Editorial: Judge Should Let Public Guardian Go

We are glad to know that Davidson County Probate Judge David Randy Kennedy’s report to the Metro Council last month on the work of Public Guardian Jeanan Mills Stuart was only a preliminary finding.

That’s because there seems to be something missing from the report: that it’s time for a new Davidson County public guardian.

Kennedy still is reviewing Stuart’s active cases, but he told the council he had so far found no discrepancies. Perhaps he needs a better reading lamp.

Stuart has, for the past five years, been billing clients at the lawyer-fee rate of $200-$225 per hour for countless tasks that have nothing to do with legal expertise, often in six-minute increments, and sometimes multiple times in a day. Stuart says this is standard procedure. Billing for legal work in six-minute increments is; nonlegal, no, say legal experts. A review of Stuart’s bills since 2008 shows she charged her clients for six minutes 13,290 times, totaling more than $270,000 in fees. The tasks included such things as listening to a voice mail.

Experts have explained that lawyers typically have clerks or paralegals do these tasks — or, the lawyer bills for these tasks at a lower rate even if handling the voice mail themselves.

Is Judge Kennedy simply going to accept Stuart’s version of what is routine, in the face of all the accounts to the contrary?

Full Editorial and Source:
Judge Should Let Public Guardian Go

See Also:
Ginger Franklin's Car Towed and Sold While in Conservator, Jeanan Mills Stuart's, 'Care'