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The Council for Court Excellence has long been active in the probate field, with a primary aim to ease the procedural burdens associated with resolving the financial affairs of a family member or friend who has died.

Among its accomplishments in the area of probate and trusts, CCE has:

• Issued, with the Bar Association of DC, the Report of the Probate Review Committee (May 2004), which considered management issues and challenges faced by the DC Superior Court’s Probate Division and made recommendations for improvement. (A fuller description of this report is provided below.)
• Promoted the “Uniform Trust Act of 2003,” which brought DC up to par with most other states which have codified their trust law (rather than having it exist solely in case law) and more clearly defined the rights and duties of trustees and trust beneficiaries when the trust document failed to adequately address those issues.
• Fostered the “Probate Reform Act of 1994,” which granted DC residents more freedom to settle an estate without supervision by the probate court, and supported by the “Omnibus Trusts and Estates Amendment Act of 2000,” which increased the funds from a decedent’s estate which can be made immediately available to the surviving family members.
• Published and widely disseminated our Personal Affairs Record Book, a fill-in-the-blanks estate planning aid.

Report of the Probate Review Committee
On May 15, the Washington Post covered the report of the Probate Review Committee, released in early May, in an article entitled “Report Faults Court on D.C. Wards’ Care.” The Probate Review Committee was established by both the Bar Association of DC and the Council for Court Excellence in June 2003 in response to the Washington Post series on adult guardianship and conservatorship in DC Superior Court. That series extensively researched and documented lax oversight by the Court of adult wards of the court and patterns of neglect by some of the DC Superior Court’s Probate Division Panel of approved attorneys who are eligible for such appointments.

The final report offers recommendations addressing selected Probate Division administrative and operating procedures, including providing direct judicial oversight of guardianship and conservator reports; enhancing communication between the probate bar, the bench, and Probate Division staff; suspending or disqualifying from the Fiduciary Panel seriously derelict probate attorneys; and other issues. It excluded from its review the perspectives of clients’ families, groups who provide legal services to the elderly, the DC Government, and jurisdictions which successfully oversee the adult guardianship and conservatorship process.

Report of the Probate Review Committee, May 2004.

The following document was testimony given by the Council for Court Excellence on April 23, 2004 before the US House Government Reform Committee on the performance of the DC Superior Court, with a particular focus on the adult guardianship and conservatorship systems (beginning on page 3 of the testimony).

CCE Testimony Regarding the Performance of the Superior Court for the District of Columbia, 23 April 2004. (27 kb)

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