Fort Lauderdale Probate - Probate in Florida
Dealing with the death of a loved one can be difficult to handle and there is often a lot going on that you just aren't sure where to begin. You know that you need to hire a Fort Lauderdale Probate Lawyer to help you with the estate, but you might not be sure when you should do that or when the appropriate time is, or even if there is a deadline. You don't have to do it in the midst of planning and attending a funeral - it can wait until things have settled back down a bit but then, you should look up a probate lawyer to hire to do the administration of the estate.
In nearly all cases, you are required by the Florida probate law to hire a probate lawyer to administer the estate. Unless you are doing a disposition without administration, which is the case for some small estates and estates where the executor is also the sole beneficiary, or you and your spouse co-owned all assets, you will need to hire a probate lawyer. If your spouse is the one who passed away and you owned everything together, then you may not need to hire a probate lawyer. However some small estates and estates where the deceased spouse owned things on their own name only will require administration. Administering the probate on an estate is very technical and can be quite difficult to do if you don't have a probate lawyer.
You can use any probate lawyer in Florida to administer the probate on an estate - you do not have to use one from your area or the area where the estate is located. The Florida probate laws only indicate that you must have a probate lawyer to do the administration on the estate and do not dictate where that lawyer must be from. Most of the probate will be handled by fax, email, phone and postal mail, so you can hire whichever probate lawyer is best for you throughout the state. If there are contested issues then it is best to hire a Fort Lauderdale probate attorney since he/she will be familiar with the local court.
Estates are very complex - no two are really the same. Every estate is handled differently and thusly, the charges that you will incur from your Ft. Lauderdale probate lawyer as well as the time it takes to close the probate will vary widely from one case to another. The time can be roughly estimated for non-taxable and taxable estates. A non-taxable estate that requires full administration takes six to ten months to complete while one that requires only summary administration takes four to six weeks. A taxable estate takes approximately two years to complete the probate process.
