Q: My brother signed up to be personal rep for our dad's estate before I could. How would I dispute this?
A:
It depends on whether your father had a will.
If your father had a will and it named your brother to be the personal representative, you can't really dispute it, unless for some reason you can show your brother is unfit to serve. Even if the court thought he might be a little shady, they could require him to get a financial bond to protect the estate. But to have him removed would require some serious allegations - like a history of financial crimes.
If your father didn't have a will, then you and your brother have equal priority for appointment as personal representative. For him to be appointed, he would ordinarily need to either: (1) get you to renounce your priority for appointment (I'm assuming you didn't do this); or (2) send you notice of his intent to seek appointment as personal representative, served upon you by first-class mail, under which you would have 14 days to respond and ask to be appointed as personal representative instead.
If the 14 days hasn't passed, then you can file a petition for formal proceedings to have yourself appointed personal representative, or you can file an application for informal appointment to have yourself appointed personal representative.
As always, you get what you pay for. Be sure to talk to a qualified attorney about your specific situation before choosing to rely on any information you get from internet discussion boards such as this one.
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