Outrageous Fees Exposed in Alleged Elderly Exploitation Racket
A third installment of Alabama Today’s investigative series on the Elderly Exploitation racket exposes the outrageous fees manifested by insiders who appear to be gaming the system for their own pockets while dwindling assets of estates.
Alabama Today writes about the horrific experience of Susan Evans whose father was forced into conservatorship after suffering early signs of dementia.
The judge is none other than Jefferson County Probate Judge, Alan King. The conservator is none other than veteran litigator and probate lawyer, Greg Hawley. The witness whose alleged false and unconfirmed testimony caused the court to move the temporary conservatorship to permanent? Is none other than Hawley’s own assistant, Margaret Holland.
If you’ve been following along in this series those names will sound familiar. They’re the same two players involved in the Joann Bashinsky [Mrs. B] case. As a matter of fact, they’re the same players as a number of cases in Jefferson County, Alabama.
And what fees is Susan Evans able to confirm?
[T]he costs of attorney fees for the family totals nearly $65,000 of which $55,000 is being paid-out of the estate. Money that could and likely should have stayed with the family and estate, if not for the judge’s order.
Until this week, after five years of Hawley being the conservator, Evans had not had a full accounting of her father’s assets or of the costs associated with the conservatorship. This week Holland provided that breakdown for the first time. You may remember Holland from the first post. Holland is the assistant who sent confidential medical and financial documents to [Balch & Bingham’s Amy] Adams “accidentally”.
It states, “Fees are based off of a percentage of the Estate which in total is roughly 9%. It is calculated only at a Partial and/or Final Settlement Hearing. This is an Alabama State Statute = 2.5% of what’s received, 2.5% of what’s disbursed and 4% attorney’s fees.”
Balch & Bingham’s Amy Adams has yet to be fired for the alleged unethical and egregious conduct before Mrs. B, who brilliantly recorded her meetings with Hawley and Adams.
Adams will be investigated further, reports say. Alabama Today writes, “(Don’t worry, if you’re missing Hawley’s “friend” Amy Davis Adams from Balch & Bingham, she too will return in several future installments of this series beginning later this week.)”
