I play who's on first with David Shaver
He rejects, vociferously, my suggestion that he was acting as a vulture and picking at dead corpses.
Earlier this week, I updated on Jodee Sussman’s plight trying to protect what is left of her parent’s estate.
Jodee’s mom died earlier this year, but not before she was able to escape to Texas.
Jodee’s mom had been in the grips of a corrupt conservatorship {called guardianship in most states} which had taken her freedom and depleted much of an estate once worth well over $10 million.
Here is more from a previous article.
It started in 2015 when a sibling who had a falling out with her parents attempted to place both her mother and father into conservatorship.
“In 2015, my brother filed the same lies about you know, like, mismanagement of my parents’ funds, that my dad wasn’t properly cared for, that you know mom was gonna lose her property, that they didn’t pay for meals.” She told me in the podcast.
Her parents were able to hire attorneys and convince a judge that the allegations weren’t accurate and they fought off the initial attempt to have them put into conservatorship.
Then, in 2019, the same brother was back with the exact same allegations, only this time he filed it ex-parte, she told me, and they were placed into conservatorship immediately.
This is similar, I noted, to how Marla Grayson, the character in I Care a Lot, operated.
The corruption went until the day Jodee’s mom died and into the grave.
Earlier this week, a hearing was held in front of Orange County, CA judge, David Belz.
Primarily, the hearing discussed fees that a guardian ad litem (GAL), a conservator, a family member, and several lawyers wanted to receive from the estate which was depleted.
The estate started, as I mentioned, at well over $10 million but was down to $1.5 million as of this week and it had to be placed into a bankruptcy to restore debt.
Still, several people at this hearing felt they still needed to get paid.
One of those asking for money was David Shaver, the GAL.
Shaver was asking for over $50,000. His fees are listed below.
Mr. Shaver was none too happy when I suggested he was feeding- financially- off dead corpses and he initially responded with this, “Do you have any idea what my role is in this case? I have not been paid any money to date. My petition for my fees and costs advanced was one of the matters on calendar today. If you have done so, I suggest you read my petition. Because there have been objections to my fee petition, I will be filing an amended petition that will address the issues raised in the objections.”
I included that response in the previous article, but the conversation continued. It turned into something akin to the Abbott and Costello “who’s on first” skit.
Shaver had been on the case since 2019, but as you can see from his petition, he didn’t ask for any money until June 2022.
This seemed odd to me and what followed made me think I was Abbott or Costello, I’m not sure which.
I initially responded.
I'm confused.
You came on the case in 2019. We're in 2022 and you still haven't been paid. How does that work? Ms. Adair didn't die until 2022; why didn't you submit an invoice, or whatever is the appropriate document, and get paid before this.
If you waited until 2022, that not only makes no sense but seems like it's your fault you haven't been paid.
Also, didn't the family come to you with many allegations of alleged abuse and stalking by Joe Adair Jr.? You didn't investigate those, but you did pronounce that Ms. Adair has significant dementia. Aren't you a lawyer? You're an expert on dementia now. How does that work?
From here, we started talking past each other.
Shaver’s response was, “Why are you writing articles on this subject matter if you are confused? On the payment of fees, generally, in a conservatorship, court appointed counsel, GALs, public defenders, conservators, counsel for conservators, counsel for the parties, etc., do not get paid without court approval. You get court approval by filing fee petitions, of if you are the conservator, you include a request for fees in an accounting. In contested matters, everyone does not get paid until the end. In LASC, they handle it a little bit differently, the judge allows hour as the case proceeds. For example, a court appointed attorney for the conseratee, the court will ask the attorney how many hours do they need until the next hearing and the court will approve the hours. Sometimes, the judge will order in interim fees paid. OC does not do that.
“I will be filing an amended fee petition which will address some of the issues raised in the objections to my petition.”
That was quite the word salad but didn’t address my point. Why did he wait three years to ask to get paid?
I retorted, “Are you saying you were not allowed to submit an invoice for payment until now? I find that hard to believe. I don't think the courts would force you to work for free for so long.”
I also invited him to come on the podcast, but he decided to continue answering questions by email.
Except, he was not answering the central question: why wait until 2022 to ask for fees.
“Fees cannot be paid without court approval. The only way you get court approval is by filing a fee petition. You do not just submit an invoice. The probate calendar is already a very busy calendar. After Covid hit, the courts were closed for what two months and then all court appearances were only by Zoom. Hearings got backed up. Trials got back up. They got so far behind, it is going to take at least three years to get caught up.” He responded.
Again, he started in 2019: is he really saying he couldn’t get paid until now?
“So, you couldn't file a fee petition until now. Is that what you are saying? I find that hard to believe.” I said in response.
He stuck to the same story, “My fee petition was filed back on 6/2/22. The court gives us the hearing date for the petition. The courts are so backed up, it was not set for hearing until 10/25/22 and then continued to today. If you bothered to look at my petition, everything was resolved with respect to Marty Adair’s move to Texas from a person and estate standpoint. The conservatorship here could now be closed. I believe Marty passed away on 6/30/22. If you were paying attention at today’s hearing, there are two accountings at issue. One for the former conservator and one for the current conservators. Actually, the accounting petition for the current conservator of the estate was set for March of 2023 and was advanced to today and reset with the others. There were also two other attorney fee petitions.”
While I appreciated this lovely explanation of the court process, I still could not believe that he could not submit a “fee petition” long before 2022.
“But you've been on the case since 2019, or am I wrong? Were you not allowed to file one before then?” I asked.
That was early on November 3, 2022. I have not received any more response.
Why would a lawyer do work for three years without trying to get paid? I don’t know, unless he wasn’t doing all that much work.
Jodee filed a response, arguing his fees are too much. Part of it is below.
Post-Script
Check out the previous articles in this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8. Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23, Part 24, Part 25. Part 26, Part 27, Part 28, Part 29, Part 30, and Part 31.
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