A Phoenix law firm that collected more than $230,000 from an elderly widow last year quietly pushed for a former probate commissioner to come out of retirement and rule on its request for approval of those fees.
Two months later, retired Commissioner Lindsay Ellis rubber stamped the firm's 2009 bills to Marie Long's trust, calling them “reasonable, necessary and appropriate.” This, without even holding a hearing — or giving the elderly lady's attorneys a chance to lodge detailed objections to the bills that helped put her in the poorhouse.
An attorney for Brenda Church, the trustee's lawyer who sent two of the three e-mails, downplayed her private communications
to the court as a scheduling issue, adding that Ellis had already announced that she would keep the case after her retirement.
But lawyers for Marie dispute that and say the e-mails are further evidence that the elderly widow never had a shot at a fair hearing. Marie was worth $1.3 million when she entered probate in 2005 after suffering a stroke. By last year, she was dependant on taxpayers for support.
Full Article and Source:
Why Did a Retired Probate Commissioner Hang on to the Marie Long Case?
7 comments:
You betcha! The corruption is clear. Every order by that judge should be vacated!
I am so pleased Laurie Roberts continues to follow the Marie Long, along with NASGA.
Keep the spotlight on them, Laurie!
Exactly right. It's outright theft under the guise of protection.
this is a racket big business UNDER COLOR OF LAW and that's all it is sinful and those greedy folks have their eyes on us i'd rather burn everything i own including all my money before these racketeering greedy nasty court mobsters get their dirty filthy hands on anything i have ashes to ashes dust to dust has more meaning to me now more than ever
How many NASGA members really want to protect others against the legal profession's negligence and fraud?
If so, then why don't more NASGA members show support for the interview protocol proposed in Ohio which is the subject of several entries in the minutes of Ohio's Elder Abuse Commission?
See, for example, the following entry in the minutes of the April 22, 2010 meeting (http://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Services/Seniors/Elder-Abuse/Elder-Abuse-Commission-Minutes/4-22-10-Elder-Abuse-Commission-Meeting-Minutes): "... letter written by Representative Joe Sestak [D-PA] to Edwin Walker, Acting Assistant Secretary for Aging. The letter includes support for Mr. Fields’ proposal to create an Elder Abuse Task Force and a protective protocol that could be applied uniformly throughout the country."
For related information posted by NASGA, see (1) http://nasga-stopguardianabuse.blogspot.com/2010/05/congressman-joe-sestaks-letter.html, (2) http://nasga-stopguardianabuse.blogspot.com/2009/12/nasga-affiliate-tom-fields-addresses.html and (3) http://nasga-stopguardianabuse.blogspot.com/2009/05/advocating-legal-reform.html.
For additional information concerning the proposed protocol posted by Ohio's Elder Abuse Commission see (1) http://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Services/Seniors/Elder-Abuse/Elder-Abuse-Commission-Minutes/9-21-09-Elder-Abuse-Commission-Public-Comments and (2) http://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Services/Seniors/Elder-Abuse/Elder-Abuse-Commission-Minutes/2-22-10-Elder-Abuse-Commission-Meeting-Minutes
No one can expect lawmakers to make more of an effort than they are willing to make.
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One hand washes the other??
You scratch my back & I'll scratch yours!
Rubbing elbows!
Call it what you wish... it's all the same.
Dirty governors appointing dirty judges appointing dirty lawyers as guardians using dirty doctors. They've got the racket down to a science.
How do we fight back? With our voices, our pens, by any means necessary.
It nauseated me to read this post. Same story heard so many times, just insert a different victim.
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