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Review content:
You should know that Jay Goodman was formally reprimanded by the New Mexico State Bar Association for improper billing practices. I had Goodman's firm do an estate plan, including a trust, for my aging mom, when I had her financial power of attorney. The documents contained many mistakes, including spelling my sister's name wrong, spelling a charity's name wrong, and, most importantly, getting the arithmetic wrong, distributing the estate so that the total percentage was not 100%. Life-Leaf threw in giving Decades Group medical power of attorney, which went on the abuse that power. Decades Group and their owner Nancy Oriola seriously over-billed my mom. Their promotional literature listed packages which suggested to me their billings were in the $200-$600 per month range, and that's why I approved signing my mom up with them. Instead, their billings ranged from $1800 - $4800 every two weeks - just for medical power of attorney work! I would estimate their billings for a little over two years, mostly just for faxing medical records and the like, at about $150,000. They had my mom spending almost $50,000 per month (unreimbursed medical, personal, Decades, etc.)at times, which she could not remotely afford. My mom's trustee couldn't risk a lawsuit so these bills got paid. And since the paperwork nominated Decades for conservator it was pretty much impossible to fire them. The attorney promised to do the entire job for no more than $5,000, but apparently charged more than twice that amount. Given all this, if you still decide to hire Goodman or Decades Group, a criminal background check is probably a good idea.
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