The legal storm that has swirled around  Anna Nicole Smith during her lifetime promises to develop into a full-blown hurricane after her death February 8th. Barely twenty four hours later, enough issues have arisen to keep an entire faculty of law professors busy for years. While the controversies that surround most celebrity deaths have significance mainly to the public that followed  those stars while they were alive, there are questions here with meatier legal significance.
Continue Reading Anna Nicole Smith’s Death Sparks A Host Of Legal Questions and Controversies

Last year, I reported on the dispute that erupted after the death of Civil Rights Icon Rosa Parks in Detroit in October 2005. Ms. Parks left the bulk of her estate to an institute which she had founded together with her confidante and caregiver Elaine Steele (who had also held Ms. Parks’ power of attorney).…

Fellow lawblogger Juan Antunez has come across an interesting article published by AP concerning the controversies which often accompany the deaths of celebrities. Obviously inspired by the death of James Brown, the article has been published in Juan’s Florida Probate Litigation.com. I, too was struck by this rather strange phenomenon when I learned that, nearly one month after his death, the Godfather of Soul lies in a climate-controlled house awaiting the outcome of a family feud to determine just where and when he is finally to be laid to rest.
Continue Reading Celebrity Deaths Often Involve Controversy

On August 1, 2000, James Brown executed a will in the presence of his attorney Strom Thurmond Jr.(the juxtaposition of the name of the son of one of our nation’s foremost supporters of segregation with the "Godfather of Soul" is not lost upon your blogger!) in which he excluded both his partner and their now five year old  son . As CNN reports tonight, the plot thickens with the assertion by Brown’s attorneys that his subsequent marriage to his partner , Hynie was invalid because she had not yet annulled an earlier marriage at the time of her marriage to Brown.
Continue Reading JAMES BROWN’S WILL EXCLUDES HIS PARTNER AND THEIR INFANT SON

Earlier this year, I reported on the controversy swirling around 104 year old socialite Brooke Astor whose guardianship case has generated legal fees and expenses of about three million dollars according to an article in the December 5th New York Times. The case settled on October 13, shortly before it was slated to go to trial and then the fee applications began to roll in. Oh Boy did they roll in!
Continue Reading Brooke Astor’s Guardianship Case Rolled Up Huge Legal Fees as it Rolled On

A war of words has erupted on the front page of the New York Law Journal over the two million dollar legal fee which Thomas Troiano Esq., a Florida attorney is seeking from the estate of Edward J. Mardovich who died at the World Trade Center on September 11,2001. As I reported here last Tuesday, Mr. Troiano is coming under very heavy criticism for his fee application in Suffolk County Surrogate’s Court on Long Island.
Continue Reading Controversy Continues Over Two Million Dollar Legal Fee

Today’s New York Law Journal reports that a a Florida lawyer’s suit for two million dollars in legal fees to which he claims he is entitled for representing a Suffolk County, New York resident in a claim arising out of her husband’s death in the World Trade Center attack has been stayed pending the outcome of  estate proceedings in Suffolk County Surrogate’s Court.  Troiano v. Mardovich 06 Civ. 523 promises to be a very interesting case as it develops further.
Continue Reading Federal Court Stays Florida Attorney’s Action For 2 Million Dollars in Fees Over September 11 Claim

Today’s New York Daily News  calls attention to a problem that may not surface all that often but is always ugly when it does. Following up on its series of articles about 104 year old socialite Brooke Astor which I have reported on here, the News has turned to Ms. Astor’s lawyer, 63 year old Francis Morrissey who was hired by her son Anthony Marshall to replace the venerable and well-reputed law firm of Sullivan Cromwell which had represented her for forty years.
Continue Reading Spotlight Shifts To Brook Astor’s Attorney