Rosa Parks estate "fleeced," pleading claims.

The ABA reports today that the estate of Rosa Parks (of civil rights bus-riding fame) owes some $243,000 in  legal fees to the two court-appointed lawyers handling it. 

The fee amount was made public by a court filing in the Michigan Supreme Court seeking leave to appeal the order granting the fees. 

Most publicly embarrassing, perhaps, to the two attorneys appointed is not the fee amount but the fact that they have acquired the intellectual property rights to use the Parks name in lieu of cash payment of a portion of their attorney fees. 

The article appears to state that virtually all of the cash value of the estate has been used up in attorney fees. This Michigan case is yet another example of a rule that is true in Georgia as well:  the relatively low cost of paying a competent estate planning attorney on the front end rather than the tens of thousands (or more) the heirs may lose in attorney fees after the testatrix dies. 

Though they cost a substantial multiple of your average plumber's fee per hour, specialized estate planning attorneys  often save a complex estate an amount of money that is several times greater than the planning attorney's fee.

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