I tried looking into this before for my mother, but she said to let it go for a while with her health as it is. I posted it on a forum, somewhere. She was thinking about posting her question herself here, but decided to let me do it. Things have developed a little since then. She was contacted in mid 2007 by one of the neighbor's children, to provide 24 hour care for their elderly mother, who had dialysis and diabetes. Duties including, cooking, cleaning, driving her around, getting supplies, etc. The mother's husband was in a home at the time, and she wanted to stay in their home in the country. A per day rate for 5 days a week was agreed on, and she agreed to stay until they found someone else, but they never looked for anyone else (my mother was over 70 at the time, and didn't want to work for very long). Anyway, she worked for about a month before they paid her for that amount of time. The check came out of the elderly mother's account, but was made out and signed by one of the children. She worked more time, then the mother went into the hospital, and eventually the home, and stayed there until her death in the end of '08. After she quit working at the end of 07, my mother was told that she would be paid when they sold some calves, or that all of the kids would go together and put in a little, basically excuses and being put off. All business dealings and discussions of payment were with some of the children. In Feb of this year, one of the kids contacted her by phone, completely out of the blue, and stated the amount, and that they owed it, and that they would get it paid in a couple weeks. Never happened. After that the husband died, his estate is being settled. My mother talked to a couple different lawyers, and people with the district court, they suggested she should file a claim against his estate, which she did. She received a disallowment notice from the estate's attorney, along with a second letter in the same envelope from the attorney. That letter stated the same thing, but also stated to take "no disrespect" but rather the "same" had been filed so that the claim could be investigated and if need be paid by the estate's personal representative. She's thinking she needs an attorney, there are only about three offices in town, two of them have conflicts of interest, and the last one said he would take half of any judgment received, plus he was rude to her on the phone (condescending, superior). I don't care for him either, having dealt with him before, he isn't a nice person to deal with/hard to talk to, arrogant and rude. She called the estate's personal rep. (non-family related to the estate), she was friendly, and admitted discussion with the kids that the money was owed, that they "needed" to get her paid, and one kid was not showing up for set up appointments to discuss, so they couldn't get anything done. My mother is both fed up with this, but it's $3500 and she doesn't want them to get away with it either. It was suggested that she needed to file a second claim with the estate. I also wonder why when the kids were the ones that the arrangements were with, and they were the ones agreeing to pay her, etc., why they shouldn't have to pay. I don't understand someone taking advantage of an elderly person like this. As it is, even if she does get this, it would work out to less than $4 per hour of work she did.
Any advice? Thanks.
Any advice? Thanks.
