Atty Paul Housch Wants Lien on Danny Tate's House!

Nashville songwriter Danny Tate may have a lien placed on his house to pay outstanding legal bills in a three-year battle to free himself from a conservatorship.

Tate had been under the conservatorship since 2007.

Danny Tate's brother David had been appointed his conservator in 2007, after David Tate alleged Danny was blowing all his money on cocaine.

For the next three years, Danny Tate paid not only his own legal fees but his brother’s legal fees. The total amount, as estimated by Danny Tate’s lawyer Michael Hoskins, was about $200,000.

Hoskins said Danny Tate is down to his last $10,000.

Paul Housch, the attorney who represented the songwriter’s brother David, filed a motion in court a few days after the hearing asking for a final payment of $25,000 for his legal fees, plus another $11,000 in expert witness and court reporter fees.

Housch is asking Judge Randy Kennedy to put a lien on Danny Tate's house in West Meade to ensure his bill is paid.

Housch is also asking for the balance of Danny Tate’s retirements account, about $7,000, as well as Tate’s quarterly royalty checks from BMI, about $23,000.

Hoskins said now that the conservatorship is dissolved, Danny Tate should get all his money back, then set up a payment plan for the outstanding legal fees. Hoskins says Danny Tate may have to file bankruptcy. He said he wants the judge to say no to the lien on Tate’s home.

"It doesn't make sense to legitimize taking somebody from $650,000 in capital and reducing them to homeless in the street and saying that's in the best interest of the ward," Hoskins said.

Full Article, Video, and Source:
Lawyer Wants Lien on Songwriter's House

See Also:
Free Danny Tate!!!

Facebook: Friends for Danny Tate's Defense

Edward Abbot Ravenscroft Wins Some Say

After months of trying, a Scottsdale millionaire has at long last been given some say-so in who controls his money.

It was left to a non-probate judge to finally listen to Edward Abbott Ravenscroft and to remove the Sun Valley Group as his conservator. Sun Valley fought to the end to retain control of Ravenscroft's finances and for good reason.

Sun Valley now can no longer control whether Ravenscroft can sue the company, its attorneys and other lawyers who operate within the cozy confines of probate court – the ones who have pocketed at least a quarter of a million dollars of his money. Instead, that power now transfers to Ravenscroft's new conservator, Jane Anne Geisler of Managed Protective Services.

“This is like a miracle …,” Ravenscroft told me. “Now I can breathe. Now I can start working with Jane Anne Geisler and get on with my life.”

Ravenscroft, 49, came under the watchful eye of probate in January 2009 after a series of drug arrests raised questions about his mental health and his vulnerability, given the size of his bank account. But he's been clean for nine months and since then has been trying to regain control over his life and his bankbook. A court-appointed guardian bowed out in March while Sun Valley continued on, based on a court-appointed psychiatrist's finding that he still needs help managing his money.

But this week, that psychiatrist, Dr. Jack Potts, testified that Sun Valley should be removed, both because Ravenscroft wants someone else to handle his money and because little progress has been made toward moving him to financial independence.

Judge Hugh Hegyi bounced the company, saying that while there was no evidence of impropriety, Ravenscroft's relationship with Sun Valley “is hindering his transition to financial independence.”

Hegyi also voided attorney Grant Goodman's contract with Ravenscroft, presumably invalidating his racketeering lawsuit against Sun Valley and Ravenscroft's other former probate protectors. Goodman filed a series of lawsuits earlier this spring on behalf of Ravenscroft and several other wards of the court, accusing various lawyers and fiduciaries of working together to squeeze their vulnerable clients while probate judges looked on and did, well, nothing.

Hegyi ruled that Goodman had no authority to file a lawsuit on behalf of Ravenscroft because he's “incapacitated”. The power to sue, he said, rests only with the judge or the conservator.

Which was Sun Valley, until this week.

Full Article and Source:
Millionnaire Wins Some Say in Who Controls His Money

See Also:
Progress in the Edward Abbot Ravenscroft Case

Non-Lawyers Added to Arizona Probate Panel

The judge overseeing a judicial task force to assess Probate Court procedures and oversight says it was a mistake not to include members of the public whose lives have been impacted by the system.

Chief Arizona Appeals Court Judge Ann Timmer said that she will recommend adding two people with firsthand experiences of the court's assuming control of a relative's care and finances.

"It is a missing link," Timmer said at the end of the task force's first meeting. "It also struck me that we do not have . . . a public member. We need to have them."

Her comments came as a small group of self-described Probate Court victims protested outside the Arizona Supreme Court building. They said the task force is made up of a "chummy" circle of 19 judges, lawyers, fiduciaries and state administrators with no stake in reforms.

"Nobody was angry in there. Nobody was offended in there. Nobody has a personal issue in there," said Patti Gomes, a Scottsdale resident who contends that her mother's estate was drained in less than seven months by court-appointed fiduciaries and lawyers. "I am enraged at what is going on in the Probate Court."

Full Article and Source:
Judge: Add 2 Laymen to Probate Panel

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

Source:
Free Danny Tate

See Also:
Facebook: Friends for Danny Tate's Defense

Family Upset With Care of Elderly Aunt

The family of a 94-year-old woman kept vigil this week at her bedside in an Orland Park nursing home, protesting strong pain medication being administered to her that they believe is slowly killing their beloved aunt.

They've picketed outside the Brighton Gardens Assisted Living Community to bring attention to the end-of-life care they say Lydia Tyler's court-appointed guardian has initiated without their input.

"It's just wrong," said Tyler's niece, Mary Sue Richards. "We're watching it play out and we're totally helpless."

But others say the story of Tyler is centered on a family spat over her estate that may, or may not, be worth a lot of money.

For the past year, Tyler has been watched over by a court-appointed guardian, Pamela Chwala, a registered nurse who is not a family member. Tyler has been at Brighton Gardens since January 2007 and previously lived at a nursing home in Burr Ridge.

Full Article and Source:
Family Members Upset With Care of Elderly Aunt

Former Lawyer Indicted for Fraud

Mingo County lawyer has been indicted in federal court on charges of defrauding West Virginia Public Defender Services.

William Duty, Jr., a self-employed attorney in Williamson, faces charges of submitting payment vouchers for services he did not perform.

Duty was appointed, at various times, to represent indigent clients in criminal procedures in Mingo County Circuit Court. The procedure for payment for these legal services was that Duty would obtain a payment voucher, signed by the Circuit Judge, verifying the amounts owed and the services rendered for the various clients. These vouchers were submitted to the West Virginia Public Defender Services for payment.

[F]rom June 2005 until December 2007, Duty allegedly altered signed payment vouchers with false names and other false information.

Full Article and Source:
Former Lawyer Indicted for Fraud

Lawyer Disbarred Over Trust Fund Theft

A Bartlett lawyer suspended in March after he was charged with stealing thousands of dollars from a children's trust fund now has been disbarred.

James M. Hoots was arrested in February.

He was charged with felony theft of property for allegedly stealing some $76,000 and gambling it away at the Tunica casinos.

The Tennessee Supreme Court announced Tuesday that Hoots has consented to disbarment because he cannot successfully defend himself on a complaint of misappropriation of funds.

Hoots, 56, admitted to the administrator of the children's estate that he had taken the money and that he had a gambling problem, according to an affidavit.

"I took the children's money and took it to Tunica to try to make more money," administrator Lana Scott said Hoots had told her in November.

Full Article and Source:
Memphis Lawyer Disbarred Over Children's Trust Fund Theft

Guardianized for Hoarding?

A Cook County Circuit Court judge gave Chicago officials the green light to begin cleanup of a South Shore two-flat where a reclusive elderly couple were rescued this week from under mounds of debris.

Thelma and Jesse Gaston may have been trapped for as long as two weeks — the last time they were seen, authorities said.

Judith Frydland, acting deputy counsel for the city, estimated the cleanup of the yard, home and garage in the 1500 block of East 69th Street could take about 10 days. Judge James McGing authorized the Cook County Public Guardian's Office to investigate whether the county should take guardianship of the Gastons, who are in their 70s.

Source:
City Gets OK to Clean Up Hoarding Couple's Home

Elderly to Outnumber Children Within Ten Years

The US Census Bureau, the fine folks that write you a letter every ten years asking how many toilets you have, have now released a study stating that within the next decade, people over the age of 65 will outnumber children under 5 for the first time in history. Unlike the toilet thing, this is pretty serious, with quite a few ramifications.

It forecasts that over the next 30 years the number of over-65s is expected to almost double, from 506 million in 2008 to 1.3 billion – a leap from 7% of the world's population to 14%. Already, the number of people in the world 65 and over is increasing at an average of 870,000 each month.

Full Article and Source:
Elderly to Outnumber Children Within Ten Years