Quote:
Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer
My uncle took care of my grandmother's bookkeeping. For years we have been trying to get our hands on it, because we don't trust him. He has been refusing. He did send the solicitor who deals with the inheritance/will some papers and they send it to us. From those papers it looks like our suspicions were right.
However, he finally agrees to hand over copies of the bookkeeping. But, since there are a lot of papers he wants fifty cents per copy and ninety euros per hour for the copying. He estimates the total cost will add up to €1500.
I suspect he does this to discourage us from taking him up on his offer. Or he wants the money to pay his lawyer (my father and aunt don't want my grandmother's estate to pay for his legal costs).
He made the offer to the solicitor, who has been trying to get the papers for us, a while ago. But they didn't let us know until we called to ask something yesterday. They didn't think we would agree with it and didn't consider it to be a real offer.
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Well, unfortunately, you
are going to be stuck for
some cost. In US law, they are,
absolutely, entitled to charge, although, typically, case law and the courts regulate what those charges may be, how much can be charged (per page, etc.). I seriously doubt that even in the EuroZone, it's $0.50/page PLUS 90E per hour. That's
daft.
I would suggest that your legal counsel speak to his. It's
absurd for the Unk (In my brother in law's family, "uncles" are referred to as "The Unks," for a variety of horror-story reasons...) to hold you hostage.
Nonetheless, you will be out some shekels.
This is one of the many reasons that in the olden days, I'd counsel folks who were ranting/raving about lawsuits that unless they had
$50K USD to spend,
BEFORE they got to the door of the courtroom, in discovery and other pre-trial expenses, not to bother suing.
Lawsuits are bloody expensive. If the
only pre-trial cost you have, other than your legal fees, is this bit of discovery,
I'd be thrilled for you.
ALSO:
never take discovery direct from The Unk. It MUST go through his lawfirm. That costs HIM money, firstly (turnabout is fair play), but the purpose for that is THEIR (the lawfirm's or lawyer's)
representation and warranty that they've given you EVERYTHING, pursuant to the court's order or agreement between the parties, etc. Even if The Unk does the copying, presumably to save himself money, make damned sure that his legal rep is on the hook, for checking it and warranting that you have ALL of it. Otherwise, you are paying for (possibly) very expensive lies.
HTH.
Hitch