Need help fighting senior exploitation

| August 14, 2008 11:00 PM

Senior exploitation is and has been an ongoing subject for our seniors over the years. It is becoming a very large and overwhelming problem with our seniors. They are being exploited by friends, loved ones, by caretakers and even home health personnel. Without even knowing what is happening to our seniors they begin to rely on these people or loved ones and don't even realize they have already started working on their mental state — depending on their condition. Our seniors are very vulnerable.

Other problems we have that no realizes is that this law needs to be changed. Attorneys take almost everything that is left, in attorney fees. They do this because they can and they can get away with it by saying they are the estate lawyer, defending the individual who took advantage of the elderly. My father had this happen to him. We took the individual to court and won our case. The individual, who took my father's estate, took a debt-free man with money in the bank and turned him into a man with debt in the estimated sum of $500,000. We are told we have to pay all that debt including the other individual's lawyer's fees. These fees are in the amount of about $52,000, plus additional fees between her two attorneys. Now we are protesting those fees along with the exploitation of my father.

The law seems to be in the best interest of the attorneys and not the estate or survivors. It seems absolutely unfair that the law protects attorney fees for a will that was declared invalid or obtained by fraud. We have not been able to get anybody from the sheriff's department, adult protective services, county attorney's office or any other government agency to investigate our claims. A civil jury ruled 12-0 in our favor but it doesn't seem to matter to these attorneys or the court system. The jury ruled on 03/12/08 and we are still unable to to get anything done. All due to the court not ruling and the attorney the caregiver hired is unwilling to do as the jury ruled. The legal system seems to do absolutely nothing for anybody but the attorney that bills out at $165 per hour for virtually unlimited hours until the estate is bankrupt. Then they move on to the next one. I have no problem with somebody hiring an attorney to protect their interest but it would seem to that if they lose, they should pay their own attorneys fees plus court costs, etc. The law seems to give the attorneys virtually a blank check with few or no controls.

In our case the attorney is aware that the individual that took my father for everything is still in the process of selling items my father purchased with her by using the power of attorney she was able to convince him to get into. The court system has done nothing to protect the estate after issuing a court order to stop this individual from disposing of estate assets. The individual continues to sell items, spending the money even though the court had ordered her not to. She will not reveal where assets are and suffer no consequences for it.

I think that victims and their families should be compensated for what they have had to pay out in lawyer fees and mental anguish. They have to go through it no matter whether they have money or not. They could have a judgment put against them for the rest of their life until their debt has been paid in full.

It should be treated like a drug bust and everything they have gained by taking the elderly should be sold and put back into the estate. They should be held with some severe consequences with the law. We are seeking help with this matter of elderly abuse and would like help from anybody who has dealt with this matter in any small or large form of this subject. Contact us as soon as possible because we are also in need of your support. Valley-wide or state-wide because we are going before the Senate in January 2009 to try to change this law of senior exploitation. Any information from you or from your experiences would be a huge help since we are told this is not a problem. We feel that it is time that someone presents the facts. Anyone who would like to join us in January 2009 is also more than welcome to come.

Debbi Schumacher and Vicki Gove are residents of Columbia Falls.

Thanks for support of Minor All-Star team

The Columbia Falls Minor All Stars would like to extend a big "thank you" to all of the following family, friends and businesses who supported us through out the 2008 baseball season.

They are: Anytime Lock & Safe, Iron Fitness, Laurie's Deli, Ritchie Riley Shook Tire Co., Glacier Jet Technologies/Water Jet Cutting, Fastoys, All About Memories-Scrapbook Store, Bryan Slaubaugh Trucking & Excavating, Porteus BBQ, Jack and Darlene Allen, Evan and Jalene King, the Brian Aklestad family, the Dave Gehrig family, King's Landscaping, Swan River Gardens, Columbia Falls Police Department, Freedom Bank, Hanson Trucking, Inc., Erika Purdy-CMT, Hooper's Nursery, Plum Creek, Canyon Foods, Wildman Graphics, Wells Fargo Bank, B 2 Photography, Bio Energy Systems, Universal Athletics, Smith's Food & Drug and American Auto.

Thank you, sponsors!

Columbia Falls Minor All Stars

Thank you for support of WAEA events

On behalf of the Wildcat Athletic Endowment Association Board of Directors, thank you all for your continued support in making the 2008 WAEA auction and golf tournament such a tremendous success. Through your generous contributions the fund has grown another $30,000 — pushing the endowment principal to an amazing $269,000! As always, this principal remains untouched, and only the interest earned will be used to assist CFHS athletes and their families to defray the cost of participating in high school athletic programs. The goal of the WAEA is to provide necessary funding to allow CFHS athletes to play without paying for fees and essentials.

As a board, we're truly humbled by the overwhelming community support of these fundraisers, and we are very pleased to have hit our financial goal this year.

Thank you notes are on the way to a substantial list of volunteers, sponsors and participants who each helped to reach this year's target. We especially recognize Jim Porteus, Karl Skindingsrude and Troy Bowman for their roles in making the auction a true community event. Thanks also to CFHS Activities Director John Thompson for his unending work and assistance and to Superintendent Michael Nicosia for school district assistance and support.

I'd like to personally thank our board members, Kim Cheff, Jana Fields, Michelle Goodman, Sarah Dakin, Gary Luce and Lori Grilley for their endless enthusiasm, selfless investment of time and unbelievable passion for the WAEA.

Thanks again Wildc/kat supporters. Your contributions will work for our athletes for years and years to come.

Go Wildc/kats!

Jim Thompson, president

Wildcat Athletic Endowment Association

Class of '73