Rights Lost to Conservator, Songwriter Fights Back
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A court stripped away songwriter Danny Tate's control of his life -- removing his right to make his own legal, financial and medical decisions -- at a last-minute hearing he didn't know about and didn't attend.
With the drop of a gavel, the Nashville musician who'd written a top 10 hit and was making around $125,000 a year writing music for TV shows was declared mentally disabled and in need of someone to manage his affairs. The decision was made at an ''emergency hearing'' with no medical testimony and no lawyer to represent Tate's interests.
When Tate finally got his day in court three weeks later to challenge allegations that he was in the grip of a life-threatening drug addiction, the judge refused his request for a lawyer and he had to represent himself.
He was again declared disabled, handcuffed and put in a locked psychiatric facility for six days.
''What they've done to me is wrong, and it shouldn't ever happen to anyone again,'' the songwriter said.
Advocates for people declared legally unfit to manage their own affairs say the songwriter's case is a troubling example of abuses found in the courts nationwide.
Among the problems they see: people stripped of their rights on questionable evidence, deprived of a lawyer, subjected to emergency hearings when there is no true emergency and losing their life savings.
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Such complaints prompted the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging to order an investigation into the concerns. That investigation is currently being conducted by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
In Tennessee, a person who manages the affairs of a disabled adult is called a conservator. Other states call these people guardians.
Tate, 54, says what was done to him at the emergency hearing Oct. 23, 2007, crippled his ability to mount a defense in a yearslong legal battle to restore his rights.
Davidson County Circuit Court Judge Randy Kennedy named the songwriter's older brother, David Tate, 60, as his conservator. That gave the older brother access to the younger brother's savings -- more than half a million dollars -- to pay for the lawyers to keep the conservatorship in place. In effect, Danny Tate has been forced to pay for the legal fight to oppose his own legal claim.
About the only thing the brothers can agree on is that Danny Tate was addicted to crack in 2007 and is now clean and sober. The addiction was bad enough that the songwriter granted his brother temporary power of attorney to pay his bills while he went into drug rehab.
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David Tate won't say whether he will ask the judge to keep him in charge of his brother's affairs. He maintains that he stepped in to save his brother's life.
More than $200,000 has been spent on legal fees so far, court records show. The upcoming hearing is expected to eat up thousands more.
Court records show that Tate had more than $600,000 in a money market account and was receiving about $125,000 a year in music royalty payments when the court proceedings began.
He will likely be in debt after the hearing, Hoskins said.
Unlike other court battles where each side pays its own legal fees, in a conservatorship proceeding a disabled person who has money pays for both sides. Every time Danny Tate's brother files a motion it comes out of Danny Tate's life savings.
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Unlike the right to counsel in criminal cases, the right to a lawyer in civil cases like conservatorship proceedings is not constitutionally guaranteed.
But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be, said Chris Slobogin a Vanderbilt University Law School professor who is an expert in mental-health law.
''I think there's a good argument to be made that when a person's property and possibly his liberty is going to be deprived by the government, there should be a right to counsel even if the proceeding is not criminal in nature,'' Slobogin said.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/05/21/us/AP-US-Conservator-Fight.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1This is scary!
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