Bay Area

Perils of Probate: Part 17 – Probate Attorney Explains Court Dysfunction

Published

5 years ago

May 6, 2020

“To be honest, we are victims of a legal system that is antiquated and unprepared for the complexity of modern life,” said Lisa MacCarley, probate attorney with MacCarley & Rosen PLC of Glendale, Calif.

“Baby Boomers will start hitting age 80 in 2026 and dementia in that the aging population will tax society in ways that are unimaginable,” MacCarley considered. “I applaud our California governor for requiring that a master plan on aging be prepared this year in anticipation of the future medical and social services needs of our aging citizenry. It’s time for the legal community to do the same.”

MacCarley does not subscribe to any notion of corruption or malice by the probate court judicial officers. She observes them struggling with overwhelming caseloads, involving myriad issues ranging from simple probates to complex questions of tax and trust administration.

“The bad news is that our probate judges presently meander, without sufficient guidance, into unprecedented questions of aging, fragile bodies, and failing minds,” she said. “The good news is that we can make adjustments, as other states have done, and provide the courts with better tools to manage their caseloads.

“Well-intentioned judges who want to get it right look for someone to tell them what to do. It appears that the judges erroneously believe that the role of ‘court-appointed counsel’ is to instruct them, make recommendations to them, and guide them.”

But the State Bar of California does not require ‘court-appointed counsel’ to make recommendations based on an individual’s best interests and therein lies the confusion. What a person with dementia articulates to their court-appointed counsel should not be construed as a judicial mandate but that is, unfortunately, what is occurring all too often.

MacCarley says “the probate courts can only begin to serve the public once judges are given the opportunity to truly learn the law and better understand the medical conditions, especially dementia, that bring families into court in the first place.”

“Bettys’ Hope,” MacCarley’s new organization, was inspired to make certain that her own children, family and friends are never traumatized and exploited the way that Betty Roberts’ daughters and loved ones are traumatized or how Judge Betty Lou Lamoreaux’s family was exploited.

“The saga of Judge Betty Lou Lamoreaux should shake the public to the core,” said MacCarley. This woman had committed her life to justice, and yet she was also victimized by the Orange County probate court. The well-publicized legal fight between Judge Lamoreaux’s family and her court-appointed counsel cost over $500,000. It was as if the first 90 years of Judge Lamoreaux’s life, filled with the love of her family, never mattered.

Elizabeth “Betty” Roberts, a resident of Lancaster, California, and her two daughters cherished each other until an argument between Betty’s boyfriend and one of Betty’s daughters resulted in the sudden elimination of Betty’s daughters from her life. Betty’s court-appointed attorney, Nolen Milburn, wrote ‘reports,’ filled with conjecture, condoning Betty’s isolation. It is as if the first 82 years of Betty’s life, filled with the love of her daughters, don’t matter.

“These cases moved me to take action to protect my family and yours. No one should be traumatized by their experiences in a California probate court. It’s time to demand better for our elders and adults with disabilities. I fear sinking into the darkness of dementia more than I fear dying because of what I have witnessed in our probate courts. It is my hope, our dear Betty’s hope, to change that.”

Tanya Dennis

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

2 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

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Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

1 week ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

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Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

1 week ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.