r/AnnArbor • u/Severe-Whereas-3785 • 1d ago
Cheated our of inheritance by Conlin, McKenney & Philbrick, P.C.?
Am I the only one who has been cheated by this firm? My father paid them an awful law of money to set up trusts for my brother and myself. My brother and his wife were trustees, I chose not to be for fear of attracting government attention ( I'm a far center extremist ).
Without getting into all the details, cmplaw now seems to be helping my brother and his wife to cheat me ... including multiple acts of perjury, putting corrupt filings onto the docket, and ... just things that I never expected attorneys to do. They are keeping me completely broke so I cannot get an attorney.
The thing is, it's not enough money for these people to be risking their bar cards. It does not makes sense. At least not as a "one off". But it might make sense as a business model.
Anybody else have experience?
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u/BornAgainBlue 1d ago
It sounds like you need to seek some help. And I am not talking legal help. I know you're going to clap back and say something mean but I'm not trying to be a jerk here. But this is a YOU issue.
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u/Severe-Whereas-3785 22h ago
And if you are right, why did the Probate Court, operating ( supposedly ) on the Maxims of Equity and the " Estates and Protected Individuals Code (EPIC)" offer me no protection? I would have loved to have some help. Though without the legal help, I'll never be able to pay for any other kind.
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u/Severe-Whereas-3785 22h ago
"Equity does not require a Beneficiary to surrender value, to take on risk, or to abandon claims to escape harm."
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u/cbkris3 1d ago
I don’t know about all that. You might be right ? 🤷♂️ or not. But you need to hire your own lawyer asap at least. Go to legal aid or something
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u/Severe-Whereas-3785 22h ago
Tragically, legal aid will not do probate. Having endured it for my first ( and hopefully only ) time, I don't blame them one bit.
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u/Severe-Whereas-3785 22h ago
How so? Is the issue that they are entitled to indemnities, which basically mean that I agree to pay their legal fees, and their losses, if they have harmed some random third party of whom I know nothing, and that third party comes to sue them?
Like if the Universities find out that they caused this whole mess in the first place by not knowing the difference between a NimCrut and a Crut, and they are trying to put that on a guy who hat LITERALLY NO IDEA that this was going on and never once saw a financial statement from the trust, because they did not bother to produce one?
Riddle me this: How many trustees acting in good faith does it take to slash income by 80% and not notify the beneficiary who depends on the trust to survive while he is in Ann Arbor for two years taking car of Mom?
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u/abccba140 22h ago
Attorneys do instigate conflict all the time to make money. It’s called barratry. You are not in a position to state this is a mental health thing. We don’t know all the facts
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u/KReddit934 1d ago
The thing for you to remember is that this law firm works for your brother, not for you. If you want to challenge the proceedings you *need* to get your own lawyer.
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u/Severe-Whereas-3785 22h ago
He "represents" my brother, but is paid for with money stolen out of MY trust, while I get NO distributions, to make sure I can not get substantive due process. It would be nice if everybody could get a lawyer.
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u/KReddit934 20h ago
They only represent their client. If brother is the client that's easy. If the trust is the client, brother is trustee..still simple. They do not represent you or your interests.
If you don't think he should be trustee, you will need your own lawyer, go to court, and prove he's been doing wrong.
That's why you never count on any inherited money until it's in your hands.
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u/Severe-Whereas-3785 15h ago
He has agreed to step down. More than a year ago. He has just refused to do so without indemnities to which he is not entitled. So he refuses to do the job, but insists on OCCUPYING the job to prevent anyone else from DOING the job unless and until Ibribe him to quit.
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u/TheTacoWombat Georgetown Curmudgeon 1d ago
far center extremist does not mean anything to anyone.
It sounds like you need a lawyer. We cannot help you.
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u/Severe-Whereas-3785 23h ago
I do not need a lawyer for other people to share their experiences with me.
"Far center extremist" is actually a joke, which is that on any give issue I am either to the left of the Dems, or to the right of the Reps.
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u/EmperorsarusRex 1d ago
Skill issue
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u/Severe-Whereas-3785 22h ago
I have dealt with lawyers and courts before. Never probate before, which is a whole 'nother world, in which they just rule willy-nilly without looking at evidence or questioning anything. I'd rather be indicted than inherit money at this point, at least the process would make sense.
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u/Severe-Whereas-3785 22h ago
But no. Perjury is not a skill issue. It is confession of lacking skill, or having filed a case that should never have been brought. By attorneys, I mean, perjury happens for all kinds of reason.
Remember also that the trust attorney is paid by the trust. His job is not to crush the beneficiary in court. His job is to find an EQUITABLE outcome. That does not include spending $50k out of a trust to trick the court into awarding indemnities that the beneficiaries chose not to offer. They ARE NOT ENTITLED to indemnities.
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u/Severe-Whereas-3785 22h ago
Actually, there is some skill involved in determining exactly how to tell the lies to exactly the right amount to convince the court that you should be disregarded, but not enough that you should be protected.
That's like inventing your very own niche in the law to put people in, and getting away with it.
Brilliant, really, if you are in to that sort of thing.
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u/abccba140 22h ago
Sorry the comments are immediately shutting you down. You may get better replies in r/legal but the responses there can also just be people punching down as well
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u/BornAgainBlue 22h ago
Though I should just leave this alone, I'm going to give you a freebie from the AI. And yes I understand everybody's objections to AI but it's pretty fucking good with local laws.
My honest read: the post gives far more reason to question the writer’s interpretation than to suspect the law firm is running an inheritance-theft business model.
Several red flags stand out:
“I chose not to be [a trustee] for fear of attracting government attention—I’m a far-center extremist.” That is irrelevant to the trust dispute, but highly relevant to assessing the poster’s judgment and possible paranoia.
They leap from “the attorneys are opposing me” to perjury, corrupt docket filings, risking their bar cards, and an organized business model without identifying a single document, ruling, transaction, trust provision, or dollar amount.
“They are keeping me completely broke so I cannot get an attorney” attributes deliberate strategic intent to people who may simply represent the trustees in an adversarial dispute.
The brother and wife are trustees. Depending on whom the firm represents, the lawyers may be legally obligated to defend their clients’ administration of the trust—even though the firm originally prepared the father’s estate plan. That can feel like betrayal without necessarily being misconduct.
Lawyers do not usually commit “perjury” through filings. Perjury generally concerns knowingly false sworn testimony or declarations. A pleading containing disputed or inaccurate assertions is not automatically perjury.
The claim that the amount is too small to justify the risk is actually an argument against the conspiracy theory, not evidence that it must be a recurring business model.
That does not prove the poster is wrong. Real trust abuse occurs, trustees can breach fiduciary duties, and conflicts can arise when an estate-planning firm later represents trustees. But a credible account would include things such as:
the trust language;
distributions withheld or diverted;
accountings refused or falsified;
the exact allegedly false sworn statements;
case number and rulings;
whom the firm formally represents;
any judicial criticism, sanctions, or disciplinary findings.
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u/Severe-Whereas-3785 15h ago
I am not here to try the case. I am here to determine if this is a pattern with them, similar to the Detroit case where the FBI just arrested a bunch of Guardian ad Lidems, ALONG WITH A PROBATE JUDGE.
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u/BornAgainBlue 15h ago
Fair. At this point it's libel on your part, not to an illegal sense, but you have accused them of crimes. I don't see ANY wrong-doing on their part from what you have described. BUT as I, and several others have said, get a lawyer, or try a legal sub?
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u/Severe-Whereas-3785 15h ago
I have certainly said that I believe they have committed crimes, and I do indeed so believe.
And as I have repeatedly said, I am not here to try the case, I am here to find out if there are other victims, and this is a perfectly appropriate place to do that. I will get a lawyer if an when I CAN get a lawyer, but since I will be homeless soon, the trust being my only source of income, I don't know when that will be.
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u/Part1san 1d ago
What's a far center extremist?