Elder law attorney sues guardianship reform advocate for alleged libel

By Debra Cassens Weiss

A Tampa, Florida, attorney has been granted leave to file an amended complaint in his libel lawsuit against the founder of a guardianship reform group for his alleged comments about “predatory attorneys” and probate litigators lying in court.

Elder law attorney Gerald L. Hemness Jr. of Tampa, Florida, first filed the suit in January against Richard Black, founder of the Center for Estate Administration Reform, the Florida Record reports.

The case has been referred to mediation, according to the online docket for the 13th Judicial Circuit Court of Hillsborough County, Florida.

Hemness is targeting Black partly for alleged comments made at a 2021 Florida meeting of the Guardianship Improvement Task Force, the Florida Record reports. Black allegedly said Hemness and other “well-regarded and protected” probate litigators across Florida “know how lucrative lying in a Florida probate court is.”

“Sadly, the attorney general and local law enforcement endorse and protect predatory litigators as they don’t want to challenge the judiciary,” Black allegedly said.

Black is also targeted for an alleged Facebook comment in which he said Hemness and “predatory attorneys” make it clear that “they are not to be challenged … or you will pay a price.”

Black told the Florida Record that he would defend himself by showing that “where I shared my opinion, I qualified it as such, and where I reported on facts, I reported that as such.”

Hemness declined to comment because of pending litigation when contacted by the ABA Journal. The defendants in the suit, he said, are Black and the Center for Estate Administration Reform.

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Elder law attorney sues guardianship reform advocate for alleged libel