What is probate?
Probate is a legal system which has been designed to regulate the passing down ownership rights of the assets in the estate of a deceased loved one to his heirs and loved ones. Without the probate process, the assets remain owned by the deceased person and they won’t be accessible by his loved ones. This means the heirs to the estate cannot make use of these assets.
The probate process is a legal means through which the probate court determines or ascertains the validity of the will and last testament of the testator. If the probate court finds irregularities such as capacity issues in the will, it reserves the right to declare the will invalid
Also the probate process is used by the court to determine what happens to the estate of a deceased person who died intestate. This means that if a person dies without having a will, the court will use the process of probate to determine what happens to the person’s estate. The courts appoint an administrator and decide how the estate will be distributed among the legal heirs of the estate. This is all based on the law of the state. The administrator serves the same function as the executor.
What are probate records?
After a person dies, his estate undergoes the legal process called probate. The court creates a court record which entails the decisions of the court regarding the distribution of the deceased estate among heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, etc. this process will take place whether there is a will or there is no will. If there is a will it is known as testate estate when there is no will, it is known as intestate.
In a probate record, different documents can be found in it. For instance it contains
- Wills
- Bonds
- Petitions
- Accounts
- Inventories
- Administrations
- Orders
- Decrees
- Distributions, etc.
These documents in the probate records are very important because they retain delicate information regarding the deceased person. Such information includes; their heirs, date of death, the name of their spouse, their parent, etc.
Finding the court’s probate record of a loved one
There might be need for you to find the court probate record for a loved one who passed. Probably they passed without you knowing and you might be an heir to their estate. This might make you want to find out if their estate has been closed. The probate being a public document means you can access this information provided you know the right direction to look.
It is possible for you to have access to this information in person but, you might want to save yourself the stress and decide to look it up online.
You can take the following steps to find the probate record of a loved one
- Identify the location where the probate was filed
You should start your search from the county where the person lived. If it happens that the person died in another county, for instance he died in the hospital in a county not his home, and you have to start searching from the county that was the home of the person. The probate will be filed in the county home of the deceased person.
If for instance you do not know where they lived, you can as well search any county where they own a property. The executor must have filed a petition to the probate court in those various counties.
- Contact the county’s probate clerk
After successfully identifying the place or county where probate was filed the next thing is to contact the clerk in the probate court where probate was filed. After this, other steps to take include
- Search the internet
- Collect the probate records
- Create copies for the court
Need for an attorney
Legal issues should be given to legal professionals to handle. Trying to do certain things yourself or getting help online might not be the best option for you most times as you might make errors which are irreversible or which will be very expensive to reverse if at all they are reversible. This is why you should always contact an attorney for assistance and guardians. We offer consultation services and we are also open for hire. Do well to contact us today.
