Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in North Carolina

You can pull the estate file which is available at the courthouse where the estate is being probated. Or, you could hire an attorney to assist you. Good luck going forward.

You do not indicate where the decedent lived. While you can go to any county and ask to see the estate file, if the estate is pending in another state or county located far from where you are, you will probably need a probate lawyer who practices in the county/state where the estate is pending.

If there is no court file, when did the decedent pass away? If its less than 30 days, it may be too soon. If more than 30 days, it dould be that no one has sought to probate an estate. It could also mean that no estate is pending because the decedent had no probate assets. Not all assets justify probate. Things like bank accounts held jointly with another person, land owned as a joint tenancy with right of survivorship/land owned jointly with a spouse (called tenancy by the entireties) or beneficiary-designated assets like life insurance all pass outside of probate.

Since I do not know the particulars or your relationship to the decease, I agree with Attorney Mills and suggest that you may want to pay a probate attorney to review the file and apprise you of your rights/responsibilities.