Subpoena Fought in Fred Thompson Estate

By Walter F. Roche  Jr.

A prominent Nashville, Tenn. law firm is fighting a subpoena seeking all of its estate records for the late U.S. Senator and television actor Fred Thompson.
In a filing late last week in Davidson Probate Court Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis charged that the subpoena issued in behalf of Thompsons two oldest sons was not properly served and seeks records protected by a lawyer client privilege.
The filing is just the latest legal skirmish over Thompson's estate.
The two sons, Fred D. Thompson 2nd and Daniel L. Thompson, have charged that Thompson's wife, Jeri K. Thompson, may have made last minute changes even after Thompson himself, was no longer legally competent to authorize them.
The Waller firm was deeply involved in those efforts and has a $14,550 discounted claim for legal work done just before Fred Thompson's Nov. 1, 2015 death. Jeri Thompson, the executor of her late husband's estate has disputed the bill.
In the filing on Friday Waller attorney Ames Davis charged that the four-page subpoena seeks documents that already have been turned over to the firm now representing the estate.
In addition the documents are either protected by attorney-client privilege or are protected as attorney work product.
"Waller would be subjected to undue burden and expense if it were required to locate all documents potentially responsive to the subpoena," the Waller filing states.
Jeri Thompson already has denied making any last minute changes to the estate except for adding a secondary beneficiary to two life insurance policies. Those changes, however, proved to be a nullity since Jeri Thompson, the primary beneficiary already cashed in the policies in question, according to court filings.
Thompson, a one time presidential candidate, and Jeri Thompson had two children, Samuel and Hayden, but neither was mentioned in the more than decade old will filed in the estate.
 The four page subpoena served on the Waller firm seeks all of Thompson's estate planning documents, records relating to a Florida property owned by the senator, any benefits Thompson was entitled to from the Screen Actors Guild and any interest he had in American Advisors Group.
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