Basic Professional Responsibility and Estate Planning
If you're an estate planning attorney looking to avoid malpractice claims and other problems, it's a good idea to meet with and/or talk to your client before preparing a Will for him. Seems like common sense, doesn't it? Apparently not to Ohio attorney Steve M. Soltis -- according to this article, Mr. Soltis prepared a Will and other estate planning documents for a man named Calvert M. Porter. But Mr. Soltis never met or even talked to Mr. Porter; instead, he spoke only to Mr. Porter's girlfriend. Needless to say, Mr. Soltis was asked to (and did) prepare a Will naming the girlfriend (Imogene Crouch) as Mr. Porter's sole beneficiary.
One stunning fact:
The Columbus Bar Association filed disciplinary charges against Soltis, saying that, had he met with Porter, none of the current litigation would exist. Soltis was cleared of ethical charges in May.
To my mind, the above fact pattern reveals some serious professional responsibility issues, involving conflict of interest (was Mr. Soltis really representing Mr. Porter's interests?) and basic competence. How can you prepare a Will for a client when you don't know whether or not the client is competent, and don't know the client's wishes? You can't.
