WTF, Client?!?

So it’s WTF Wednesday. And have I got a WTF of awesome proportions for you.

A med-mal case came in a couple of weeks ago. The facts of it are similar to one that was settled by another firm we work with on occasion for tens of millions of dollars. As a result, my boss has dollar signs in his eyes and is following this one like you wouldn’t believe. The injured party is currently existing in a persistent vegetative state. So his older sister is acting as ward. We got her emergency guardianship, applied to get her appointed as long-term guardian, got her bonded, the whole deal. It’s been a pain. She’s always late and terminally forgetful. So I will make an appointment with her to sign paperwork that is time-sensitive and absolutely necessary and she will flake on the appointment completely. It’s been a battle to get this case probated and ready to be able to collect records, to say the least.

Over the course of filling out this paperwork, there are several places that ask if our prospective guardian has been convicted of a crime or served jail time. Several. this is important.

I finally got everything filed last week. Got the emergency guardianship. Got the hearing scheduled for the long-term guardianship. Everybody breathe.

And then? I get a message from the probate court this morning. Evidently our guardian was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and served over ten years in prison. Which she forgot to mention while filling out all the paperwork and the at least five times I asked her that same question. Which means she cannot serve as guardian. And there are no other living relatives. None. Not a distant cousin, not a half-uncle. No one.

My boss is going to go completely apeshit bananas over this one.