Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

World War III of Probate Litigation Embroils a Multitude of Law Firms

Excerpt from: The Recorder (click for full article)

 

When it comes to Herbalife, nothing seems to come without drama. Expensive, bitter drama.

Even as hedge fund titans wage a high-profile battle over the nutrition company and its finances, five law firms are heading to the First District Court of Appeal this month to wage a $3 million fee fight in what's been called the World War III of probate litigation.

On one side are business litigation firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp and solo practitioner Hillel Chodos. They're demanding payment for guarding the interests of Alexander Hughes, 21-year-old heir to a $400 million fortune bequeathed by Herbalife founder Mark Hughes, who died of an overdose in 2000.

On another side are the trustees, who say Mitchell Silberberg assigned 41 attorneys to the task of unseating them and failed. Even bringing in Chodos, who billed $1,000 an hour without keeping time records, didn't help their cause, say the trustees' lawyers at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. What's more, they contend that Mitchell Silberberg and Chodos never cared about young Alex's interests. In reality, Akin Gump says, they were doing the bidding of his mother and guardian, Suzan Hughes, who's trying to wrest control of the trust for her own purposes after obtaining some $14 million in a divorce settlement.

Kansas Presses Sperm Donor To Pay Child Support

Excerpt from: NPR (click for full article)

 

A Kansas man's decision to donate sperm to help a lesbian couple conceive a child in 2009 has landed him in a complicated legal case, as a state agency is now pursuing him for child support payments. William Marotta, 46, is asking a judge to dismiss the case, which has grabbed national attention.

"In 1994, the state of Kansas passed a law regulating sperm donorship that said a person was not responsible" as a parent, Hrenchir tells Robert, "as long as they had a medical doctor carry out the insemination. A medical doctor was not used for this particular insemination."

The state law is based on the idea that a doctor can certify that the donor is in fact not connected with the child's mother — "and not, for example, a boyfriend who's posing as a sperm donor, but should actually be required to help support the child."

The issue came to the state's attention when Schreiner applied for Medicaid. She eventually gave the donor contract to a caseworker. The Kansas Department for Children and Families is now seeking to have him named the father of the child, and thus liable for child support.