Michael Cameron Weeks

Michael Weeks

As the story goes, there are two sides to every story. In this case, allegations of financial abuse were made by this client towards their mother. Protective steps were discussed with client, and initiated. The attorney appointed to represent the mother, examined her financial records, met several times with the mother, and was frank in that he didn’t believe abuse was occurring or that the mother needed protection. The medical evidence we could gather to dispute this was mediocre at best. We did try to arrange for a family meeting to attempt to patch things up, but ultimately, the mother refused to attend. I had no way to force the mother to attend. I explained to the clients that based on the evidence, their likelihood of success was very low, and that it would be very expensive to continue to proceed in a case that was unlikely to bring a satisfactory result for them, and I didn’t recommend they continue, but that was their choice. They chose not to continue. It’s never fun to have to deliver news to clients that they don’t want to hear. Part of being a good lawyer is examining a case without emotion or bias, and giving frank advice based on that analysis. I do not believe it is a fair comment to say that this was a case of lacking legal skill or willingness to represent them. It was more their appraisal of the situation could not be backed up with any amount of significant proof that would have enabled a remedy under the law.