Ga. Father died intestate. His wife won't allow his grown children to see or have any of his personal items. What to do?

Please accept my condolences on your loss. If no one has opened your father's estate for administration, then you could try to do so yourself as one of his heirs. However, assuming that he had his principal residence in Georgia, his surviving spouse has the option, under Georgia law, to file a Petition for Year's Support. In the Petition for Year's Support she can request that the probate court award her everything he owned. If all of his other heirs are legally compentent and over 18 (his children, if all of his children survived him, would be heirs along with his spouse) and no one contests the Petition, she will be awarded everything she asks for. If one or more of the other heirs or any creditor contests the Petition for Year's Support, then the court will have to determine if she really needs everything she is requesting from the estate to provide support for her for one year, taking her other assets and income into account, and then she would be awarded whatever the court determines is necessary to provide her wth support for one year. This is a long explanation that I will now summarize by saying this: his wife, in Georgia, essentially has the right to try to take all of the assets in his estate through a year's support claim, and, if no one actually contests that claim in probate court (which is not an inexpensive or simple process and will generally mean that you need to hire an estate litigator to be successful), she will get them, as long as your father has no surviving children who are under 18. This means that adult children, while they do technically have rights to an intestate parent's probate estate assets, can very easily lose those rights to a year's support claim by a surviving spouse. In addition, if you file to become the administrator of the estate, his spouse will fairly easily be able to challenge your appointment as the administrator, and a spouse has priority over a child in getting appointed as administrator. Plus, even if you get to be the administrator, the spouse can still file a year's support claim, and, if she does not consent to your appointment as administrator but the court appoints you as administrator anyhow, you will need to post a bond and file an inventory and reports with the probate court. It's a serious job. Unfortunately, what this all means is that you likely have no option to force your stepmother to give you any of your father's personal property unless you want to spend a lot of time and money to do so. She has more options than you do. Unless he had a very large estate, it's likely not economically worthwhile for you to pursue the rights that you have. If you want to learn more, however, please get a consultation with an estate litigation attorney. Best wishes to you.

As an heir, you can hire a local probate lawyer to file the Georgia equivalent of an Application to Determine Heirship and Issue Letters of Administration with you as administrator.  Once you are appointed, you wll have the authority and the duty to collect and assemble all of your father's property.  Please note, however, that the widow may have disposed of some personal items.