Baker Newby LLP — Local services in Chilliwack

I don’t usually post negative reviews. However people need to be aware of how incompetent this firm is.

In 2022 I took my mom in to change/amend an ACTIVE power of attorney to add my brother, so we could share handling her affairs.

My mother at the time was in mid stage dementia. Fast forward to 2024 and her property lawyer( not at Baker Newby)called in a panic saying her updated power of attorney from Baker Newby was not executable(not finalized).

I went to their firm to see why. The lawyer at Baker Newby we worked with was no longer employed there. I asked why? Their response a cold “He no longer works here”. The head of their estate team told me that the power of attorney wasn’t executable. The no longer employed incompetent attorney in 2022 asked to speak to my mother in private and cancelled the active power of attorney and created a new one including my brother but failed to activate it.

To make matters worse the head estate attorney was EXTREMELY condescending and said he talked to my mother that morning and said she was lucid and seemed competent to him. He coldly stated he worked for her and this point we we would need a doctors note to activate the power of attorney.

We have had power of attorney since 2020. My mother still thinks she pays her bills and manages her finances, which the lawyer asked her, she responded yes. But she needs help to find the bathroom in her home. We had set up everything on auto pay in 2019 as she can’t remember what she did 5 minutes earlier.

The head of the estate department isn’t a doctor, he asked her yes or no questions that she could answer and he deemed her competent from a short phone call! Total incompetence.

He then stated in a condescending manner that they could only activate the power of attorney with a doctors note stating she is suffering from dementia. Her doctor was on vacation and this was extremely time sensitive.

I called my mom’s care giver and talked to my mom, she had no memory of the attorney call. With her care givers help she called the next day and directed Baker Newby to turn it on.

We experienced significant distress due to the blatant incompetency of this firm. Do not use this firm for anything, unless you enjoy being talked down to and having your Legal issues handled by incompetents.

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