Heirs-at-Law Discovered via Facebook

Recently at our law firm, we have had a few cases where personal representatives and other fiduciaries have located heirs-at-law through Facebook.  In some of these cases, nothing was known about the heirs and resources were about to be expended with an expert skip-tracer.

Alert family members were tipped off and/or obtained information through their FB friends or "friends-of-friends".  In turn, this provided the probate lawyers of our firm with some basic contact information.

Under the applicable court rules, lawyers are still limited to "old school" methods of transmitting messages and documents; not even email is permissible under the court rules.  Informally,  however, modern practitioners are utilizing a variety of social media and data directories to locate heirs.

Once the interested parties are identified, the process of identifying the various claims and other issues of probate estate administration can commence.

Slowly, probate courts across the country are implementing an electronic infrastructure and promulgating electronic filing standards.  Both Wayne and Oakland County Probate Courts have made great strides in this area.

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