by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Members of The Jacksonville Bar Association’s Tax Law and Trust and Probate Sections were given the secrets to success in probate court at their recent meeting.
Circuit Court Judge Peter Dearing was the keynote speaker at the luncheon held at the River Club and talked about some of the issues lawyers should look to avoid and emulate. All points related to one main theme, “quality in, quality out.”
Some of the tips pointed out basic procedural problems that may be caused by someone rushing to meet a deadline.
“Please read what you sign and file. Please read what you submit to me to sign,” said Dearing, stressing the word “me.”
Dearing empathized with those in attendance, because he knows that administrative staffs help prepare documents, just as they are in his division.
“You need to read what they prepare for you,” said Dearing. “They may be using a form and not changing that form to adjust to the facts on the ground as they exist in a particular case. When that kind of information comes to me and it’s not particular to the case, then the quality of the product that comes out of the courthouse is not going to be as good and we are going to be trying to fix it.”
The Probate Division of the Fourth Judicial Circuit has about 6,000 cases pending at any given moment, said Dearing. He would welcome the chance to talk with those lawyers filing probate pleadings who don’t regularly practice probate law.
“Here are some mistakes made by good probate lawyers,” said Dearing. “Sometimes petitions and orders aren’t being proofread. If the form you are using refers to an attached exhibit, make sure the exhibit is attached. When you file your petition for discharge, check the court file to see about creditors that you may not know about. Check the self proving clause of wills that you are submitting.”
The heavy caseload the division is experiencing prompted a cautionary comment from the judge.
“As much as I would love to give you a two-day turn around time for things filed and left with the clerk, don’t expect it,” said Dearing. “We are lucky if we can get things from the Clerk to my staff attorney, from my staff attorney to me, from me to (judicial assistant) Sandy (Jackson) and from Sandy to you in a week. It may even be longer.”
The mistakes his office is seeing may be a result of fewer lawyers referring probate cases to probate attorneys.
“Being the economic time we are in, lawyers aren’t referring cases like they used to,” said Dearing. “The nightmares we are getting as a result of the economy is that we are getting a lot of pro se petitions. Which are just invariably wrong.”
Dearing tries to convince the pro se petitioners to seek legal assistance to make sure they get the necessary help to properly file.
“The line I normally use is that you may want to pull a splinter out of your finger,” said Dearing, “but if you need an appendectomy, you will got to a doctor.”
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