Tuesday, December 14, 2010

AZ: Court of Appeals Strikes Down Probate Fee Ruling

Score one for the old, the sick and the vulnerable – which, in Arizona, is saying something.

The Arizona Court of Appeals on Thursday tossed out a probate judge's ruling that R.B. Sleeth must pay $265,000 to a lawyer who spent most of his time fighting the old guy's wishes.

Sleeth, as you may recall, is the 81-year-old Paradise Valley man who spent 10 weeks imprisoned in a lock-down unit for advanced Alzheimer's patients in Scottsdale, never mind that he didn't have Alzheimer's. It took him nearly two years to extricate himself from Maricopa County's probate court. Unfortunately, by then his $1.4 million estate had been reduced to “virtually zero”, according to court records.

Now, however, both he and the others “protected” by probate may be able to fight back against the cozy club of fiduciaries and attorneys who so often seem to wind up with much of the money of the people they are paid to protect.

“Although the statutes require the protected person to pay for the services of those appointed or hired to assist him, this case illustrates an underlying flaw in the scheme that makes all the more compelling the superior court's close scrutiny of fee requests…,” the judges wrote.

“When a guardian or conservator has no personal financial obligation for attorney fees and no concern over whether his expenditures will be fully approved, he may lack incentive to avoid financial improvidence. In a case in which the protected person's estate suffers significant and harmful losses, the superior court must exercise its independent judgment to determine what portion of the attorney's fees were reasonably incurred.”

Translation: it's time for probate judges to pack away their well-worn rubber stamps and remember who it is they are there to protect.

There's lots of other good stuff in the 21-page ruling by Judges Sheldon Weisberg, Philip Hall and Donn Kessler. No more charging $100 an hour to make copies and send faxes and e-mails. No more block billing, making it impossible to determine whether the bills are reasonable. (In the eyes of probate judges, they always are.)

No more expecting to be paid for every hour worked. Henceforth, attorneys will have to prove their bills are actually reasonable and that their work benefited the person paying for it.

“To suggest that any action taken by counsel, however futile or unsound, warrants court approval is in insupportable,” the judges said.

Full Article and Source:
Court of Appeals Strikes Down Probate Fee Ruling

Read the Opinion

14 comments:

  1. And so the tide begins to turn! Watch out greedy lawyers and fiduciaries!

    ReplyDelete
  2. How will this wonderful ruling affect the Marie Long case and other victims in AZ?

    ReplyDelete
  3. All eyes are now on Arizona!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Does anybody know when the CBS story is scheduled to run?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I imagine the AZ judges (the bad ones) are fuming! This is indeed the beginning of change. The good old boys are in trouble!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I imagine, Anonymous, the lawyers fighting the current cases like Marie Long's will take full advantage of this important ruling.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm telling you, this is how to get the ball rolling. One county at a time....

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is a major victory for all victims everywhere!

    ReplyDelete
  9. this ruling gives me a glimmer of faith in the court system although the road to justice is expensive stressful and drags on so long many complainants do not survive the ordeal

    ReplyDelete
  10. What great news, thanks for sharing! I am passing this along for sure. Have a great holiday!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Let's hope that the rest of America's probate judges will sit up and take notice. We will not let them rest until they serve properly, with liberty and justice for all!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hurray for the AZ Court of Appeals. It's not often that the right person wins one of these cases.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The Arizona court sees the truth
    while Colorado Courts are
    are doing everything possible to keep the truth out of open court. In Colorado the probate courts regularly order entire estates of $1 Million and more to be paid to guardians, conservators and trustees and their lawyers for their "fees" for fighting to keep senior citizens rights, even to an honest evaluation from being honored. And the Colorado Court of Appeals and the Colorado Supreme court denies access.

    ReplyDelete