[WSBAPT] Questions regarding wrongful death claims and probate

[Corey Rogers]

Hypothetical client is adult child of deceased father who died as a result
of medical malpractice.  Mother is still alive, and mother and father were
married at time of death.  The estate is small and consists almost entirely
of retirement accounts.  Mother is working to get those assets paid out,
but no probate has been opened (it's possible they don't need a probate at
all).  However, they do need a PR to handle the wrongful death claim.

Here are the questions I have:

(1) Does the family need to open a probate even if they could otherwise
avoid it (i.e. small estate exception) just to get a PR appointed for the
wrongful death claim?

(2) If mother is appointed PR, can she delegate the duty of dealing with
wrongful death attorney to adult child through a power of attorney once
she's appointed PR?

(3) Is the estate of the deceased always on the hook for advanced costs
when a med/mal case is handled on contingent fee, or is there a way to wall
off the estate from those potential costs if there's no recovery on the
med/mal claim?


I appreciate any help with these questions.

Sincerely,

Corey Rogers

-- 
Corey H. Rogers
Attorney at Law
Findley & Rogers, PLLC
600 N. 36th Street, Suite 207
Seattle, WA 98103

T: (206) 331-7377
F: (206) 486-9930
corey at findleyrogerslaw.com

The content of this email and any attachments may contain information or
correspondence that is protected from disclosure by the attorney client
privilege.  This email is intended only for its intended recipient.  If you
receive this email in error, you are prohibited from disseminating this
email and must delete it immediately.   Please also contact Findley &
Rogers, PLLC if you receive this email and are not the intended recipient.
Thank you.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20150818/3aae1172/attachment.html>