[WSBAPT] Probate notice to heirs

[Chad Horner]

Meagan,

If you have truly exhausted all reasonable efforts to locate these heirs, including hiring an heir search company, I’m curious what others would think about asking the court to appoint a probate guardian ad litem to receive the notice of appointment and look out for the interests of the missing heirs. It’s not a perfect solution. The missing heirs are not technically “incapacitated” under RCW 11.76.080 and 11.88.010, but it might be a way of dealing with this situation.
Chad Horner
CURRAN LAW FIRM
555 West Smith Street
Kent, WA 98032
T 253 852 2345 / D 253 239 1511
F 253 852 2030
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From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> On Behalf Of Meagan Rourke
Sent: Thursday, March 4, 2021 9:38 AM
To: wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com
Subject: [WSBAPT] Probate notice to heirs

Seeking advice about providing notice of appointment to heirs who cannot be located and might be incarcerated. Decedent died testate and the Will names his son (our client) as Personal Representative. Decedent has two other sons who are disinherited in the Will - Decedent had a restraining order against them and our client believes that one or both of them might be incarcerated. Our client is not in contact with his two brothers at all and does not know their whereabouts.

We have searched for the brothers in the WA Department of Corrections, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and several of the County Jails, but neither of them came up. We are not even sure if the brothers are in WA. What else do we need to do in order to satisfy due diligence to locate the brothers to send them notice of our client's appointment? Do a deeper inmate search and publish notice of some sort? Use an heir search company? We have not encountered this situation before, so any advice would be greatly appreciated - thanks in advance!

Best regards,

Meagan S. Rourke
Associate Attorney
Ostrem Law, PLLC
8905 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115
Phone:  (206) 906-9302
Fax:  (866) 444-8109
Email: meagan at ostremlaw.com<mailto:meagan at ostremlaw.com>
www.ostremlaw.com<http://www.ostremlaw.com/>

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