Posted on 06/16/2003 4:53:42 AM PDT by Timeout
Flo Lewellen, her relatives and social worker were shocked in 1998 when a lawyer she had never met stepped into her life. The lawyer, Julia Soininen, filed a petition with the court to have Lewellen, then 90, made her ward.Actually, this isn't the worst example...just the most convenient to excerpt.Soininen had learned about Lewellen from an accountant the woman had fired, according to court records and interviews. In the petition, Soininen initially noted that she had no relationship to Lewellen, then scratched that out and wrote "concerned party -- friend of subject's former accountant."
Lewellen, who had been an editor at the U.S. International Trade Commission for 35 years and had lived alone, had nearly $1 million in assets. With her relatives, she hired lawyers to oppose Soininen and consulted a psychiatrist, who told the court that Lewellen's judgment was intact.
Soininen eventually agreed to withdraw her petition. Lewellen has since died, but her family has paid $5,000 to $6,000 in legal bills, said Michael Curtin, attorney for the family.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Yeah, sure. Damn lawyers.
The Tarheel
in most cases the system works fairly well. However, if there are some people who try and abuses system. I practice in Michigan Which Follows Uniform Probate Code which is followed by most of the states. The very first thing the court does the following a petition for commitment is to appoint a guardian ad litem. In this is a person in who visits with the individual to inform that individual of her legal rights and files a report with the court giving his impression of the mental capacity of the person for whom protection is sought. Also, before the initial petition is accepted by the court it must be accompanied by a physician's certificate detailing the incompetency and the medical reason for it.
Cases Against Accused Attorneys Drag On
[snip]As I suspected, it's not just the well-to-do. He convinced her to take out a mortgage, for crying out loud! I'd bet there are more people of modest means being wiped out when they're incapacitated by old age. And those in oversight positions are doing nothing about it.
It took nearly two years for a hearing committee (of the Board of Professional Responsibility) to issue its report on lawyer Eugene Austin.His client, Lettie Saunders, was a 73-year-old retired cleaning woman with a fifth-grade education, living on an annual Social Security income of less than $6,000. She hired Austin to help her get reimbursed $26,709 for payments she had made on her late brother's mortgage.
Austin, whose law practice was failing, knew Saunders had limited assets because he persuaded her to take out a second loan on her home and had filled out the financial papers. Then, over a two-year period, he took most of her life savings through 10 "loans" he sought from her, totaling about $27,000, hearing committee records show.
In 1997, before closing his law practice and moving to Georgia, Austin repaid Saunders just $1,700. The D.C. Bar's Client Security Fund later reimbursed Saunders about $29,000.
"He kind of took advantage of me because I told him I wasn't educated so I would have to trust him to do right by me," Saunders said. "I don't think he should be able to do things and get away with it."
Austin said in a telephone interview that he had planned to repay her but didn't have the cash and had to care for ailing relatives. He borrowed the money, he said, "in the mistaken belief that it was legit."
The board said he engaged in "morally reprehensible conduct" and "enriched himself at his client's expense." But it overruled the hearing committee, which wanted Austin disbarred, saying that because he had intended to repay Saunders, there wasn't enough evidence to disbar him. It also pointed out that the misconduct involved "the mistreatment of a single client by an experienced attorney with no prior history of discipline."
In a blistering dissent, board member Paul Knight, a former federal prosecutor, said, "I see no reason why the Board should bestow on [Austin] the gift of an 18-month suspension when [Austin] himself does not object to his disbarment."
The case is pending before the appeals court. (since 1997!)
Methinks you lawyers (and the doctors, too) need to do a better job of policing your own.
Washington D.C. may be more prone to this type of abuse and then Michigan. However, Michigan also has its share of unethical lawyers. The problem is there are dishonest people in this world and some of them become lawyers, giving a bad name to the rest of us.
CC, I've dealt with ad-litems and, you're right, they're generally concerned advocates. But it's apparent from these articles that the D.C. system is an insiders' paradise open to fraud, abuse and no oversight.
(This new article describes a woman whose guardian knowingly allowed her to live homeless on the streets for years, despite her having financial resources and owning a nice home. He failed to pay her property taxes even though he was notified the county was taking her house. She showed up at his office occasionally for spending money, so he knew her condition. The court did nothing.)
And that is the problem with legally ripping people off. Remember the word "competent". Ding! Ding! Ding!
Often the elderly live isolated away from their grown children, relying on friends, neighbors, caretakers and professional people. These very people who they TRUST are the ones who have access to their accounts, credit cards and legal papers.
Unless they were proven to be incompetent when they signed away their assets or gave huge gifts, there isn't a prayer to bring charges against the opportunists who prey on the elderly...in most cases.
The people who rip them off are opportunists who play the family for suckers, and pretend to have the elders best interest at heart, but they don't. The family become enablers because they are either too busy, too trusting, or can't be bothered. Even an accountant who has previously been honest, might seize the opportunity to feather his nest when there is temptation.
If the Elderly suddenly realize, (albeit too late), they have been scammed, they are often too embarrassed and ashamed to tell anyone. It's all very sad.
If anyone reading this, suspects his Mother or Father is slipping mentally, they need to have it "documented". Tell the Doctor.. It's a start.
sw
A family friend - a very sharp, intelligent woman in her late 70s - currently is being sued by her husband's children to be declared incompetent so that they can get control of his assets (dad is in a nursing home, due to Alzheimers). The son hasn't even visited his father in years, not even yesterday on Father's Day, but he seems to have persuaded a lawyer that he is oh-so-concerned for his father's money, er, wellbeing, and that stepmom is a blithering idiot. Obviously, the lawyer knows only what he's been told by his client, but I think after a deposition the other day - in which our friend comported herself admirably - he's going to persuade Sonny he has a losing case.
All in all, it's a traumatic and unnecessary experience for an elderly woman already stressed by her husband's condition.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.