Fred Thompson Estate Fee Fight Heats Up

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

The battle over legal fees being sought from the estate of the late Fred Thompson is heating back up with a series of actions in Davidson Probate Court this week.
In papers filed Wednesday, Jeri Thompson, the widow of the late actor and U.S. Senator, hired a new lawyer who promptly issued a subpoena and deposition notice to Charles Trost, the Nashville, Tenn. attorney whose firm's fees are in dispute.
The new attorney representing Jeri Thompson is John P. Konvalinka, a Chattanooga based attorney, court records show.
The subpoena requires Trost to appear for a deposition on July 21 at the offices of Neal and Harwell, which also has represented Thompson's estate.
Though the issue was put on hold months ago, Jeri Thompson has questioned some $14,000 billed by Trost's firm, Waller Lansden Dortch and Davis for estate work done in the weeks before the late presidential candidate passed away on Nov. 1, 2015.
In one filing she termed the fee request,"inappropriate, improper and not a valid claim."
The effort by the Waller firm to update Thompson's will and estate plans was an apparent failure and his estate was finally opened with a will over a decade old that did not include his children from his second marriage with Jeri.
The legal fees are not the only dispute to surface in the Thompson estate. Two of Thompson's children by his first marriage intervened in the estate charging that estate assets may have been shifted just prior to the senator's death and at a time when he was not competent to approve any changes.
That suspicion was apparently triggered when the fee dispute became public.
After Jeri Thompson complied with a court order to disclose details of the estate assets and any last minute changes, the two sons dropped their claim.
Jeri Thompson stated that the only change executed just before the senator's death was an inconsequential one, involving a secondary beneficiary on a life insurance policy.
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