burden of another attorney’s fraudulent activity.