Hi everyone, I have been living an elder exploitation fiasco. I am not a lawyer. My case is so bizaare, you wouldnt believe it if i told you it all. But the gist of it is this... I had an 80 year old father, on 14 mediicines, dying, and drunk, with a loaded gun..... He had a "friend" yup. The friends proceeded to take every possesion he owned, after they did that, they moved on to TREES. Yes trees. They chopped down hundreds of trees, worth thousands of dollars. After that ,they went after our house, and drove a dying man to their lawyer..... to remove me off the deed. After that they had my fathers bank books and car two weeks. Ok father passes away....... body is zipped up in a body bag at the hospital and the friends are Already calling the funeral home for a death certificate with the cause of death. Body wasnt even COLD. Thats what clued me in.... I found out later my father left his FRIENDS WIFE a 50,000 goverment life insurance policy. fast forward... i have Alot of evidence on these creeps its all down to the veterans affairs. I have contested the benificiary. I am told NO lawyers now, its a federal matter.
ok I have worked on this case 6 hours a day for a year and a half. i managed to stop all of it , i saved the house, the wood, the car, the bank account. all i have left is this va policy. It was all done behind my back. It was a tough fight, and my brain is getting tired!!!
first scenerio?
My question is this: Two EXPLOITERS husband and wife. The old man changes a va policy over to the exploiters wife......The husband, who is also the exploiter. Goes and picks up HIS friend to witness the signing.... drives him to our house..... the wife(benificiary) her husband and their friend all sitting there telling the old man that this is a good idea to change his policy.... (driving the witness to our house) IS this illegal?????????

second scenerio.... The husband drives the old man to the witnesses house. To leave the money to his wife?????? is this illegal

Possible last scenerio... The husband just brings the paper to the witness and he signs it?
By the way, thewitness is 76 just had pacemaker put in.

last but not least. Is this question. If the exploiters do make off with the policy, can i take them thru either a criminal or civil court to recuperate the money?

Elder exploitation is very complicated stuff. Was he incompetent? probably no, but he was insane. He was incapacitated, very ill, drunk and dying. So i guess he was vulnerable and infirm. defintely disabled....I have the criteria for undue influence. the trusting relation ship. They benefited themselves, etc. Just by luck i got my hands on alot of great evidence. I think i can prove undue influence.
can anyone throw my brain some legal ideas.??? i have plenty of time.... the va said this is going to take a long time. i would really APPRECIATE any thoughts or suggestions. thanks so much,
grassie

Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.

Thank you moderator, i will do that. I will look around. Problem is i have researched it so much my head is spinning. i know i will need a lawyer. I'll do what you say. thanks cindy

Good luck, Cindy. Sounds like a pretty frustrating situation. You may want to find out if your father had any kind of estate plan, including a will or other documents in addition to the policy you mentioned. A lawyer should be able to let you know if you have any legal options for contesting the designation of beneficiary on the policy and whether or not there is any liability for fraud, undue influence, or other claim.

LawInfo has a variety of information on VA benefits as well. See, for example:

http://resources.lawinfo.com/Search.html?q=veterans

http://resources.lawinfo.com/Search....enefits+policy

Also, you can find information from the Department of Veterans Affairs website. See, for example:

http://www.vba.va.gov/survivors/index.htm

http://maine.gov/dvem/bvs/benefits.htm

You are a wonderful moderator! I am going to look at all your links. I did call an elder attorney yesterday. he was great. he said Piece of cake!!! its in the hands of the va for now, but he did say he could take care of it, if need be a different way. i cant let this go, not only because of the money, but if they get away with it, they are going to pull it on some other family next.
I've been reading some va things, but i cant wait to check out your links. Thanks so much. Cindy

Good luck to you.