Probate Judges and You - Independent Arbiter or Self-Dealing Politico?
Probate Judges do some important things. A lot of people don’t give it much thought because in reality, most people don’t deal with the probate court until something unexpected has happened and they just find themselves trying to get through the system. One common function probate judges perform is the appointment of attorneys in various roles including independent executor or other fiduciary.
How do they decide who gets appointed to what position in what case?
What are the standards for acceptable billing by the court appointed attorney?
In some cases there are some rules that provide guidelines, however, with a lack of oversight who knows what really happens?
Earlier this summer I read this article from Houston. The Houston Chronicle newspaper conducted an investigation of hundreds of probate court records and thousands of billing records. What they found was disturbing and I encourage you to check it out for yourself.
Here are some interesting revelations:
- One Harris County judge approved paying $1,000 in fees to a lawyer for attending her ward’s funeral and burial. Most people would agree there is almost no circumstance where an attorney is needed at a funeral.
- In Harris County those who got the most business in probate cases contributed tens of thousands of dollars for the 2006 judicial races. Could there possibly be a connection between campaign finance and receiving lucrative appointments? Tune in next time on unsolved mysteries.
- Between 2003 and 2005, one judge ordered more than $400,000 in fees paid to one of his former law students — a 12-year lawyer who became one of his top-paid appointees during her first 18 months as an attorney. I started hearing echoes of “it’s not what you know but who you know” when I saw that one; ain’t it the truth. Really now, that is one judge effectively granting one attorney a $100,000+ salary for those years, and it was a newly licensed attorney.
- During the same time, the same judge also approved more than $375,000 to a former law school classmate who had recently returned to practice in Texas and mainly specialized in real estate law.
- In Harris County, the top-paid professionals in one probate court included one of the judge’s former law students, his law school friend and a lawyer with whom he has shared office space and real estate investments.
So where do we stand after learning about all these questionable acts? Well, for one, as a citizen I am glad I am not subject to the probate courts described in the study. Does something similar go on in Connecticut? I don’t know. I hope not, but until someone does their own investigation we won’t know.
This is not an attack on Connecticut probate and I hope you don’t read it that way. I’m sure that won’t stop some of the fanatics that stop by, but I can’t do anything about them. It is a reminder about the vulnerability to corruption that accompanies a politically elected judiciary. Probate judges are important, and they may be better off if they were free of campaign finance.
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Index Tags: asset protection, living trust, probate
