How much are your principles worth?  What is the price of your dignity?

My price is apparently somewhere between $30,000 to $40,000.  It's a hard lesson to learn you even have a price let alone what the price is.  

A "settlement" was reached in my Grandmother's estate so as to avoid the cost of probate. If the estate had gone to probate, it would have cost somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 in legal fees.  A third lawyer, the probate lawyer, would be appointed by the Court to make the final settlement.  That lawyer starts from scratch, so the monies spent so far to attempt settle the estate before probate would be simply lost.  My Mother's attorney worked hard to save her the enormous cost and hassle that would ensue were the estate to go to probate, and an agreement was reached to benefit both sides.  My Grandmother's will was not honored, the agreement replaced it.

Here's where the question of one's dignity comes in.  In order for the settlement agreement to be accepted by the Judge, all parties had to sign stating they hold the Bank, Old National Trust, legally harmless for any action they had taken during the entire term of the guardianship.  And I, not as an inheritor, but as former guardian of the person, had to sign the agreement as well.  If I didn't sign, then the estate would go to probate, somewhere between $30,000-$40,000 more would be spent, the estate would take well over a year to settle, and the Lawyers
would walk away with most of the money.  

And so I signed away whatever principle I had.   I signed because I know it's best for my Mother to have some rest from the pressure of the so called "justice" system's legal maneuvering.  She's suffered enough and now she suffers the pain of mourning the loss of her beautiful Mother.   It's too late for my Grandmother to get back what the Bank and the Lawyers so arrogantly took from her.  I have no doubt the Bank and the Lawyers sleep soundly at night because it's gone so well for them.  And they're off to find their next victim and it will go just as well for them using the law to enable their piracy.

On a legal level, I signed over my dignity to the very ones who have no dignity themselves.  Of course, they don't need their dignity, it doesn't serve their interest.  They just want profit.  And, it doesn't bother them in the least that the profit they so enjoy was made by preying on the weak and defenseless.  It doesn't bother them at all.

On a person level, I hold the Bank, the Bank's Lawyer, and my uncle's Lawyer anything but harmless.  They ran my Grandmother's guardianship for their profit and to my Grandmother's detriment --- and they did it all "legally".  They ran over my defenseless Grandmother on their way to the bank.  

They can force me to sign the legal papers, and they did.  But, they can only control a court of law.  On a personal level, they cannot back me in the corner and force me to concede.

I have always believed the cliché, "what goes around, comes around".  One of these days, those smug and arrogant looters of my Grandmother's estate may find themselves in the same position my Grandmother found herself in.  And if that happens, they may find they've got a son of the same caliber as  my uncle, who might find a lawyer like he found, and find themselves in a court like Martin County, Indiana looking at a Judge who allows a Bank and Lawyers to plunder their estate legally while he/she lies helpless and alone.  What they've sent around just might come right back to them.  And then they might find it hard to get a good night's sleep.  

In the meantime, I will continue my efforts to bring focus to the guardianship racket and protect the future guardianship victims. We must change laws to bring this abuse to an end