Question about lawyer's fees

[whippertizzy]

Hello Soc,

I would like to thank you for all your help in the past, and I have a new question. It is fairly simple, I think.

As you may remember my Dh passed away.  Recently his ex's lawyer sent me a bill from previous lawyer's fee's he was supposed to pay. He died before he finished paying her off.  

 I know the lawyer knows he is gone, why are they sending me the bill? I am in Illinois, As far as I know I am not responsible for his bills.(Or thats what all the places that he might owe money to keeps telling me)

1. Is there anyway that I am responsible to pay the remainder? I am not even responsible for his medical bills, so I can't see why I would be for a judgement entered against him.

[socrateaser]

>1. Is there anyway that I am responsible to pay the remainder?
>I am not even responsible for his medical bills, so I can't
>see why I would be for a judgement entered against him.

I'm assuming that there's no probate court action to which the attorney can  apply for compensation. If so, then you can probably ignore him until he sends you notice that if you don't pay in ? days, that he will file suit against you. At this point he can't even ding your credit record, because you're not legally obligated to pay. However, a court might find you equitably obligated, but that will require a lawsuit, and this attorney probably doesn't even know if there's any money that he can reach.

He'll probably move on to more profitable endeavors very soon.

[whippertizzy]

This might sound dumb, but why would I be equitably obligated to pay a judgement entered against him?

I had nothing to do with that particular judgement, we weren't even married then. Do you mean that I could be obligated just because I am married to him? Thought that only happened in community property states?

Personally I think that the lawyer is just trying to get a couple bucks out of whoever will pay for it.

[socrateaser]

>This might sound dumb, but why would I be equitably obligated
>to pay a judgement entered against him?

Not dumb at all.

>Do you mean that I could be obligated just
>because I am married to him? Thought that only happened in
>community property states?

There are two theories of martial property distribution in the U.S.

1. Community property, where all assets, acquired after marriage, except by inheritance, gift or as the product of separate property obtained prior to marriage, are presumptively owned equally.

CP jurisdictions are: TX, LA, NM, AZ, CA, NV, ID, WA, WI.

2. Equitable division, where, although there is a presumption of equal ownership, the court divides the property of the marital estate by attempting to do substantial justice and what is fair under the facts and circumstances of the case.

That said, you are not the beneficiary of either system. Your husband is dead, and it is the intestacy laws of your jurisdiction that would primarily determine your obligation to this particular creditor of your husband.

However, if I were that creditor, then, even if I knew nothing about your late husband's estate, I would argue that you benefited in some way from my services rendered on your husband's behalf, or you obtained assets via your husband's death, that but for his death, would have been available to pay my bill. And, if the court agreed it would find a "quasi-contract," i.e., that you obtained an unjust benefit at my expense, and therefore that you are bound to restore it to me.

Do I think this likely? No. Do I think this possible? Yes. If I had time on my hands and I believed that there was a reasonable probability of causing you to settle if faced with a lawsuit, then I would file against you and see if you called my bluff.

Which is why I am advising you to wait and see. Until the attorney demands payment or suggests the legal theory upon which he would proceed to bind you to the debt, you are not obligated to pay, and he can't even ding your credit record.