I just got the mail and there is a bill from my Mother's now former Attorney and I have a great issue with it. I took over as mom's Power of Atty. on June 3rd after some drama with the prior one.

This bill is for a date of service of July 1, 2009 for a conference with the Prior POA and it states "Attorney John Adams conference with Jane Doe Attorney in Fact for Sue Smith"

Now why is this my mothers responsibility? and why did they meet with her when I sent them the revocation and new POA and terminated their services.

What is the best way to approach this? Do I send them a letter with copies again of the new POA Documents with a refusal to pay and tell them to bill "Jane Doe" for the conference, do I call or do I just stop in the office with the papers.

I am pretty ticked off right now that I got this bill after all the mess I had to clear up in the bank account and finding she did not keep records like she should have and that there is thousands of dollars missing and unaccounted for with no paper trail of any kind no cashiers checks nothing to show where the cash withdrawals went. This woman paid several of my moms bills 2-3 times didn't check to be sure medical bills were billed to insurance and paid by them. She never checked to see what a re-occuring charge was on my moms credit card each month that turned out to be a AD&D insurance policy on my Dad who has been dead for over 2 yrs now. I have found quite a bit in refunds due to my mom because of her sloppiness.

So what would you do? Write , go in person and if you were to write would it be benficial to send it certified return receipt so that I know they got it?

TIA for you advice and guidance and letting me vent at the same time.

__________________
~ Christine ~
Grammie to Trinity Lorayne Jean Keens Born June 9, 2011 Loving my awesome guitar picking 100% Country Boy boyfriend Kenny !
RIP Daddy~ 01/24/1930-06/01/2007 I miss you !
Dont Think you Can .. know you can ~ Jeff Hardy

I would call, and follow up with a letter, informing them that on July 1, 2009, Jane Doe had no authority to speak on behalf of your mother and that you will not be paying any bill incurred on your mother's behalf by Jane Doe on any date after 6/3/09. Ask them for confirmation, in writing. Start small, and calmly. If you don't get any action after two weeks or so, it will be time to ramp it up.

ETA: You might want to consider a suit against the former POA for squandering your mother's estate by paying bills that weren't owed. She would have owed a fiduciary duty to your mother not to do that. Just a thought, might not be worth the time and frustration.

__________________

Reading is Fundamental.

Thanks Truble I knew if anyone would answer it would be you, will start out small and matter of fact like you said.

I have thought about the suing her former POA, but not sure if I want like you say the frustration, I am just waiting on refunds to slowly make their way to me for all the overpayments I was able to find. I am still perusing through the whole medicare file to match checks to see if there are any more issues its actually over 2 years worth since she was taking care of stuff when Daddy was in the hospital. His records have conveniently disappeared so I cant check to see if his final bills were taken care of correctly.

Thanks for your advice

__________________
~ Christine ~
Grammie to Trinity Lorayne Jean Keens Born June 9, 2011 Loving my awesome guitar picking 100% Country Boy boyfriend Kenny !
RIP Daddy~ 01/24/1930-06/01/2007 I miss you !
Dont Think you Can .. know you can ~ Jeff Hardy

What does "took over POA" mean? Do you have a court document dated 6/3/09 indicating your are the POA from that day forward? Or, did you just assume the role, which became legally recognized at a later date?

If the court appointed you as POA prior to 7/1/09 (you would have a dated document), and if you did not authorize this conference or use the infomation gathered at the conference in any way, I can't see how anyone would believe your mother is responsible for the billing. Perhaps the prior POA was seeking legal advice related to her dealings with your mom and they are trying to have your mom foot the bill ? ? ?

Good luck.

ETA -- How did the transfer of your mother's financial information and documents occur? When did you dismiss the prior attorney? Did you send a letter advising them their services were no longer required?

I had the POA documents signed by mom and notarized by a notary on June 3rd including the revocation which was sent to the former POA Certified mail return receipt and hand delivered to her home where it got taped to the front door when she refused to answer her door.

The former POA returned the checkbook and credit card to my mom in the hospital along with other paperwork and the house keys On June 1st when well the stuff hit the fan it took two days to get the new POA & Health care surrogate typed up and a notary brought into the hospital along with two witnesses.

I did not authorize the conference was not in attendance at the conference and I agree on why should mom be held responsible for this bill this was "Jane's" doing to go to my Mom's Attorney a month later.

I guess I wont know why she went there or anything until I call or send a letter.


I am 100% sure I did everything by the book and am still doing it by the book, Mom keeps telling me to shred the receipts once I balance out the accounts and me no way no how I want a paper trail of what was bought when and how much. Because "Jane" has accused me of being a money grubbing you know what and I can say with good conscience I am not taking money from my mom to the sum of $1,000 a month like she was for 5 hours of work max. I am only taking the love from my mom and giving her all the love I have for the rest of whatever time she may have and giving her all that she needs with Hospice Care, Home Health Aides and good cooking and trying to recoup some of the lost money and invest whats left better which I have done with one account already. My hope is my mom lives another 10 years with us.

__________________
~ Christine ~
Grammie to Trinity Lorayne Jean Keens Born June 9, 2011 Loving my awesome guitar picking 100% Country Boy boyfriend Kenny !
RIP Daddy~ 01/24/1930-06/01/2007 I miss you !
Dont Think you Can .. know you can ~ Jeff Hardy

God bless you and good luck to you. The prior person had keys to her house? Did you change the locks? Do you think the POA has bank acct numbers, etc... that need a watch put on them? Just some thoughts.

I don't know much about these sorts of things. But, it sure sounds like you have it covered. GL with resolving the billing issue. A friend of mine disputed an attorney's billing related to her divorce proceding. The attorney then sent another bill for reading the letter she sent disputing the bill .... (funny ...) I hope you can put an end to this and concentrate on just you and your family soon.

Boy, you sure have more than your fair share of drama, itscc2u. Good luck getting this latest one squared away!

cj/

__________________
I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips