my father in-law passed away and his wife whom he married while he was sick is not cooperating with my wife. his wishes were to be cremated ...

Question

my father in-law passed away and his wife whom he married while he was sick is not cooperating with my wife. his wishes were to be cremated and split between his wife and his kids. he also had a few belongings that he wanted to give to each of his kids. the problem is that now the wife is not acknowledging my wife and I and is not answering our phone calls and requests to gather some of his belongings. My father in-law did not have a will but his ex wife is collecting all of his social security. the widow went to file for the social security the very next day after he died. is there anything legally we can do to get our belongings?

Answer

Provided that they were married for at least one year, the wife gets to collect off of her late husband's Social Security earnings record.

As for the personal possessions - your father-in-law died without a will. Any community property goes to the wife. Any separate property goes one-third to the wife and two-thirds to the children, assuming there are two or more children.

The difficulty is this: Personal possessions usually are of limited financial value even when they are of high sentimental value. This means that you're not going to find a lawyer who wants to represent the children on any kind of contingency fee agreement. That means the lawyer will bill hourly, and it can easily cost thousands of dollars to collect personal possessions that aren't likely to be worth that much.