{Read in 3 Minutes} As a Trusts and Estates Attorney, I frequently represent people bringing Petitions or Objections before the Surrogate’s Court. These may be incident to a probate proceeding, an Administration Proceeding, an Accounting Proceeding, or a Guardianship Proceeding, just to name a few of the dozens of types of proceedings the Surrogate’s Court handles daily. The person must pay a statutory filing fee for each of these proceedings. But what happens if the person simply cannot afford to pay the fee?
Our statutes in New York allow people who are indigent or experiencing severe financial hardship to proceed without paying filing fees. For example, let’s say that one of my close relatives left a Will that disinherited me. I am indigent, experiencing homelessness, and/or have been unemployed for a long time. It would be very burdensome, if not impossible, for me to pay the Court filing fee to file objections.
If I am correct, and this Will is invalid, I might be entitled to inherit, drastically changing my life and financial situation. It would be a shame if I could not afford to file those Objections because I could not come up with a $150 filing fee.
If you or someone you know is in a position where you need to file something in Surrogate’s Court and simply cannot afford it, you should visit the Surrogate’s Court and fill out the required Affidavit in Support of Application to Proceed as a Poor Person. Many Surrogate’s Courts maintain a self-help office, staffed by a Court employee who helps people who are self-represented and do not have an attorney. Those Court employees can often help you fill out an application to apply for relief against the filing fees. Assuming that you can document that your income and assets are below a certain amount, Courts will routinely grant these, allowing you to participate in the proceeding despite being unable to pay the filing fee.
Finally, it’s important to note that every now and then there are some matters where the Court will waive filing fees. The most recent example is for the Estates of people who died during the September 11th terrorist attacks. Shortly after the attacks, the New York legislature passed laws saying that those people who died in the towers or on the commercial aircraft that day would not need to pay the filing fee, which could save those Estates potentially up to $1,250 in filing fees. Hopefully, we will never be in a situation where we experience another catastrophic event like that as New Yorkers. Still, it never hurts to review the Court’s websites and stay on top of news articles to see what is happening and if you may be exempt from paying filing fees, regardless of whether you can afford to do so.
For more information on this topic, please contact me.