When my father on law passed away without ever legally FILING his last will and testament, my husbandts family was a mess. We were referred to Mark Baehre by friends and family, and Mark was an amazing blessing during a very hard, emotional time. During our free "estate consultation" Mark sat with us and we went through the details of the estate, the "heirs" involved, and he explained that unfortunately NY STATE is very cut and dry when it comes to how estates are handled when someone doesn't have a will legally filed. It doesn't matter WHAT you may have written and stashed away with other family members, it doesn't matter what you have in your safe that was signed by witnesses and notarized, if you didn't have it legally filed -unfortunately- it means NOTHING. In my hubby and his sisters case, because their father also did not legally file the separation papers that he has had stashed away in his safe with his unfiled last will and testament, their mother was still legally married to their father in the eyes of new york state. She got every single thing their father had worked for his entire life, their father's spouse of 20 years was left homeless and penniless, and every single thing that their father had wanted to go to his kids and grandkids all was awarded to his "legally surviving spouse". and boy she had no problem taking everything and anything she possibly could, away from her own kids and grandkids. We met with Mark several times, we called asking him a million different questions about a million different things, and he never charged us a penny. We WANTED to pay to retain him as our lawyer, we WANTED to try to file our own petitions to try to award either my hubby or his sister "the administrator" of the estate, we had wanted to try to contest whatever we could, and it definitely took a few different, longer in length phone calls with Mark for him to get it through my hubby's head that there's no point to waste a dollar on any lawyers, there's no point to waste money on filing fees for any petitions we might want to file, that it would all be a waste because NY goes very strictly by its many inheritance and surviving spouse laws. He could have ABSOLUTELY taken the $6000 retainer fee that he had quoted us before learning the details of the case. We had even asked him at one point how much would he charge us JUST to draw up a petition and file it in court for us- he could have ABSOLUTELY said "sure- come bring me $500-$1000 and I'll file whatever you want"- like OTHER lawyers were offering- nope, Mark said "I wouldn't feel right taking a dollar from you because I KNOW anything we try to file, anything we would try to do in court, it would all be pointless. All new york state cares about is- He was legally married when he died, and he did not have a legal will filed anywhere. there is nothing TO FIGHT- he was married, his surviving wife gets everything, that's just how it works in new york state. it wouldn't be right for me to even take on your case, or take you on as clients, KNOWING that you do not have a case, knowing you can not win". He could have absolutely took our money and filed all the things we wanted to try, and he said something like "if you want to bring me $1000 I will draw up a petition and file this, this, and that, but it would purely be filing fees , you would not be my clients, if your set on filing these petitions I will do it for you, but it's NOT going to work and it would be a waste of time and money and it's NOT GOING TO WORK and i do not WANT to do it, but i also do not want you to be deadset on doing this and going and getting ripped off by another lawyer who may not be as honest or transparent about your desired outcome as i am😭🤣😭❤️ He refused to take us on as clients because he knew we didn't have a case, and he didn't want to take a penny from us. We met several times, he took an ungodly amount of phone calls and questions, checked the status of every property and account in the estate- ALL FOR FREE. If you need an HONEST legal opinion , I would highly recommend Mr Baehre!!!
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