Finding The Solicitor In Question

[KARL]

Is there an internet based way to find out which solicitor's are handling a particular deceased individual's affairs ?

[TWR]

I doubt it Karl, Data Protection and all that. if it's your family look further.

[fiction-factory]

I think the will may become a public document at probate stage. The will would state the executor which presumably is the solicitor, but if the executor has appointed a solicitor you could ask the executor. Unless you are an executor I can't see why you'd have any entitlement to know further details

[fiction-factory]

Barmaid, Buenchico or PeterPedant will almost certainly be able to give a definitive answer if they see this

[KARL]

I know that there is some sort of system/process whereby potential creditors are effectively given notice that someone has died in order to lodge any claim(s). How do such people find out what has happened and whom to contact ?

[fiction-factory]

Are there certain newspapers that they have to advertise in? or maybe they are just required to use the main local paper. So you would need to find those notices. You may be able to find an online version of the paper using a search tool

[fiction-factory]

I thought it was here (Belfast gazette rings a bell too) but this site seems unavailable at the moment
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/wills-and-probate/place-a-deceased-estates-notice

[fiction-factory]

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/deceasedestates

[fiction-factory]

It's London Gazette I'm pretty sure- but I do recall seeing Belfast Gazette mentioned at some point

[fiction-factory]

A guide here- this mentions London Gazette
https://www.blakemorgan.co.uk/training-knowledge/guides/client-guide-statutory-notices/

[Peter Pedant]

hi yeah had to do this myself
No
you can write around solicitors
One wrote back wiv much more detail which I supplied and then said - "Data protection prevents me from even...."
I snarled back she could have done that first time round w/o wasting my time and got a really snotty 'this correspondence is now at an end".

You can write to the dead man's address - addressed "to the execs of Mr Smith decd." ( that didnt work for me)

In the end we went along to the probate registry
and paid a tenner and they tell you when probate is granted.

and yes for me it involved a debt and a bequest

in terms of the bequests - the lawyer wrote back as cool as cucumber and said the item had been given away to charity (!)
I think he had 'been told byt he n-o-k it had been given away' altho the lawyer was named exec - stunning a lawyer should write such a letter

and for the debt he said - this is not a debt

[ clearly we didnt leave it at that ]

so probate registry is really the only way
you have to get the deceased's name exactly right
and the registry you choose has to be the one that gets the probate application - it almost certainly will be the one nearest to the dead man

this is the death where I wrote to one lawyer
'I am now in a position to inform you that circumstances have changed since I last inquired if you were dealing with mr smiths matters and that is that you were granted probate on his will on 21st of April......'

it all stemmed from the fact that the main beneficiary couldnt stand the sight of me - but that should not affect his duties under the will and the wills act ( and I would expect the lawyer to tell him. he did after I reminded him and confessed to an embarassing itch to refer him to the law society)

good luck

remember a will has to be obeyed and that some of the do-it-yourself execs think it is just a rought guide as to how to share out the moolah (mainly to themselves)