Perhaps the most striking similarity between Bankruptcy Courts and Surrogate Courts is the fundamental existence of Agency Conflict.

Agency Conflict in the context of estates, such as in bankruptcies and wills, as well as certain special purpose liquidating entities, is also known as the "Headless Fee Pot" problem.  This problem exists when you have "a pot of money" with nobody in charge except person(s) who "earn" fees from the pot.  There is a perverse incentive for such person(s) who are in effective control of the pot to ignore their fundamental duties and instead act to enrich themselves from the Fee Pot.  Otherwise honest lawyers who may genuinely believe that ethics rules are not being violated easily succumb to feeding off the Fee Pot.  Worse still is when organized crime grabs hold of a Fee Pot.  Criminals, who also happen to be members of a State Bar, have no limiting morals and become emboldened by the special powers granted attorneys above and beyond normal citizens.  (While BankruptcyMisconduct neither endorses nor understand the purported Constitutional basis for these supracitizen powers, we must identify in context the convention as promulgated by the Legal Profession.)

The injustice and economic distortions which Agency Conflict brings upon society would be greatly reduced if only the legal industry did not regularly provide tacitly approve and outright protection to this scourge.

The Carvel Estate

JH Collectibles

 James F. Walker