Your letter was quite lengthy and being the distracted person I am, I just skimmed through it. There are a couple of books you might want to read to understand the laws involved. I think many of the commenters are right -- focus on the legal aspects. People gonna be people. Some have such enormous amounts of denial and entitlement issues that you would just frustrate yourself needlessly trying to reason it out. Protect the people you love if you can.
I have been reading Property Law for Dummies that explains things well. Your library probably has a host of NOLO books and one or two of them might prove useful. Since you are going to school you might benefit from Nolo's guide to doing Legal Research. It will help you to research in a law library or online.
Most people don't realize that most Law libraries are open to the public.They contain volumes on case law, plus state and federal statutes. Your public library may have some of these things as well. You'd be surprised on what you can do yourself now adays. The more you do yourself, the less hours you would need a lawyer's help.
Sometimes just going for a thirty minute consultation with a lawyer can give you enough information to know what you must do. It would be worth the money, but sometimes a lawyer will give you this consultation for free.
Here are some helpful websites
http://real-estate-law.freeadvice.com/real-estate-law/