Where do I find a ERISA attorney?

[Guest dulan]

I have posted on here a few times since my brothers death.

So far I have had two different attorneys that tell me different things.

I am tired of paying out money from my brothers estate account

to find that these attorneys don't know what they are talking about or they are not answering anything.

The attorney I recently gave a check to said that since my brothers second wife waived any rights to his 401K that what ever was signed last carried the most weight if we had to go to court.

My brother didn't have any other survivors but me. He was divorced three times and didn't have any children.

Both the second and third wife waived any rights to his 401K and this is written very specific in the divorce decree.

He lived in Ga. He had been with this company for almost 25 years.

I know he thought he had made all the changes to make me his beneficary.

The second wife does not have any idea that she is listed. I don't know where she is.

I do know that about 12 years ago my brother ran into a relative that told him she was remarried.

I am not sure where she lives.

I am the adminstrator of his estate, and I wrote to the company and to Fidelity for the summary plan beneifit. Maybe I worded that incorrect but if it is suppose the be beneifit plan summary it is the what ever people talk about here.

The first attorney received a copy of it, and he also talked to the company attorney and was told that the second wife is the one listed as the beneficary on his 401K.

I have talked to his third wife and she said that he had told her that she was beneficiary when they were married.

There is not anything in this for her but he must have thought he had done all the correct paper work because he told me when he first got married to the third wife that he had to make her the beneificary.

This was something that he just mentioned to me I never ask.

After there divorce from the third wife he mentioned that he had to take it to work as proof that they were divorced to get her off as his beneficary. He did take it to work because his employee number is on one copy and I have papers that showed where she was removed from his life insurance and his health insurance.

Some how he didn't know that the second wife was still listed.

After I got a copy of the divorce decree from the county it was recorded in and Faxed it to the second attorney. I had not bothered this attorney at all for 6 months but after that fax I started sending him emails to ask if he had sent it to the company attorney.

I thought that the divorce decree with the waiver to the 401K would get something going.

I would never hear anything back. I would ask just a simple question and he never replied.

He had been saying that if the second wife made a claim for the 401K we would file a suit and then a injunction against the company to keep them from releasing the funds.

I would ask how we were to know if any claim was made. I would never get a reply.

AFter going to the second attorney he talked like he was going to go aggressively after the company and fidelity and he wrote the probate judge about getting it into probate.

I had wondered about the authority the probate judge would have over something like a ERISA benefit.

Well she wrote back that she didn't have the authority just like I suspected.

Then this second attorney wrote me that he needed my permission to find a attorney in GA. I called and I also told him of some attorneys that I was given by someone I knew in GA.

That was over a month ago. Last week I called his office and he never returned my call. Today I talked to him for three minutes and he was changing his story from what he told me in his office. I ask if he thought that this was still in our favor and his reply was he had to wait until the attorney from Ga informed him.

Well first off he had been very sure it was in our favor and now he is not sure until someone in Ga tells him.

Could he look in some law book on the GA laws?

I am being taken to the cleaners by these people that say they are attorneys.

I also got to see the benefit plan summary before I took it to him.

The way it read to me and my husband if there had not been any claim made by the one listed as the beneficiary after a year then the estate would be the beneficiary.

There was only a few paragraphs on beneficiaries in this stack of papers that was a couple of inches thick.

I wrote down for this third attorney the pages that I found things

listed on benificiaries and he read some of it in his office that day.

He never got to the page that stated that the beneficiary would be sent a letter one time this letter stated that they needed more information about them and that they may be entitled to some benefit.

This went to my brothers house and was forwarded to me through the mail.

But after a year according to what we read then the estate was the beneficiary.

The first attorney didn't read any of the plan he told me.

So after spending almost 5K in attorney fees I need to know how to find someone that is familiar with ERISA.

I would like to ask this last attorney for a partial refund.

He has not done anything but send one letter to the probate judge and then tell me some incorrect information on the law.

Please give me some advice. I need a ERISA attorney and does this sound like I have any ground in receiving my brother s 401K?

Can these attorneys give me wrong information and that be ok with the legal system? I did not sign anything with the last attorney I just gave him a 3K check.

So far I had one appt with him and about three calls plus the letter to probate judge and then he sent that same letter to me.

And he send two of the same letters to the company and fidelity.

He gave me the wrong information and made it sound like it would be easy.

I have done searches for ERISA attorneys and it looks like they mostly work for the companies and not the little people or the individual.

Thanks ,

dulan

[austin3515]

I read about 1/3 of your post and realized I was only 1/3 through and stopped immediately.

So hopefully this helps: Many documents have a provision that states upon divorce, the designation of spouse as beneficiary is null and void (obviously unless there was a QDRO). Hopefully your brother's document has such a provision. The only way to know is to get a copy of the document.

[JanetM]

Contact your state bar association and ask for a referral.

[MARYMM]

Contact your state bar association and ask for a referral.

Yes, your State or your County Bar Association should have a lawyer referral service. The ABA has a referral link on their website for each state - also links to pro bono legal help:

http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/findlegalhelp/home.cfm

Ask the current lawyer for an accounting of his time spent so far. He should return to you any portion of the $3000 retainer that he has not earned yet.

[Guest Dash02]

I may be able to help. Email me at innract@hotmail.com

[Ron Snyder]

I have used the search function at Martindale with good success. Look for an ERISA attorney or an ERISA litigator who is rated A V (A for competence and V for ethical).

[KJohnson]

Here is one person's list. Don't know if it is current or how the list was created:

http://www.erisalitigation.net/AttorneyList.pdf