January 3, 2021
Janice Hui
Managing Director
Investigative Reporting Program
UC Berkeley
Dear Ms. Hui:
I am writing to inform you of an investigative reporting opportunity for
students affiliated with your program.
We have been investigating systemic and systematic abuses and law violations
occurring in probate conservatorship proceedings in California. I
personally have been investigating and reporting on these problems for several
years. I have written extensively on this, not only focusing on the
problems but also and most importantly on possible solutions. https://spectruminstitute.org/publications.pdf
The problems I refer to are created by policy failures in the legislative and
judicial branches of government and are perpetuated by flawed practices of the
judges and attorneys involved in these proceedings. The abuses and law
violations adversely affect about 60,000 seniors and people with disabilities
who are “trapped” in these conservatorships and about 5,000 more who are
targeted by new petitions for conservatorships filed each year in California.
Our most recent project is focusing on
problems in the way that public funds are spent to pay for deficient legal
services by public defenders and court-appointed private attorneys who
represent these seniors and people with disabilities who are indigent. It
also focuses on excessive and unreasonable fees that are paid to a variety of
attorneys in these cases – money that is coming from the assets of these
vulnerable litigants. The judges are not conserving and protecting the
assets of these individuals, but instead are enriching the attorneys who depend
on this system for a steady stream of income. https://spectruminstitute.org/review-team.pdf
Perhaps this new research project on attorney fees, or other aspects of the
abusive conservatorship system, would be topics that the Investigative
Reporting Program would like to become involved with. Please let me know
if you have any interest is this.
Yours truly,
Thomas F. Coleman
Legal Director
Spectrum Institute
https://spectruminstitute.org/