Disciplined Milton lawyer charged widow client more than $400,000

A Milton attorney reprimanded by the Florida Bar is accused of charging her widow client more than $400,000 over a decade in fees for activities like doctor's appointments and planning the woman's birthday party.

Jennifer Byrom, a practicing attorney since 1984, had been working with her client since 1998, when the client's husband died and left her with a $1.5 million estate. The Florida Bar's complaint against Byrom claimed the attorney was listed as a voluntary guardian of the woman's property after convincing the widow that her daughter would be a bad choice because she lived out of state.

Byrom did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

The Florida Bar's complaint claims Byrom didn't provide the client with an explanation of fees she would charge for maintaining the woman's property and her legal work, and immediately began to perform activities outside the scope of the duties of the guardian of the property. Byrom began to charge $180 to $250 per hour for her time, and $60 to $80 per hour for her staff's time for work such as discussing her client's medical condition with doctors, reviewing her mail, visiting socially and taking her to doctor's appointments. She charged $85 per hour for a member of her staff to do yard work, clean the client's house and paint the porch, for example.

Byrom also charged the guardianship for activities such as attending visitation and the funeral of her client's son, visiting her on her birthday, throwing her birthday parties, sitting for hours in a hospital waiting room while her client was in surgery and taking food and gifts to her client's home. The complaint claimed that Byrom charged the guardianship as though legal services were being performed, as well as charging for expenses such as mileage and meals.

This inaccurate accounting prevented the court from having the ability to determine that no conflict of interest existed between Byrom and her client, according to the Florida Bar complaint.

When the client's son died in the summer of 2007, the client's daughter started receiving copies of Byrom's paperwork showing the legal charges. At that point, the complaint states, the fees increased from $1,550 for May of that year to $12,000 the next month, and they continued to climb thereafter.

The daughter tried for two years to change guardianship to herself after her mother was declared incapacitated, but Byrom fought back. During proceedings, the court learned that Byrom failed to inform the court that in 1998 she had prepared, and had in her possession, the original of a Declaration Naming Preneed Guardian, in which her client named her daughter preneed guardian in the event her mother was found incompetent.

In 2009, the client's daughter was named guardian of her mother's person and property. In 2013, the daughter accepted a confidential settlement against Byrom.

Byrom entered a conditional guilty plea to the Florida Bar's accusations in November, saying she would recognize the guilt and accept a public reprimand, and she would complete continuing education credits. The Florida Bar accepted those conditions in a Jan. 26 court order and released its public reprimand list March 31.

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Disciplined Milton lawyer charged widow client more than $400,000