Need legal help!!!!

[Bounty Hunter]

I will try to make this short.

My brother was killed by a hit and run driver in 1999. He had a four year old daughter who ended up with a settlement. The judge put my name on with the Mother so that the Mother could not take money. My niece turned 18 last year and was old enough to get the money. After very hard pressing from her, I met her at the bank, and transferred the money.

I just found out that the money went to the other Grandparents account and that the Mom ended up with it, after my niece moved out. There were a lot of problems there, and my niece paid some of the rent that the Mom could not, and the Grandma gave the Mom 2,000 to give my niece when she moved out, and did not give it to her. Then the Grandma gave the Mom the rest of the money and told my niece she would have to get it from the Mother.

I know there is info here that I do not know, and my niece is no Saint I am sure. I do know the Mom had the account transferred out of the original court appointed account a few years ago, in an attempt to get it then, but I had it froze so she could not do it. Had proof at the time, but did not want my niece to go through everything that would have ensued.

I am at my wits end with the limited info right now. Is there anything that can be done to get this back? This all happened in Indiana and she lives in Illinois. She told me that they told her she would have to get an attorney here, since the court was here. The only proof she has is text messages from the Grandma that she gave Mom the money/ There are a few witnesses that she paid the rent for Mom as well.

Not sure what to do here, the Mom is a real piece of work. That is why the Judge put my name on account to begin with along with hers, which did not make her happy. Need to get this back for her if possible. I know there are a lot of unknowns at the moment, but this is all I have got out of her.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!!

 

[remauto1187]

First thing you need to do is have niece print up all Text/Call records from cell phone company ASAP. The ones that coincide with the communication with "grandma" that prove the ones in nieces phone are legit. Keep in mind that Verizon only keeps these records for 2 years in "your" verizonwireless.com account. After 2yrs each month that goes by the oldest drops off the account record for us to view. They are of course still in verizons' database but they would probably have to have a court order to be obtained after 2yrs. How much total money are you trying to recover? My point is it wouldnt make much sense to pay $1500 in legal fees to recover $1000...etc. When did all this happen? You will need to find out statute of limitations on your case.

 

[Bounty Hunter]

From what I gather about three months ago the Mom took the money. It was a year ago that she turned 18 and I signed off on it. It is roughly sixteen grand. I still have all original court letters and papers from 1999 when my brother was killed, and civil suit filed. The court had to write her a letter to comply at that time, and I have A LOT of texts on my old phone from her Mom that are not nice at all for her.

 

[remauto1187]

Well I am not an attorney but I would like to be one on tv...... 16K I would say would be worth it to get a lawyer. Ii would call around and talk to a few and see if they will take the case and ask for an estimate as to cost. Getting a lawyer kind of sucks because you dont know who sucks and who doesnt. Just because lawyer x does a great job on Jane's case down the street doesnt mean he has ANY experience or knowledge to slam dunk yours/nieces. Its all luck of the draw but never hurts to ask around and talk to a handful of the lawyers since most of free first visit.

 

[Bounty Hunter]

I am going to call the attorney who handled the case, because he knew how the mother was. He is retired, but his daughter runs it now and helped out then, different Judge and prosecutor also since then, but all agreed Mom is a nut ball. She has kept all her social security money all these years and drank and drugged it away. She cut us off for visitation for years with threats to us. My niece is just now finding this all out. It is really friggin sad that this is this way. The Mom is about as bad as you can get,and unfortunately this had rubbed off on my niece some as well.

She would have blown the money by now for sure. She will probably not see it. I am just sick over it. I dreaded the day she turned 18 because I knew this would happen.

 

[remauto1187]

Lesson that I have seen too many learn the hard way...never trust a drug addict...not even one that is family.

 

[Bounty Hunter]

For sure. She is pretty messed up. I just hate that this happened, I went through so much to protect this from her and it happened anyway. I am hoping they can do something.

 

[1911ly]

If she is an adult and approved everything then I doubt anything could be done. It's her money to do with what she wants. If the mom took the money with out permission and your niece will testify I'd say it's called embezzling. Have a heart to heart talk with your niece!

 

[spec4]

Looks like a dead horse to me. OP, you even posted that you saw this coming. Figure the money is gone. Not worth going after mom as she has no assets and a civil judgement against her would be worthless. Niece has (hopefully) learned a big lifes lesson here. I'd say its over, move on.

 

[SEIndSAM]

Looks like a dead horse to me. OP, you even posted that you saw this coming. Figure the money is gone. Not worth going after mom as she has no assets and a civil judgement against her would be worthless. Niece has (hopefully) learned a big lifes lesson here. I'd say its over, move on.

Not an Attny, but it looks like Spec4 nailed it. The money is gone.

Life lesson here, try as you might, you can't always protect people from their own stupidity.

 

[david890]

From what I gather about three months ago the Mom took the money. It was a year ago that she turned 18 and I signed off on it. It is roughly sixteen grand. I still have all original court letters and papers from 1999 when my brother was killed, and civil suit filed. The court had to write her a letter to comply at that time, and I have A LOT of texts on my old phone from her Mom that are not nice at all for her.

Any kind of lawsuit this convoluted will cost far more than $16K, so just let it go. Yeah, that's hard to do, but IMHO, it would be good money after bad.

 

[Hoosierdood]

You protected the money until she was an adult. When she was an adult, you turned it over to her. What she did with it after that was her decision. It sucks, but sometimes you have to get burned to learn to stay away from the fire.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

You protected the money until she was an adult. When she was an adult, you turned it over to her. What she did with it after that was her decision. It sucks, but sometimes you have to get burned to learn to stay away from the fire.

^^^^ I agree.

 

[Dead Duck]