- May 5, 2024
- Posted by: legaleseblogger
- Category: Related News
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## Assistance Needed for Legal Situation Involving Mother’s Parkinson’s Disease and Psychosis
Hello everyone,
My mother is currently struggling with Parkinson’s disease and psychosis, which has manifested in mental symptoms such as paranoia, delusions, and hallucinations. Recently, there was a concerning incident where she experienced a sudden psychotic episode, leading to her attempting to smash the windows of her bedroom due to a belief that her immediate family members were conspiring against her and trying to harm her. This alarming situation resulted in us calling emergency services and her being taken to the ER in an ambulance for treatment.
During her stay at the ER, my mother somehow managed to contact a lawyer to make amendments to her will and possibly establish power of attorney. We were shocked to discover this when we entered the room and found the lawyer preparing to leave after documents had already been signed. Despite our concerns about my mother’s mental capacity due to her ongoing psychotic episode, the lawyer insisted that she had determined my mother had enough clarity to proceed without consulting the medical staff. Additionally, the lawyer refused to disclose details of the transactions and charged my mother $5,000 without providing any copies of the documents.
In the following days, as my mother began to recover and regain clarity, she expressed a desire to cancel the legal transactions made while she was in a compromised state. When the lawyer returned to confirm the cancellation, my mother’s physical condition had worsened significantly, making communication difficult. Despite our attempts to explain the situation to the lawyer, they insisted on speaking with my mother in private, leaving us uncertain about the status of the legal documents.
We have since filed a complaint with the Law Society of BC, but are facing challenges in obtaining legal representation or advice for the fee review process and ensuring the validity of the new legal documents. Various legal assistance resources have been unable to provide support in this matter, and the deadline for the fee review submission has passed. Self-representation in court seems to be the only option at this point, but the thought of navigating this complex process without professional guidance is overwhelming.
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Thank you for your attention and support in this matter.
Sincerely, [Your Name]
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****** just grabbed a
I’m sorry you’re going through this. I understand this is no doubt some of the most difficult weeks of your life. However, this is an extremely complex situation and it’s important you know where the lawyer is coming from.
That lawyer is required to take all the proper steps to verify your mother was competent enough to instruct counsel on these decisions when the documents were made and signed.
The lawyer was not obliged to talk to you whatsoever, and still isn’t. In fact many estate lawyers will refuse to talk to family specifically to *ensure* that the testator is doing everything of her own free will and not being unduly influenced. *Especially* if they are suffering from extreme medical challenges.
Were I this lawyer I would be very suspicious of family members telling my client to phone me. Telling me to cancel everything. Phoning me to get my client’s documents. This is exactly the sort of thing we are warned about in law school and by the Courts. The lawyer did the correct thing by responding that she needed to see her client and verify in person. In this lawyers mind, she was protecting her client from *you*.
That is not a personal slight, nothing against you. Lawyers have strict duties in that regard and are trained to see these as red flags.
>Also if it helps, we have medical reports from psychiatrists that state my mom is not in the mental capacity to be making financial or legal decisions.
This depends so much on exactly how the reports are stated, what the lawyer talked with your mom about in that first meeting, etc. You’re missing tons of info there.
The lawyer may be offside for not talking to medical staff. That raises a flag for me. If my client is in the ER… I would want to know why. I’ve had such hospital visits before and talked to staff to get an idea.
However, this is now between this lawyer and the LSBC.
> We also have hospital documents that show no one outside of immediate family are permitted to visit my mom
Sorry, lawyers can visit their clients. The exceptions are very narrow.
> Now that my mom is better I believe she could call in and ask for copies of the document as well as a potential discount.
This is both the easiest and only option you have for getting those. They’ll want your mom to be the one to pick them up too, probably. Your mom may be able to give them clear direction in writing that you can speak for her… but the lawyer will want that verified in private in person, same as everything else.
> We submitted a complaint to the Law Society of BC, they are investigating
The LSBC will review if the lawyer properly determine your mom’s legal capacity. If she fell below standard, she will be censured. If she did not, she will not be. They’ll give you information as it proceeds.
> I also passed the 3 month fee review submission deadline to the Supreme Court
There may be a way to apply for an extension. Some provinces permit that, others do not, I’m unsure for BC.
Otherwise it’s small claims to claim she was not in a sufficient state to contract counsel, which will not be an easy case to run since you will need experts to testify about her competence in detail.
You forget that your mother is the lawyer’s client, not you. The lawyer should act extremely cautious around anyone – especially those who have a vested interest in the will such as family members – who purport to act on behalf of the lawyer’s client. You don’t see it this way because you’re family but as an independent third party observer, and based on the information provided, the lawyer probably acted accordingly in the circumstances.
If you mom was able to have a lucid conversation with the lawyer, and you hadn’t already gotten POA over her, the lawyer was just doing their job. And I certainly hope any lawyer worth their salt wouldn’t give you any information or reverse anything without conferring with your mother in the first place. Basically, you are going to file a complaint that the lawyer did everything exactly the way they are supposed to do it.
OP, I see that you have been given some helpful perspective and I just want to add a couple thoughts:
1. One of the pieces of advice I’ve received in our continuing professional education is that it is better to take instructions on updated documents even if you have doubts about capacity than to not do so because if you create a new will it can always be challenged, but if you don’t, there’s no way to properly challenge the existing will. Essentially, better to have a will that might later be overturned than to not write it at all and the testator’s wishes ignored.
2. The lawyer likely had to drop everything else she was doing that day to get these amended documents done. When we are asked to attend at a hospital, this request must be taken seriously and quickly. This means she probably has dockets showing the actual time she took and will be able to justify her fees. I seriously think the likelihood of those fees being overturned by a judge is less likely than the lawyer agreeing to give your mom a discount.
Sometimes psychotic patients depart from reality so far that they start making sense again. This is one of few conditions that are hard to assess for, especially for someone who did not know her previously and did not talk to her for very long.
This whole situation is realky deplorable but i do not know how it could have been handled differently, apart from the lawyer asking for medical reports from the hospital. Unfortunately, that information was your mom’s to release and she probably hid or misconstrued the reasons behind her hospitalization anyways.
There are a few questionable decisions by the lawyer but for the most part your post suggests the lawyer was doing her duty competently and safeguarding her clients interests. If your mother is now mentally competent again she should make a new will or take steps to have the will and related documents she signed with the lawyer destroyed.
I feel for you but feel like your expectations on how this should be resolved are unreasonable. The fees seem excessive but honestly, for travel time and the headaches associated with making these types of wills (this post for example) I can understand it.
If your mom were to update her Will and POAs again now during a time that she was witnessed to be lucid, then as the most recent documents they would render this lawyer’s documents as null and void.
This does beg the question about how the lawyer was able to get your mom to legally sign those documents without witnesses if it were just him and her in the room.
Thanks for everyone’s input. I understand better now the situation from a third perspective point of view. I’m a bit underexposed to the legal world and the sensitivity around wills, I guess it can be contentious.
In the beginning it just felt like it was our family versus an intrusive figure that was predatory and took advantage of the situation.
I understand that essentially, the lawyer was just doing their job. Just sucks that they could not, through some miracle, understand the full picture of our situation. And that my mom was having an episode and that she truly didn’t want to take her only two children off the will to give it to her 80 yr old dad, or so as my mom recalls..
My mom is doing great now, physically and mentally. I just need to count my blessings, and take this as a lesson to prepare things ahead of time before they happen. Such as setting up a POA or committeeship. My parents may get those done soon.
Thanks again everyone.
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https://imgur.com/a/48VeXsg
**Here is a screenshot of the psychiatrist report, a psychiatrist assessed my mom 4 days after she was admitted to the ER, not sure if this changes our availability for options at this point**
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