Probate Court

It's known as Surrogate Court in New York State, but no matter where you are it's never a happy place. These courts deal with the distribution of someone's estate after they die.

Here's the process:

1) First you have to file a 10-page form. It's just about as fun to fill out as it looks. In the form you will encounter exciting terms as domicile and combined corporate verification, consent and designation. You do not just fill these sort of forms out, you will need to pay a lawyer to help you out. You will also need to pay a modest fee to apply for the form itself.

2) Once you have submitted the form, the probate court will go over it and verify that the all the information is correct. It's not as easy as just filing a form though. You'll need to appear before the probate court a couple of times and it will be a lengthy process.

3) Wills make this process a lot easier. If the deceased has left a will, the court will have to determine the validity of it and then distribute the assets once it is proved valid. If you haven't left a will then things get ugly. The money will first go to a spouse. If the spouse is deceased then it will go to the children of the deceased. If there are no children then it goes to brothers and sisters. This is where it gets ugly. Children will say that the no good spouse doesn't deserve it, brother will say the no good son shouldn't get a penny and so on and so forth.

Besides bickering family members, one of the biggest problems that can arise in Probate/Surrogate Court is the issue of intestacy. That's when someone dies with more debts than can cover there assets.