This is a difficult request but one I find myself obliged to make.
In the spring of 2017, my older brother Eric, who lived the majority of his life in London, fell ill and was hospitalized. He had a history of mental health problems, and the initial thought when he began to act strangely was that he needed psychiatric care. My younger brother, Mark, also a Londoner, asked the doctors to do further tests, which revealed that Eric had a Stage 4, fatal and inoperable, brain tumor, and months to live, at most. In fact, from diagnosis to his passing, Eric lived for exactly 10 weeks. During that time, Mark and I relayed each other at Eric’s side and advocated for his treatment and his final move to a wonderful hospice, St. Joseph’s, where Eric died peacefully on 21 July 2017.
Three years have now passed, and Mark and I are currently embroiled in a lawsuit arising from what we view as the illegitimate claim of a friend of Eric’s, who was neither his partner nor had any kind of civil arrangement with him. This person, the Claimant in the suit, claims to be Eric’s sole heir on the basis of a home-made will that Eric signed in late May 2017 from his hospital bed leaving her all his worldly belongings, including a flat in Islington. Eric was not coherent at the time he is alleged to have signed this will, and a handwriting analyst doubts that his signature is valid.
The legal proceedings to rectify this travesty have been ongoing for three years, and include conflicting expert opinion reports as to Eric’s capacity, forensic hand-writing analyses, a failed attempt at mediation, a slew of witness statements, hospital records, psychiatric records, etc. that have been assembled since the Claimant brought a suit against Mark and me because we stopped the probate process from advancing. If she doesn't agree to settle based on some new and potentially incriminating information that has recently surfaced, we will go to court on January 25th. In anticipation of the trial, our solicitor in London has billed us the amount of 45,000 British pounds ($65,000) for the trial lawyer (barrister), pre-trial preparation work, and the trial itself, none of which is particularly unreasonable. Mark has until now bankrolled this endeavor by borrowing against the equity in his house, but he has now reached the limit of what there is to borrow against.
I have managed to raise loans in the amount of $45,000 and am launching this GoFundMe campaign to try and make up the balance. In addition to losing Eric, the costs of having to counter an attempt to take his property has been taxing financially and emotionally. If you can help, we would be immensely grateful.
In the spring of 2017, my older brother Eric, who lived the majority of his life in London, fell ill and was hospitalized. He had a history of mental health problems, and the initial thought when he began to act strangely was that he needed psychiatric care. My younger brother, Mark, also a Londoner, asked the doctors to do further tests, which revealed that Eric had a Stage 4, fatal and inoperable, brain tumor, and months to live, at most. In fact, from diagnosis to his passing, Eric lived for exactly 10 weeks. During that time, Mark and I relayed each other at Eric’s side and advocated for his treatment and his final move to a wonderful hospice, St. Joseph’s, where Eric died peacefully on 21 July 2017.
Three years have now passed, and Mark and I are currently embroiled in a lawsuit arising from what we view as the illegitimate claim of a friend of Eric’s, who was neither his partner nor had any kind of civil arrangement with him. This person, the Claimant in the suit, claims to be Eric’s sole heir on the basis of a home-made will that Eric signed in late May 2017 from his hospital bed leaving her all his worldly belongings, including a flat in Islington. Eric was not coherent at the time he is alleged to have signed this will, and a handwriting analyst doubts that his signature is valid.
The legal proceedings to rectify this travesty have been ongoing for three years, and include conflicting expert opinion reports as to Eric’s capacity, forensic hand-writing analyses, a failed attempt at mediation, a slew of witness statements, hospital records, psychiatric records, etc. that have been assembled since the Claimant brought a suit against Mark and me because we stopped the probate process from advancing. If she doesn't agree to settle based on some new and potentially incriminating information that has recently surfaced, we will go to court on January 25th. In anticipation of the trial, our solicitor in London has billed us the amount of 45,000 British pounds ($65,000) for the trial lawyer (barrister), pre-trial preparation work, and the trial itself, none of which is particularly unreasonable. Mark has until now bankrolled this endeavor by borrowing against the equity in his house, but he has now reached the limit of what there is to borrow against.
I have managed to raise loans in the amount of $45,000 and am launching this GoFundMe campaign to try and make up the balance. In addition to losing Eric, the costs of having to counter an attempt to take his property has been taxing financially and emotionally. If you can help, we would be immensely grateful.