DAMN LAWYERS 2: The Stench of Cronyism
NEW VIDEO! Our DAMN LAWYERS investigation is yielding more complaints about lawyers accused of preying on families in inheritance cases. What happens when you sue those lawyers for malpractice and there are allegations of bias and hidden conflicts? It ain’t easy, especially when you find the STENCH OF CRONYISM.
DAMN LAWYERS 2: The Stench of Cronyism
“Most lawyers – I say most lawyers – They aren’t dumb. And they put in the fine print of your contract that if y’all get in a fight it has to be decided not by a jury but a third party arbitrator. They make the final call, and usually they are a lawyer too. So, in my opinion, you could get screwed,” Wayne Dolcefino told the camera.
“Hey judge, how are you? I’m Wayne Dolcefino. I’m here to talk to you about the Allison case,” Dolcefino said.
“No thank you,” Anne Ashby said.
“I appreciate that. You’re an expert at this stuff though,” Dolcefino said.
“No, thank you,” Ashby said.
“Well I haven’t asked my question yet,” Dolcefino said.
Meet our newest friend Anne Ashby, a former state district judge in Dallas County for twenty long years. She’s now a referee in legal fights, an arbitrator. The decider in chief, her website boasts of her galaxy of wisdom, and we just wanted some.
“Should lawyers ever be punished for giving you bad advice?” Dolcefino said.
“You know I really can’t talk about this and I don’t know who you are, and I’d appreciate you not talking about it. Thank you,” Ashby said.
She knew who we were. We’d first called her months ago to talk about what happened to this brother and sister when they sued their lawyers for malpractice. Ashby was the arbitrator for the case.
“You were actually the arbiter in the Allison malpractice case,” Andrea Palacio said.
“I need you to stop right there and I’m just going to tell you I have no knowledge of anything. It’s all confidential,” Ashby said.
Actually judge, it’s not confidential. Most of our family injustice investigations involves some stuff that is clearly public record, and what we see in this case should be a warning to everyone.
The Allisons say they made a huge mistake trusting their own lawyers. And they want you to know their names.
Jorge Borunda.
“Why should the Allisons pay for your bad advice?” Palacio said.
Michael Trevino.
“You have no input to give?” Judge Copeland said.
“Unfortunately I’m limited by some statements made by the clients I can’t divulge,” Micheal Trevino said.
And this guy, attorney Nick Abaza. They are all buddies.
“You’re supposed to give them advice that’s best for them, not what’s best for you,” Palacio said.
“Thank you,” Nick Abaza said.
Caroline and Richard needed legal advice after their dad died. He was rich, a 20 million dollar estate, maybe more, and their stepmom wasn’t cooperating with them. They say the lawyers told them you had to sue the estate, start a legal war, or get nothing.
The battle ended up with a settlement agreement that the Allisons say their own lawyers pressured them to take.
“We gave up more than we got,” Caroline Allison said.
When the Allisons had the deal looked at by Hancock Valuation Advisors later, they discovered they had potentially given up about 15 million dollars in their dad’s assets.
“But they discovered something else. Their dad had set up a trust for 9.5 million dollar for his kids. They didn’t have to sue anyone. It was guaranteed,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“They could have just told us the truth, saying that hey, you don’t have to do anything with this thing. You’re getting everything,” Ric Allsion said.
The Allisons said the lawyers told them to sign a 35 percent contingency deal. By then the lawyers knew how rich their dad was. That meant the lawyers would likely pocket more than three million dollars.
Who needs hourly billing when you can do that?
“Our attorneys were taking a fee off of benefit we already had,” Caroline Allisons.
Lawyers are required to warn you that you have a right to ask another lawyer for advice before signing such an agreement. We have seen no written evidence that ever happened. Their current lawyers said that was a violation of the deceptive trade practices act. A fraud.
“The Allisons sued for malpractice. And that meant it had to go to arbitration,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“Although arbitration does not have many of the formal rules and procedures used in court, it is important to remember the arbitrator’s decision is final and binding on the parties.”
“That’s why we went to find Judge Ashby, after she ignored us for weeks. The Allisons say that her decision cost them a lot more money,” Dolcefino told the camera.
“I believe mediation is a dynamic process which utilizes a neutral third party to bring resolution to conflicted parties.”
That’s Ashby’s video profile for the American Arbitration Association, the world’s biggest provider of referees in legal fights. They’ve been in business over 100 years.
Bu don’t ask for a reference from Caroline Allison.
“Let’s just say if you want an unfair trial, go to arbitration,” Caroline Allison said.
Ashby ruled the Allisons not only had to pay the three million dollars to the lawyers, even if they thought their advice sucked. But she added another 1.5 million dollars in interest and legal fees.
“That was a big reward for the lawyers, and it meant that about a half of that guaranteed trust the father set up could be attacked because the lawyers want their money,” Dolcefino told the camera.
Ashby ever awarded 600,000 dollars to attorney Trevino even though Rich Allison never even signed a contract for him to be his lawyer, be part of the case.
“How did this happen? How did we get this horrific result? And then the only conclusion you could reach is that it was rigged,” Caroline Allison said.
“She wrote in her judgment saying that I had zero credibility, but she never even paid attention to what I said,” Ric Allison said.
“There were requests from both sides. Ours would get shot down. Theirs would get accepted,” Caroline Allison said.
The Allisons launched their own investigation into Anne Ashby. After the arbitration had ended. Something just didn’t smell right.
“And the Allisons found it odd that a Dallas arbitrator had been chosen to decide their dispute. When there are plenty of arbitrators here in Houston,” Dolcefino told the camera.
So why Ashby? Whose idea was it to choose her to referee this battle in the first place?
“She’s hurt our family by doing this case, doing more damage than was already done,” Ric Allison said.
“And after what we discovered, I don’t really blame the Allisons for thinking they might have just got played,” Dolcefino told the camera.
The Allisons’ malpractice lawyers had agreed to Ashby, knowing of some of her potential conflict. But the Allisons. They didn’t know and that has turned out to be a major focus of our investigation. Why we think Ashby should have recused herself and never been part of this case.
Right before she took on their arbitration case, Ashby did report a potential conflict of interest. No first names, just Mr. Collins. That’s a scandal in itself. Ashby was married to a guy named Jody Packer, a Dallas businessman who had an affair with a woman who want to pay to have another woman killed. He was sentenced to 27 months in jail for his role in helping her flee and was busted trying to come back into the country.
The disclosure also revealed Ashby had practiced law with Mr. Collins at the law firm Collins, Basinger & Pullman for about two years when she left the bench.
That wasn’t just any Mr. Collins. That was Micheal Collins the Dallas lawyer who was representing their stepmom, the one they had fought in court in the first place over the inheritance.
“I would say that this was an adversarial situation from the get-go,” Micheal Collins said.
“Here’s Anne Ashby’s email, ashby@cblegal. And then I’m like, is this some type of attorney service, or how does she have the same email address that this Michael Collins has?” Ric Allison said.
Micheal Collins, in fact, had been listed as a witness for the very lawyers the Allisons were suing in the malpractice case, not a friend of theirs at all.
But Ashby said none of the disclosures would affect her ability to be fair and impartial. After the Allisons lost and saw the disclosure for the very first time, boy were they outraged.
“No way. I wouldn’t want to deal with anybody that had any connection to the case. How can somebody be neutral if they have friends involved in the case?” Ric Allison said.
“She should have just said, like most normal lawyers who are ethical say I need to stay out of this,” Caroline Allison said.
Ashby’s disclosure of her conflicts left a lot out, in our opinion.
She wrote that she “practiced law” at Collins’ firm starting in 2009 when in fact she was hired as a director, a position of much higher authority.
And Ashby failed to disclose the extent of her relationship with this guy, Steven Besly, another lawyer at Collins’ firm involved in the probate case.
A search of Secretary of State records showed Besly was the registered agent of Ashby’s law firm for several years, including 2023, the very year of the arbitration fight. Did she owe him a favor too?
Ashby’s disclosure said she had known a Mr. Staubus for a long time. Funny, she left his first name out to. His name is Keith Staubus. He provided the expert report calling the Allisons’ claims against their lawyers preposterous. Ashby awarded Staubus 53,000 dollars for a 27-page report. And Ashby didn’t say she had worked with Staubus at the Collins lawfirm.
The Allisons even produced this graphic, documenting the network of connections up there in Dallas. Possible conflicts in this case.
With all those connections, how could the choice of Ashby have been some kind of coincidence? I think it stinks.
“Who picked Anne Ashby to be the arbitrator?” Palacio said.
“Both parties picked her,” Jorge Borunda said.
“OK, and who suggested her?” Palacio said.
“The American Arbitration Association,” Borunda said.
The Allisons have their key suspect.
“I just believe that Michael Collins gave them the name of the arbitrator, and orchestrated our ex attorneys to be able to get a judgment and collect their fee,” Caroline Allison said.
The Allisons aren’t the only ones who have had trouble with Anne Ashby as an arbitrator.
Check out the negative reviews saying that she sides with the business over the consumer, every time.
Dallas financial advisor Phillip Floyd had issues with her too.
“From the very beginning she was very demeaning. It’s a money thing for her. She had to get money and we accused her of this in court of corruption because she needed money,” Phillip Floyd said.
“She put her greed for money ahead of her duty to act as a neutral arbitrator.”
Our investigation also exposed interesting details about Ashby’s bankruptcy filing many years ago. She filed it on April 29, 2009 and the spending it had left her more than 700 thousand dollars in debt. She had lost her judicial post, but Michael Collins had come to her rescue, giving her a job, a financial lifeline, the same month as the bankruptcy was filed. Boy Ashby must have owe him big time.
In the filings, Ashby reported her judicial pension of more than ten thousand dollars a month, but we saw no evidence that she reported income from the job with Collins’ firm.
And the following month, when we know she worked there. Ashby did not report again any law firm income.
Months later, the bankruptcy’s trustee accused Ashby and her husband of not cooperating with his investigation. He filed legal papers to compel production of their financial records and that history tells the Allisons she shouldn’t be trusted.
You file bankruptcy documents Judge under penalty of perjury and that’s what told the Allisons you simply couldn’t be trusted.
“I didn’t get my day in court,” Ric Allison said.
Arbitration judgments are binding. Courts rarely overturn them. Harris County Judge Cory Sepolio in the 269th District Court, he upheld the judgment despite several appeals.
“The judgment’s all against them,” Abaza said.
But the judgment is against the Allisons personally. It could end up, they say, being worthless, now the lawyers are trying to get the money from that trust, there are supposed to be protected assets that may be a lot harder to get. Could set a precedent.
The Allisons are taking their fight to the Texas Supreme Court, and they want everyone who hires a lawyer to watch their story.
“I think the public should know that arbitration is dirty. It’s a scam. Don’t play in it. It’s not worth it,” Ric Allison said.
A formal report from Dolcefino Consulting gives our opinion after decades of investigating ethics issues. We believe the conflicts with Ashby have the quote:
“Stench of cronyism, rigged to benefit the attorneys who stand to make millions of dollars.”
If these lawyers are such experts at probate matters, why didn’t they tell them from the very start that their money was safe?
“You know Anne, right?” Palacio said.
“I’ve known her for probably 35 to 40 years,” Micheal Collins said.
“That was part of our very brief phone interview with Michael Collins. He agreed to an on-camera interview. But the next day he cancelled it. Hasn’t returned our phone calls since,” Dolcefino told the camera.
And his former paralegal Deborah Jordan, well, she wasn’t happy to see us either.
She ended up getting a power of attorney for Robin Allison, the step-mom, who is now brain-dead.
Robin’s granddaughter tried to get Jordan removed, claiming she was blocking relatives from visiting the ailing woman. Accusing Jordan in court documents of blowing through hundreds of thousands of dollars of the stepmom’s money. These are the court documents.
“Deborah has paid herself, her immediate family, her attorney and her friends close to $500,000 to ‘manage’ finances in only eight month’s time.”
Selling out Robin’s expensive collection of jewlery, arts and antiques. Collins argued that Jordan was providing top notch care, that Robin said she had no desire to speak to many of the relatives ever again. The granddaughter eventually ended her fight.
“I want to talk to you about the Allison family,” Dolcefino said.
“Get lost,” Jordan said.
“Excuse me,” Dolcefino said.
As you can see, our interviews in Dallas didn’t last very long.
“Can you roll down your window for a minute?” Dolcefino said.
“I need you to stop following me, leave me alone. Thanks. I want the camera off please,” Ashby said.
But this brother and sister are not quitting knowing full well it’s hard to hold lawyers accountable if you think they took you for a ride to the bank.
“I want for it to be common knowledge that attorneys prey on families. And they love inheritances because dead people can’t defend themselves,” Caroline Allison said.
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