And, as you heard, one of the areas that the reconstituted Legal Aid office will help with is securing Grants of Administration to put the estate of deceased persons into probate. It's a daunting and costly process for those who can't afford an attorney. And, estates that do not go through the probate process are often subject to land theft.
We asked Sylvestre about it:
Jules Vasquez
"The administration of the estates of deceased persons is one of the greatest lacunae in the administration of public law, insofar as poor people can't afford to get to to get that grant of administration, and it leaves the estates in abeyance, and then vultures come create false grants of administration through nefarious means, and in so doing take poor people land that has never been executed as a part of a deceased person's estate. It is one of the greatest areas of theft from deceased persons whose estates have not been executed. Is this something that legal aid could help to address? Because the threshold of hiring a lawyer to add to to to get a grant of administration. It's 10 to $12,000."
Anthony Sylvestre, Attorney General
"Yes. No, no, no certainly. And so that if you were to look at the, representation in admissions of estates is specifically listed as one of the services that will be provided for those who access the legal service. And in tandem with that, I would like to share that the currently the senior courts, they are reviewing the, the, the administration of estates rules, to try to reform and try to simplify them because those as well, are, are things that are a big drawback."
"So if a layperson wanted to, to do it, you may herself, you know, they may find it a little bit torturous. So, so that is being done in tandem with, that specific service that was with will now be available."
