Location: Pennsylvania, USA
I am the executor of an estate. This is my second time settling an estate but it's more involved so I hired an attorney to help me settle the estate. My father is the main beneficiary, he inherited the house and some accounts, about $300,000 in total. My sister and I are the beneficiaries of the residuary. From the start, I've had problems with my father contacting the attorney I hired over every little thing. I explained what the hourly rates were for the lawyer and the paralegal and that if he needed something, he needed to ask me and if I couldn't answer it, then and only then would we need to contact the lawyer's office. Stupid things like how much did the electricity or gas bill cost for the house each month, which since I was paying the bills, I would know. He kept contacting them. Even the paralegal said something about how he's always emailing both of them. So I told him that if he kept contacting them, that the estate would not pay for it and he would have to reimburse the attorney. My last visit with the attorney was months ago and the paralegal presented me with a bill that was twice the original estimate. I paid half and she said the other half would be due when we closed out the estate. Just basically waiting to run out the clock on the one year since the estate notice. But recently the paralegal reached out to inform me that the bill went up another $1800. I haven't contacted them and they haven't done anything for me/the estate as far as I know since our last meeting when I paid part of the bill.
At this point, I feel like I'm justified in making my father pay a portion of the bill. He did not have authorization from me to use them as his personal attorney. Would there be anything wrong with me requesting a detailed/itemized bill from the attorney's office and making my father pay for the times he used the attorney/paralegal's services? There is money left in the estate account to pay the total bill but I really feel like he should be paying part of it. I've been hesitant to do so because I, along with my sister, am a beneficiary of the residuary, meaning any money left over would be split between us. I don't anyone to allege wrongdoing on the handling of the estate and it might be a conflict of interest. My sister has been pushing me to make him pay his portion of legal fees.