Two years ago, we helped a client put a stop to financial exploitation and mental abuse. Unfortunately, the perpetrator of the abuse was her former attorney. Earlier this year, an Administrative Law Judge ruled that our client’s former attorney financially exploited and mentally abused her.
Ending the Abuse
Our relationship with this particular client began by helping her update her estate plan. To protect our client’s privacy, we can’t get into the details and share our particular victories, however, we can share that to ultimately end the abuse from the client’s former attorney we had to file a Vulnerable Adult Protection Order (VAPO).
Know Your attorney’s Role
When looking back on his tragic situation, we believe the big takeaway is to remember that you, the client, is always in charge. Our job as lawyers is to serve as an attorney and counselor at law. Our role is definitely not to substitute our agenda for our client’s judgment. We offer advice and counsel to clients focusing on how we believe they should proceed in various situations. However, it’s only advice—and we never require clients to follow our recommendations. While we believe in our strategy and counsel, at the end of the day it’s our client’s decisions to make.
More information
In this situation, our client authorized us to share and the facts were reported in the newspaper. If you are interested in learning more, here is a link to the article:
https://www.columbian.com/news/2019/mar/25/dshs-former-vancouver-attorney-exploited-abused-woman/
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