What action can we take against lawyer that is taking care of our parents' estate

What should be of concern is how this attorney is administering your deceased parents' estate and not what he may be doing or not doing with respect to another estate (in my opinion).

You have given no indication as to how long this estate has been opened, whether an accurate inventory of assets has been filed with the probate court and the specific reason(s) as to why the attorney has yet to make a distribution of assets to the designated beneficiaries.

Until these questions have been answered, no credible judgment can be made(in my view) as to what kind of a job this lawyer may be doing in regard to adminstering this particular estate.

Michael E. Hendrickson, Esq.
Alexandria, Virginia 22314

Yes, it is illegal what he has done. Is this lawyer the official executor of the estate or just someone that may have handled the wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the estate? What was the nature of the settlement--what was the settlement money paid for? You need to retain your own attorney to sue the unethical one to get access to your funds, and he will NOT be able to use the cover of bankruptcy action to protect him. AND you will want to file a complaint against the Virginia State Bar Association about his behavior. Make sure the attorney you retain has past experience with cases similar to yours where he has gotten a successful judgment and ask him to cite the names of the cases. tiekh@yahoo.com (Probate Researcher)