Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
Rumple:
You must fill us in on the Family Thing! Once you have an update. Heck, we're all intrigued and practically emotionally involved. We are all rooting against the Evil Uncle. :-)
Hitch
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In short: it was neither a good day for my uncle or his lawyer. Warning: it's a long story.
It all started with that my uncle, and his lawyer, didn't want my uncle (aunt's husband) and sister present in the court room. His lawyer tried to tell this to the judge, but wasn't very articulate. To which the judge said: "I'm going to put words in you're mouth now, but you want to ban those people. Do you have a good reason?". The lawyer didn't, and since it wasn't a case behind closed doors the judge allowed my sister and uncle to stay.
All the lawyers were allowed to have their say. Our lawyer made our final offer: pay more for the house on the condition my uncle would have to waive his right to his part of the inheritance. If he did this we wouldn't go to court over the costs he had my grandmother pay on his behalf (insurance, sex dating sites, lawyer's fees, etc). He would be lucky that way: his part of the inheritance is less than half of the money he owed. My uncle's offer was that he wanted his part of the inheritance (€20000) and he didn't care anymore what would happen to the house.
The judge told him he was already 0-1 behind after the previous verdict and that the offer my father had made was a fair one. He also warned that there was a big possibility if the negotiations didn't work out my uncle would lose.
My uncle's lawyer was also caught off guard by the claim of €43000 that my uncle had to repay. I don't know why: our lawyer had also brought this in the previous case in August last year.
Then everyone was send out, and the lawyers had to negotiate. My uncle's lawyer was overwhelmed by that our lawyer and my aunt's had teamed up (what did he expect?) and even walked out for a while because he didn't think it was fair that our lawyers had decided on a strategy together. Eventually no agreement was made (not surprisingly).
In court the judge told my uncle he had six weeks to send in his Letter of Grievances (why he wants to appeal) and advised to keep negotiating during that time and warned my uncle again that it was a real possibility he would lose.
On the one had we don't want my uncle to get any inheritance. On the other hand, after 5 years and a lot of money it would be nice to finally close the whole thing. Also, continuing would cost more and if my uncle loses again he can go for another appeal, which will cost us €10000 just to start it.
Our lawyer has already said that we won't agree with €20000 and is going to try to negotiate the figure down. To the judge she also said that my uncle would be very lucky if he got €5000, so I assume that's her target figure.
My father and sister and now putting together a clear and detailed overview with appendixes of those €43000 my uncle owes for our lawyer. After that it's another waiting game.
My day was both stressful, at least the first six hours until my sister called, and mindnumbingly boring. It was a very quiet day, as expected, but luckily I had some good customers so it wasn't a complete waste.