Press Release: Competing Reform Bills Face Off in Legislature This Week

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Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 15, 2011
Contact: Kim Owens
(602) 689-9449

COMPETING REFORM BILLS FACE OFF IN LEGISLATURE THIS WEEK
The courts versus the people in Probate Reform

February 15, 2011-Phoenix, ARIZONA – In another round of highly charged legislative hearings, this week the Arizona Senate and House will face off to determine which chamber will prevail in the effort to reform the probate system that has been the subject of such controversy for over a year. The Senate bill is supported by the courts, fiduciaries, and attorneys. The House bill was developed after private citizens banded together and demanded reform.

Wednesday morning, Feb. 16, the Senate will hear SB1499; it aims to provide disclosures to the process and adds guidelines. Opponents of the bill speak to the lack of accountability or recourse for wrongdoing, the removal of the family in the process and care of their loved ones, and increased layers of bureaucracy and confusion. Sponsored by Sen. Adam Driggs,R - LD-11, the bill is expected to draw criticism from those who have experienced the current probate system. A provision in the bill to exclude the family from notice of changes to the ward’s care is especially disturbing.

“The current probate laws not only have stripped wards of their Constitutional Rights but the courts are now filled with activist judges and lawyers bullying people out of their Constitutional Rights, this bill does nothing to remedy that injustice,” said an angry Denis Ball whose mother died while in the care of a court ordered fiduciary. After caring for his elderly mother for years, a family dispute placed her in probate court where he was prevented from visiting his mother for months prior to her death.

The House version of probate reform, HB2424, sponsored by Rep. David Smith, R-LD7, will be heard in House Judiciary on Thursday morning starting at 8 AM. It would make changes not provided for in the Senate bill. Establishing a Probate Advisory Committee made up of citizens, it would offer recourse for those who feel unfairly affected by the actions of the court and issues direct regulatory provisions. Authorizing wards to request a change of guardian, custodian, or trustee annually would prevent the majority of complaints currently in the forefront of the probate debate and insures the rights of families to visit. Civil liabilities and training for judges are among other primary points in the House bill.

Jayme Mason, who became active in the effort toward probate reform after her grandfather’s estate was placed under the jurisdiction of the courts had this to say about the bill, “We cannot leave so much up to the discretion of the Probate Judges and Commissioners. As it is, they are making decisions based on their own personal opinion and agenda rather than according to the procedures, guidelines, rules, and laws already implemented by the state of AZ, not to mention the Oath they supposedly stand for.”’

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