The Better Chancery Practice Blog

Remember that every pleading in an estate, guardianship and conservatorship must be signed by the fiduciary, and not the attorney or anyone else. And that includes “accounts and reports.” That’s what UCCR 6.13 expressly states.

In your mad frenzy to avoid a show-cause order, it sometimes seems expedient to bypass that sluggish fiduciary altogether and just do it yourself, but if you sign that motion, or that account, or that inventory, you have really accomplished nothing. It’s the fiduciary who is on the line, and her name needs to be on the dotted line.

And, although it is the fiduciary’s account, strictly speaking, you stand to suffer the slings and arrows of  outrageous fortune yourself if the case is delinquent. UCCR 6.17 says, “If, without cause, an attorney fails to file accountings or other matters in probate cases … after being so directed in writing by the Court, the Court may consider such misconduct as contempt.”