My mother just passed away.  Her ONLY assets are 3 insurance policies
worth a total of approx. $3500.00 Unfortunately the beneficiary on
them was my father, her husband, who died 10 years ago.  The insurance
company will pay out on them, but they said they would need a death
certificate for both, which I can provide.(I am named co-excutor,
along with my brother) And a Summary of Administration from the court.
 That is the problem. It sounds like we would have to have an attorney
to get this and we're afraid that he will charge more than the amount
of the insurance. And needless to say, we will probably need some of
it for funeral expenses, which by the way were partially pre-paid.  Is
there any way we can file with the court by ourselves without a
lawyer. And where would we get the forms.

The estate will qualify for "summary administration."
You should be able to get the forms from the county Clerk where your
mother resided.
For example, here is how Martin County would proceed:
http://clerk-web.martin.fl.us/ClerkWeb/courts/probateFAQ.htm
http://clerk-web.martin.fl.us/ClerkWeb/PDF/ProbateCkListSummaryAdmin.pdf

Frankly, I started to write a full answer to your question, but for
$5.00 it was going to take more time than I could justify.

Google Answers Researcher
Richard-ga