$1 Million Suit Against Estate Companies Considered Frivolous

In December of 2007, three residents of Texarkana, Texas filed a lawsuit against estate companies in the state, claiming that they were cheated into buying pointless living trusts. The three plaintiffs named Charles Loper & Associates USA and CLA Estate Services as well as a variety of insurance services. While there’s something to be said for keeping estate planning companies accountable for deceiving or damaging action, Charles Loper says that the entire lawsuit was pointless, and cost his company about $1 million. The plaintiffs admit that they aren’t sure why Loper was named in the suit. A civil court eventually dismissed the suit after five years of battling back and forth, but at this point all parties had spent a fortune on attorney’s fees.

Charles Loper says the case was a nightmare, and that his company was forced to spend a lot of money. He said that his company has served over 40,000 customers in 38 states and that they do things right the first time. The lawsuit threw them in with companies who don’t do things the right way. He says that the lawsuit not only cost him in legal fees, but that he lost an untold amount of customers from the debates. The believes that the entire lawsuit was attorney driven, and that the extensive case could have been finished earlier on if the attorneys had been willing to accept that there was a significant lack of evidence. They were caught in a whirlwind of malicious allegations and somehow associated with offenses that they had never taken part in.

Charles Loper says that the plaintiffs admit that they aren’t sure why CLA entities was brought into the case, but simply listened to their attorneys. The case moved from a local court to a federal court, and then ended up in the U.S. District Court of the Arkansas-Texarkana Division. The plaintiffs were slow to initiate their discovery and turned the issue over to inexperienced lawyers. The fresh new attorneys weren’t able to process the complicated estate lawsuit, but eventually were able to get the Supreme Court of Ohio to rule that The Estate Plan had engaged in unlawful practice of providing legal advice to customers without the use of a licensed, independent, legal profession.

The Estate Plan had no connection with CLA Estate Services or with Charles’ Lopers’ company, and they were eventually excluded when the plaintiffs chose to start a separate lawsuit against the offensive company. The Estate Plan then had to deal with their own suit, which is still being settled. Complicated lawsuits like this one can go on for years, causing the companies to spend thousands on attorney’s fees and legal costs while they try to account for their loss of customers due to bad publicity. If you work in estate planning, then you may want to secure an excellent probate attorney to help you in the event that you get involved in a dissatisfied-customer dispute.

If you are a customer who is receiving less-than-acceptable treatment form an estate planning service, then you may want to get an attorney involved in your side as well. Probate can become a muddled mess, and you don’t want to be coerced into a deal or plan that isn’t going to help you in the future. If you are in this situation, then talk to a probate attorney right away to get it sorted out. You want to get an abundance of information from all sides before you choose to embark on a particular estate planning path. Talk to a probate attorney today for all of your concerns, and take legal action if you deem it necessary!