While it is very, very sad this attorney got involved in such underhanded and devious conduct to bilk the elderly and disabled persons of Arizona, he obviously isn't as creative as the complaints we have heard from the cases of Sykes ($1 million, Gore $1.5 to $3 million), Tyler (up to $9 million) which somehow fell off of inventories and accountings through the probate court system and which are not investigated and the ARDC and the likes of CF, AS and PS work to keep it that way (see their letters to the ARDC in which they urge that attorneys reporting on corruption--myself and Ken--be disciplined while complaints against them are simply "unfounded.' Chicago attorneys are much, much better at draining and depleting estates with the stamp of a judge and his or her pen than this low level crook of an attorney in Maricopa County, Arizona.
I've just heard and seen waay too many complaints of estates depleted through the "legal mechanism" of large probate attorneys fees and GAL fees--GAL's that hang onto a case well after the Plenary Guardian is appointed and who chime in with clearly biased motions and petitions, not always in the best interests of the ward.
In Sykes, for example, PS has openly admitted to $200k in fees and Gloria says PS has already taken a chunk of change.
Now PS of course blames it on everyone but him and his firm. He blames it for sure on Gloria, but he and the ARDC have alleged that this blog makes Gloria file pleadings (she has repeatedly and flatly denied this saying she uses her own stuff, paralegals and other free lawyers), and Gloria frequently notes for the record that the problem is with the court in taking jurisdiction where it has none, allowing the Plenary Guardian to sell the mother's home at a huge discount, etc.
Whatever the cause, whatever the reason, I propose that if he had been a Chicago attorney, he could have done this legally and through the billing practices and policies of the 18th floor with his own billings and firm and his new clothing most likely would never turn into an orange jumpsuit.
One probate attorney this blog has investigated owns a huge rolling estate with a home valued at $2 million in the suburbs of Chicago, and another home in California. No surprise there.
The easiest solution that the ARDC and Tim Evans should push to stop these abuses is clearly volunteer based guardianships. Maybe not all GAL's and probate attorneys can be volunteers, but surely we can try to get as many as possible and put them on cases where court appointed attorney and agency fees are starting to spiral out of control.
There are other jurisdictions that have switched to volunteers to manage estates and control fees, and this has been a workable solution.
JoAnne
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