Probate

• Once the court confirms your father's executor, that person must compile a list of all your father's known creditors. She must also give unknown creditors a chance to file claims. In Delaware, for example, the executor must, within 40 days of court confirmation, notify creditors by publishing a death announcement in the paper at least once a week for three successive weeks. The information will also go up on the county website.
  
  

Making Claims

• Once the executor publishes the notification, you and your fellow creditors have a limited window to file claims against the estate. Indiana, for instance, gives creditors three months to file after the first death notice appears in the papers. Creditors who don't put in a claim by the deadline will not get their money. The executor will review your and others' claims and decide whether to accept them. If the executor rejects a claim, the probate judge may have to decide whether the evidence shows the claim is valid.
  
  

Payment

• The executor has to pay off all valid claims against the estate unless the money runs out before the claims are settled. State law spells out the order in which the executor pays the debts. In Michigan, for example, executors' fees, other estate-administration costs and funeral expenses get paid first. Then, in order, come taxes, medical debts, mortgages and liens imposed during your father's life, debts that aren't secured by collateral and debts from lawsuits. If you're in one of the last-paid categories, filing a lien after your father dies won't move you any higher.
  
  

Disputes

• If the issue is a dispute over your father's will and your share of the estate, the correct approach is to challenge the will in probate court, not to file a lien. If you're concerned the executor is mismanaging the estate, you'd have to file suit against her---to recover money or to have her replaced---rather than filing a lien on the estate.