A friend of mine moved overseas some years ago, ( shes hard work) her sister and her didnt speak much, for a variety of reasons,her father passed away and she heard nothing about it, in spite of visiting him in Hospital when she flew here
much later she finds the old boy had passed away, her sister had flogged the house, flogged a few other valuables and flogged the leases he held on many properties
not in the millions as its ooop North and you can buy a street for 50p allegedly ( its all Stanis living there now)
however she always knew her as her half sister, as a spiteful aunt told her father that another bloke from the factory was sliding the salami with mum
she asked me about dealing with it, and I said a visit from me and a chat might save time and money
nope she went to a solicitor in my town, one I had used for a case who seemed to have the ability to ask for money and then more money, never complete the task requested, and then use the services of an office junior
I explained this to her and said they would bleed you dry of any money left by your father, of course greed played a part, she wanted all of the money as her step sister was not entitled to any of it, and the dodgy legal bloke she used did not do the basic checks for other siblings
so it goes to court and step sister is given a choice cough all the dosh or take a paternity test
which she put off doing for a while
eventually step sister did a paternity test (DNA and stuff) at a very expensive lab
results comes back
they are siblings
same father
same mother
so half the dosh to my friend
except later on when she has a few money problems I ask her why she has not used the money in the UK
yep you get it
mahhoosive bill from solicitors and various other legal and technical peeps
swallowed every penny
they still dont speak
made the papers as well, first case of its kind
I cycle past the offices of the solicitors
by heck they have some nice motor cars parked behind their very expensive block of offices