The latest guest on the podcast is Evan Nelson, an attorney from California.
Evan has fighting on behalf of Katherine Dubro and her family.
Katherine was put into an abusive conservatorship, which drained her estate, isolated her from her family, and even nearly killed her. Here is part of his federal lawsuit.
Ms. Dubro’s case is a cautionary tale about just how much power abusive conservatorship’s {called guardianship in most states} have.
Katherine, as Evan explained, planned for her later years: setting up trusts, advanced planning documents, etc.
Her money was accounted for and so was her well-being: or so she thought.
One of her children was not happy with his place in the trust, so he challenged by trying to place her into conservatorship.
Here, the case really went off the rails.
Though she had money to afford the best attorneys, the court appointed her one through Legal Assistance for Seniors (LAS).
LAS had numerous conflicts which should have removed the attorney, Kristen Boney, from the case, but none of that matters.
In Alameda County, where this occurred, when someone is facing conservatorship, LAS is the only firm chosen. Here is more from the lawsuit.
I reached out to LAS by email but received no response.
Boney represented Katherine for several years before asking to be removed on the eve of the trial. As such, Katherine, who wasn’t present herself, was not even represented by counsel when the trial occurred.
Once in conservatorship, it became a feeding frenzy for the lawyers. Evan estimated that Katherine’s estate was charged more than $2,000 per hour during hearings.
A guardian ad litem (GAL) was appointed and that GAL got an attorney.
A trustee was appointed, and the trustee got an attorney.
It went on and on and the estate was charged several hundred thousand dollars.
This case is no anomaly, Evan told me.
He said after he filed in court, he received calls for approximately three weeks, nearly non-stop, of other victims both from California and beyond.
He told me he believes that 95% of conservatorship cases work as they are supposed to but in the other 5% there is abuse, and that abuse occurs because there is no oversight of the lawyers involved.
Finally, I mentioned that Evan participated in a webinar, that is below. His presentation starts at approximately six minutes in.
Postscript:
Find the previous articles in this series: Article 1, Article 2, Article 3., and Article 4.
For more articles like this on corruption in California family courts check out the fundraiser.
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