According to Rick Black, one of the nation’s most vocal and active champions of system reform at the Center for Estate Administration Reform (CEAR), there are three key steps frequently used by those who exploit the guardianship and conservatorship system. These steps are standard across the board throughout the nation.
Step 1) Isolate the victim.
Step 2) Defame legitimate protectors and heirs.
Step 3) Liquidate the estate by predatory parties leveraging the dysfunction of the family court system.
Alabama Today has covered two cases so far and has spoken to numerous other families who have gone through the process, and these steps were followed like a script – step by step.
One case I wrote about involves a family where a loving, caring, and capable daughter watched helplessly while her father’s care and estate management was given to Greg Hawley despite her father’s wishes. Hawley is one of two court-ordered conservators for Jefferson County appointed by Judge Alan King. According to a family member, Margaret Holland, an employee of his firm who works directly for guardianship and conservator cases, therefore financially benefiting from the outcome and number of cases their firm manages, seemingly pulled off Step 2 without a flaw. She allegedly told the court that she heard from an employee at the father’s care facility that family members were fighting in front of the Ward. This claim has never been collaborated and has been disputed by all of the parties involved. Still, it played a significant role in the court’s order to “protect” the Ward by using an unrelated court-ordered conservator.
This case isn’t an outlier. Citing family dysfunction rather than hearing evidence and choosing a family member, as in the case of these Jefferson County families, has led to families being split up again and again. When this happens, the Ward and their loved ones end up in a court-ordered purgatory, or as one person described it, as a “living hell” trying to wrestle control away from court-ordered conservators. In the course of my interviews and examination of records, the court has never once done anything to free the Ward. Why would they? That would impact their bottom line.
As I’ve written, the system is broken, and we must fix it. We must lean on if not outright demand our lawmakers change the current law to include additional protections against abuse and to improve transparency and accountability.
We must lean on law enforcement, investigators, and prosecutors locally, statewide, and federally, to follow the money trail of those involved, from those who bring unfounded cases and pursue them to their benefit. We must call out the conservators and their staff who fail or ignore their fiduciary responsibility to the Wards and their loved ones by undervaluing property and assets before selling them off to take their cut of the action.
We must do something to hold accountable, criminally and civilly, both the judges and conservators who work in concert to get their hands on family trusts and other assets that they do not need but want for their own financial gain. A common theme is selling off property that does not need to be sold. Why? Because by law, the conservator gets a substantial benefit, even if the property values would increase over time, even the family intended to hold on to it. If the judge and conservator decide to do it, it’s hard to overturn their decision. Usually the family doesn’t even know they can fight it.
The list goes on with ways that exploitation happens subtly and not so subtly. It’s happening too frequently, and it’s repeatedly happening. Not everyone involved in the system is bad. Not every Ward is exploited, and not every case criminal, but when and where there is exploitation, there should be a zero-tolerance threshold. More than money is at stake. People’s lives are in the balance, and their families are being torn apart. We must pursue prosecution and even disbarment of the judges and attorneys involved in these types of cases.
As the system across the nation exists today, it is rife with ways those seeking to get rich and acquire power can do so. So what can you, the reader do? For starters, wherever you are in the nation, you can research your state laws and local process and make it clear to your lawmakers that you’re watching.
If you’re in Alabama, you need to call your state rep and state senator and tell them that conservatorship and guardianship reform should be one of their highest priorities in the upcoming legislative session.
If you’re in Jefferson County, Alabama, boy, is there a lot you can do. Let’s start by demanding that the Jefferson County Commission require the Jefferson County Probate Court to answer questions about the cases their office is handling. I’ve had public records requests pending for months. Requests that have purposefully been ignored. The commission can’t help what happens in the courtroom, but they do control the budget for the office, and they do have oversight ability for the employees who are employed by the county.
The questions below are a good starting point, as are the commissioner’s names and email addresses for you to insist on accountability for those caught up in this system.
- How many cases has each county conservator been assigned since they started by year?
- How much money have the appointed conservators received since they started to serve? Of those cases, how many are being contested by legitimate heirs?
- How many temporary orders have the Jefferson County probate judges by judge extended beyond 30 days? How many beyond 45 days? How many beyond 60 days, and how many further and how much further?
- How many cases has Margaret Holland been a witness to for her law firm where she has been alleged to overhear or see things that would reflect poorly on the loved ones and families involved?
- Why doesn’t the Jefferson County probate audio record every trial to ensure accurate record-keeping as many other probate courts around the state do?
- We need to know how often the counties two conservators have moved to sell houses, property, and/or assets or accessed irrevocable trusts of those whose estates and didn’t require those actions for a Ward’s care or financial support? Were these unnecessary actions all supported or approved by one or both elected judges in Jefferson County?
- District 1 – Lashunda Scales
- District 2 – Sheila Tyson
- District 3 – Jimmie Stephens
- District 4 – Joe Knight
- District 5 – Steve Ammons
This series has been eye-opening for many of us, but there’s some, like Black, who have been involved for years.
Upcoming stories in this series will focus on other ways in which conservators and guardians use assisted living facilities to isolate, medicate, or sometimes even over-medicate, their Wards, thereby guaranteeing that they are not capable of participating in the proceedings needed to ensure their very freedom. These stories will show the painstaking efforts families have gone through to stop this abuse. We will look at individuals involved from lawyers to “creepy” peeping tom doctors, and others in this process and break down where relationships overlap, from professional to personal, creating what would appear to casual observers conflicts that never seem to come up.
We will look into the financial dealings, including property listings and sales of Wards, and we will also be discussing how “temporary” court orders have been exploited in Jefferson County by Judge King, as described in the State Supreme Court ruling.
In the age of COVID, families who have lost loved ones to forced care by others, and have lost their ability to monitor the situation, pick the best facility, ensure proper care, visit their loved ones, and so much more.
There’s much to be done and much to be said, but right now, we need information, so let’s work together Jefferson County residents and get it!
You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, and Part 6 here.
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