Hi I'm Elizabeth Talbot and I'm a paralegal and a estate plan coordinator with the Talbot law group in Walnut Creek California. we handle probate matters within Contra Costa County and Alameda County and generally we specialize in complex and litigated probate matters. often the people in these probates are the beneficiaries and the heirs or the person appointed to be the executor in a will. perhaps will need to begin the probate much sooner than the court allows for. so generally when you file a court petition for probate the hearing is going to be set about eight weeks out, which means you're going to have to wait two months before you can actually start to administer the probate and manage the estate of the person who has passed away. so that's where the special administration comes in. a special administration allows you to go into court within business days and the court will hear your case and appoint an administrator within that time. The administrator is also sometimes called an executor if it's a will. this person will be called the special administrator and is just set up to act on a temporary basis for whatever needs to be done. so what's an example of why you might need to go into court for a special administration? One example would be the administrator needs to start dealing with the assets of the estate on an immediate basis and is not able to wait. Another example is where the decedent (person who died) was in the middle of selling their house when they passed away, so now they've died and they cannot sign the final contract to sell their house. the house now needs to go to probate before the sale can be completed. so now the administrator of the estate or person who's going to be in charge of the estate needs to finalize that sale. the people on the other side, the buyers, are not going to want to wait two months for an administrator to be appointed so they would go into court for a special administration to give them the power to finalize the sale on the house. Another issue we've come across is where the house has very serious damage and issues with it. there was one person's house who unfortunately was a bit of a biohazard for example and this was affecting the neighbors around it. So right away the children of the person who died needed to get in and get probate started so that they could begin managing the cleanup of this house which they had not realized was in such a terrible condition. so that would be another reason that a special administration would be necessary. other reasons might include debts that need to be paid immediately or really any kind of thing that would necessitate getting control over the assets in an estate before that twomonth period where you're waiting to hear be heard by the court. so those are the basics about a special administration. another reason might be if people are fighting and you need someone to manage the estate because the people who were managing the estate were not doing a good job. so that might be another reason why you would appoint a special administrator. if you'd like any more information on probate and special administration within Contra Costa or Alameda County please call our law firm. thank you