Carlton Fields seeks $800K in fees in client's failed fight for guardianship of multimillionaire
Carlton Fields Jorden Burt is asking a Miami-Dade probate judge to award it more than $800,000 in fees for its work on behalf of a man who failed in a bid to obtain permanent guardianship over his elderly father, whose fortune has been estimated at $300 million.
With costs, Carlton Fields is seeking more than $1 million for its work on behalf of Arthur Linde, who sought emergency guardianship of his 80-year-old father Barrett Linde, a Washington-area developer, the Daily Business Review (sub. req.) reports.
The law firm’s expert witness has testified the attorney fees were reasonable for a contested guardianship suit. A lawyer representing Barrett Linde, Il-Young Choi, is opposing the fee request. “This is a case about greed but also about hubris,” he told the court.
Arthur Linde had contended his father had bipolar disorder and dementia and was duped into marriage by a much younger Colombian woman.
Judge Bernard Shapiro found Barrett Linde to be competent, reversing an earlier award of temporary guardianship to Arthur Linde. Shapiro wrote that Barrett Linde and his wife had a “caring, loving relationship with a six-year courtship prior to marriage, not a strip club meeting followed shortly thereafter by a quick trip to Las Vegas for nuptials.”
“This is no Anna Nicole Smith situation,” Shapiro wrote.
