Georgia Recent Legal Answers from Lawyers

Hello Jeff, Your wife is able to continue her work as an aupair so long as it meets the requirements set forth in her DS-2019 and her most recently issued I-94.  If she is eligible for adjustment of status then she may also apply for a work permit while her adjustment of status case is pending.  It typically takes about 6 months to receive the work permit through adjustment of status. Kind regards, Erin Elliott... Read More

If you are receiving payments from an unknown person, I would report it to the bank or the police. That is improper.  If on the other hand, a trustee is telling you that you are a beneficiary of a trust, but he will not reveal the settlor of the trust, you can demand a copy of the trust so that you can ensure you are getting the proper payments.  ... Read More

Hello Viky, Thank you for your question.  Generally pregnant women are not subject to the 5 year bar in receiving Medicaid benefits.  Therefore, typically a pregnant legal permanent resident is able to receive Medicaid benefits during the term of pregnancy.  Pregnant women then revert to the 5-year bar once their pregnancy is over, if they have not yet been in qualified immigrant status for 5 years. Kind regards, Erin... Read More

I'm sorry, but this is not a probate question. Probate is the area of law that deals with Wills and deceased person's estates. You are asking a question about probation, a criminal law topic about which I, as a probate attorney, know nothing. Please try reposting your question using Criminal Defense or something similar as the topic, so that the right attorneys will see it. Best wishes to you.... Read More

As long as your mother is competent, she can execute a new POA no matter what state she lives in, and it will generally revoke any previously-executed POA. You cannot prevent your mother from revoking a power of attorney. In fact, if your mother is now living in a different state, she ideally SHOULD update her POA, because a power of attorney done in Georgia, under Georgia law, may not work as well under the laws of the new state. If she still wants to name you as her agent, she can, but if she wants to change her agent when she updates the POA, she is free to do so.... Read More

Please accept my condolences on the loss of your mother.   Not all Wills need to be offered for probate, but even if your mother's turns out not to have to be offered for probate, you are still required by law to file the original Will for informational purposes only with the probate court of the county where she had her principal residence. To determine whether the Will must be offered for probate, you need to determine exactly what she owned, and whether any of it passed directly to someone other than her estate under a beneficiary designation or a right of survivorship. If an asset was jointly owned by your mother and another person as joint tenants with rights of survivorship (which is ONLY likely to be the case with some property that was jointly owned, so be careful and don't assume that jointly owned property passed automatically- you have to actually review any joint titles to see how the property was owned), then it's not controlled by her Will. If an asset passed directly to someone other than your mother's estate under a beneficiary designation, that asset is not controlled by her Will. However, if any asset, whether real estate, a bank account, or something else did not pass to someone directly under a beneficiary designation or a right of survivorship, then the Will controls that asset, and the Will will likely have to be offererd for and admitted to probate before that asset can be dealt with. I urge you to get a consultation with an experienced probate attorney before trying to do anything else. Probate and estates have a lot of potential pitfalls that lay people can fall into without good legal guidance. An experienced probate attorney can help you avoid those and save yourself and the estate time and money. ... Read More

How a property is owned is what determines how it passes at the death of its owner. If your father owned his residence in his own name before he married your stepmother, then the question is whether at some point during his life he gave her an interest in the property by signing a deed that transferred the property from his name to the names of himself and his wife. If he did so, and if the deed that he signed gave the property to the two of them as joint tenants (this is determined by the language of the deed), then they would have from that point on owned that property as joint tenants, and it would have passed automatically to his wife at his death if she survived him. If he never added her name to the deed, then the property became part of his estate at his death. She could then try to have the probate court award it to her as part of a year's support. If he transferred the property to both names, but the deed did not contain the right language to create the right of survivorship, then half of the property was already hers, and the other half became part of his estate. The short answer is that you need to find out whether there was a deed signed by your father and recorded before his death that gave the property to himself and his wife, and if so, exactly what that deed says. You can find a copy of the deed in the real estate records for the approrpriate county. You may also be able to find it online in the Georgia Superior Court Clerks Cooperative Authority website- gsccca.org.... Read More

You need to have the trust explained to you.  Contact the trustee to see what the requirements for distributions are for your child's trust.  Most trusts have a HEMS standard for distributions.  This means the trustee can provide money for the health, education, maintenance and support of the beneficiary.  A car woudl typically be something a trtustee could do under these standards, but the decision is in the discretion of the trustee. A trustee can be called to task if he is too tight with the distributions.... Read More

In this case, the appropriate county is the county where the at-fault driver resides. The address for the at-fault driver is listed on the police report. You can file in municipal court, but the maximum amount you can recover there is only $15,000. Therefore, you should file in either state court or superior court. Once you file suit, you must serve the at-fault driver with a summons and a copy of the complaint - either with a county sheriff or a private process server. ... Read More

In fairness to any law firm, there is only so much we can do.  We rely heavily on you to retrieve medical documentation from care providers.  We can send out requests, but don't always receive confirmation.  We like to think of this process as a team venture.  If the team works well together we put ourselves in a better overall positon for success.    Attorney Scott Bocchio President Legal Rights Advocates P 855-254-7841 www.yourlegalrightsadvocates.com  ... Read More

Hi- I am sorry to hear about your friend, but this is not a probate question. It's a probation question. Most probate attorneys don't know anything about probation- it's a criminal attorney issue. Please try reposting your question with a different topic or editing your original post so you get attention from the right kind of attorneys.... Read More

In general, you should not need a child's birth certificate or Social Security number in order to create a trust for that child's benefit if the trust is being created by a Will or a trust agreement that your father is having prepared. If your father is trying to set up a 529 Plan college savings account, or even a custodial account, then some of that information might be needed. You may want to try to find out more about what your father is trying to do. But if you don't feel comfortable giving out your children's information, certainly don't give it out.... Read More

There's no way to answer your question because it depends on the particular facts of each situation and, assuming that each side has a different version of events, which side the jury believes.  Of course this presumes that you were not charged with a crime or were acquitted of the crime.  if you are convicted of a crime relating to the incident, that conviciton will be binding against you in a civil case.... Read More

The I-130 form appears fairly specific in asking for the marital status of the beneficiary. In this case, you say that he has been separated for four years, so that is the information that should be checked off on the form. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee, Esq.'s (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.  ... Read More

Please accept my condolences on the loss of your mother. The answer is maybe. If the bank thinks you meet their credit standards and that the car is worth more than your mother owed on it, and if you will become the owner of the car under your mother's Will, then they may let you refinance it. You might also be able to get a loan from another lender and buy the car out of the estate. Be very careful if you are the executor or administrator that you properly carry out all of the estate administration, however: if there is any equity in the car and your mother has other debts, then those other debts may need to be paid even if you have to sell the car (to yourself or someone else) to get access to the equity in the car. If you will be handling the estate, please consider having an attorney help guide you through the process.  ... Read More

Unfortunately, if you have already tried submitting forms and documents and you aren't getting anywhere, and if you need help and advice on how to file additional documents, then you need to hire a NY attorney. Your other option is to give up on the funds. For one thing, unless you are actually the legally-appointed representative of your late grandmother's estate, you may not even have the clear legal right to claim the funds. If the funds are in the custody of New York State, then it will be their laws that you have to deal with. They aren't required to make it easy to claim lost funds. This likely won't be much consolation to you, but we have the same kind of situation in my own family, where several deceased family members have unclaimed funds on record in North Carolina. However, because there are no currently appointed Executors for their estates, there is no one who currently has the legal right to claim the funds, and the value of the funds does not make it worth opening (or re-opening) the estates to claim them. So there they sit, and will likely remain there forever. You can try contacting a legal aid organization in New York, but most of those groups won't help with estate-related matters like this. You may also be able to find a financial advisor or CPA who will provide you with some advice, if you are using that person for other matters. Good luck- I hope you are able to figure it out.... Read More

Someone needs to open an estate to insure that everything is handled properly.  The wife has a right to keep you from the house if she owns some or all of the house.  No one has a right to deal with your father's property until he/she is appointed personal representative of the estate.... Read More