Q: I just received a letter from the Michigan Probate Court, Notice of Deficiency. I must appear in court.
The notice says I am missing "Notice of Continued Administration and/or Sworn Statement to Close Unsupervised Administration, Proof of Service has not been filed". The Attorney I hired was supposed to have closed the estate 2 years ago. I returned the signed and Notarized, "Sworn Statement to Close Unsupervised Administration". I tried to contact the attorney, but the email and phone are no longer valid. According to the Michigan Bar, their license is now "Inactive". From the copy I kept, I can recreate the Statement to Close and submit that. But what is the Proof of Service and what is needed on this form? I never received a copy of the Proof of Service from the attorney. (I live in Maryland thus having to appear in Michigan is very difficult).
A:
The proof of service lets the court know that you have served all the interested parties with the sworn statement to close. The interested parties are usually the other heirs. Sometimes a creditor may need to receive the sworn statement to close, and sometimes a government agency needs to receive a sworn statement to close.
I would ask the court for a copy of an old proof of service to use as a guide. I have attached links to the two forms below. Depending on the county, the probate office is usually helpful. The judge doesn't want an unnecessary hearing on the docket.
You should be able to complete the forms from Maryland, just make sure the court receives them prior to the date scheduled for the hearing.
http://courts.mi.gov/Administration/SCAO/Forms/courtforms/pc591.pdf
http://courts.mi.gov/Administration/SCAO/Forms/courtforms/pc564.pdf
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