Legal Question in Elder Law in New York

Re: old will

It's very hard to believe what you say. When a will is filed the clerk at the Probate Department looks it over and sees who is named in the will. The clerk would not send the will to the judge to have a decree issued unless everyone who was named in the will signed a Waiver and Consent or was issued a Citation. Very, very hard to believe.

Nevertheless, to make a copy of the will, go to the Probate Department in the Surrogate's Court in the county where the person died. In Nassau County it's at 262 Old Country Road in Mineola. Go into the Probate Department and tell one of the clerks, and they will look up the file number and get the file and look at the will and show you if you're in there or not.

If this is an older case where the person died years ago, or the estate is already settled, you will have to get the file number of the case at one of the computers in the file room, and then fill out a form and the clerks will get the file for you, and you can browse through to look at the will and everything else.

Good luck.

Rick Bryan

New York, NY

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