If you have the responsibility of wrapping up a deceased family member’s or friend’s affairs in the state of California, you may be in need of California probate help.
Paying for an Attorney’s Help
In California, attorneys handling the probate proceeding for an estate receive statutory fees. These fees are very high and based on the value of the estate. Thus, the greater the estate’s assets, the higher the statutory attorney’s fees.
You can calculate statutory attorney’s fees by using our online probate calculator.
Inexpensive California Probate Help
Luckily, by handling the probate process yourself, you can avoid paying statutory attorney’s fees. However, you don’t have to do it completely alone.
Legal Document Assistants
While the probate process is very procedural, with detailed steps that take up to seven months to complete, you can make it easier! A legal document assistant can prepare all required forms for probate cases from beginning to end. Plus, their expertise will ensure the efficient and complete finalization of your probate and take the burden off of you.
Most services charge a flat fee for the document preparation required for the entire probate process. Typically, these fees are under $4,000 in all. However, you will also have third-party fees including court filing fees and newspaper publication fees. These costs are not part of the document preparation service.
Generally, be wary of any legal document assistant service that bases its fees for California probate help on a percentage of the estate’s value. In fact, the value of the estate has little to no bearing on the amount of work required in the probate process and should not be factored into the value of the document preparation work.
With the right California probate help from a professional service such as A People’s Choice, you can complete the probate process on your own without having to hire an attorney. Plus, we promise our services will save you thousands of dollars in the process.
Self-Help Books
The cheapest way to complete the probate process is purchasing a self-help book about probating an estate in California. These books typically cost under $50 and are fairly comprehensive. However, authors rarely update self-help books to reflect changes to California court forms. The court typically revises their forms once or twice a year, which often triggers procedural changes. Therefore, forms prepared from book instructions published prior to procedural changes may be rejected.
Low-Cost California Probate Help with A People’s Choice
If you are considering filing probate in California, need help, and want to avoid the high cost of statutory attorney’s fees, contact A People’s Choice for low-cost assistance. Additionally, you can visit our website for more information about filing California probate including the steps for filing a probate in California.
A People’s Choice can help you prepare all the required legal documents to help you file a California probate without having to hire a lawyer. Call us today!
I was charged $30,000. because my attorney didn’t file prop 58 timely. My mother pass in the year 2007 and I became the ADMINISTRATOR of the property 2012. I had beern paying all the taxes and the house note
sence 1984. I got No paper work what so ever from the County regarding any additional taxes. I asked an employee
why I was not notifide or something sent to the house in which I havre resided. I was told that they did not need to notify me becaue I had an Attorney. However the County did send taxes to my oldest brothers house who has
nothing to do with any part of the process.
MY QUESTON IS– FROM THE SAME COURT PAPER WORK THAT TOLD THE COUNTY TO CHANGE MY TAXES, HAS ONLY MY NAME AS THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ESTATE, SHOULD I HAVE GOTTEN SO KIND OF CONSIDERATION SINCE I WAS ONLY TWO WEEKS LATE IN THE FILING OF THE PROP. 58
Gerald: you may want to try and talk to the county about the error. Maybe there is an exception or work around to this problem. We are not attorneys so unfortunately we cannot advise you. You also may try to consult with a reputable lawyer familiar with these types of problems.