Martha Constable Brown

Martha Brown represented my family for sensitive legal matters that involved having my father declared incompetent to protect him from outside predators. Martha and her staff were extremely sensitive to how delicate of a situation it was and were always professional. Martha handled my family, inclu...ding my father, with the same care and respect that she handled dealing with the judge assigned to our case. It was a pleasure working with Martha and I would highly recommend her to anyone with a legal issue in the Elder Care area of the law.

I was disappointed with their guidance, communication, and knowledge of practices of the Court. They failed to set realistic client expectations and provide timely responses regarding typical outcomes and next steps when interacting with the Court. When the Court would not allow a Guardianship wi...th existing POA that they had recommended she feigned indignation, and made spurious comments regarding discontinuing her practice in St Louis County Probate court. Specifically they failed to foresee and communicate implications to client in advance of: • Court not allowing Guardianship with existing POA. ( Court terminated POA and required Conservatorship be established. We learned from the Court appointed attorney for the Ward that the Court almost never allows Guardianship without Conservatorship. This caused a 3 month delay in the Real Estate Auction, required obtaining a Surety Bond, and led to a fivefold increase in fees paid to their office over what was originally expected for Guardianship only.) • Court requiring Appraisal before Real Estate could be auctioned. (Resulting in needing the appraisal within 24 hours at additional costs) • Additional Surety Bond required after sale of Real Estate. (additional costs.) • Option to pursue direct disbursement to heirs by Conservator. (Instead of their office suggesting this quicker more cost effective approach, we had to bring it up to them after a third party recommended it.) All in all they may be strong at drawing up Trusts agreements and the many aspects of Estate planning, but we found them weak at interacting with the Court and communicating with the client. I would not recommend this firm.