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