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...federal legislation needs to go through to stop this travesty.

Ever hear of probate? Every state has laws specifically designed to settle estates in a fair and orderly manner, precisely so this kind of crap doesn't need to happen. Probate has been so demonized that apparently folks have forgotten why it exists in the first place. A probate proceeding gives the creditors of the decedent one last bite at the apple, and if they don't take it they can "forever hold their peace" - and in an insolvent estate, probate works almost like a bankruptcy, forcing creditors to settle for pennies on the dollar. We are apparently becoming so uncivilized that we can't even use the perfectly good laws we have.

Let me tell you what I saw the 1 time I went to a “Family and Probate Court” Clerk's office here in MA (needed a copy of relative’s will for a civil suit, to deal with a bunch of ghouls who practically stole the teeth out of the deceased person's mouth):

1. A long line for filing restraining orders
2. A long line for child support enforcement
3. Just me for actual “Probate” business

I was absolutely frightened when I walked into the office: I was the only male and I assume that when I walked into the office, everyone there assumed I was dealing with either 1 or 2. The looks I got from the “customers” in there honestly were scary. What I overheard the scum that were there blathering about was typical for today’s society-they wanted whomever arrested and wanted “their” money-NOW!

I walked over to the computer, got the docket number of the will, submitted it to a clerk, made a photocopy of the file and ran the hell out of there.

It was like the cantina scene from Star Wars “You will never find a more wretched kind of scum and villany”.

Uncivilized doesn't begin to describe the Probate Court from my experience.