$6.4M fine in Ohio for illegal practice of law

COLUMBUS (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court has issued a $6.4 million penalty against two companies and their co-owners after it found they were illegally practicing law.

The court said today that American Family Prepaid Legal Corp. and Heritage Marketing and Insurance Services Inc. committed more than 3,800 acts of unauthorized law practice by participating in a “trust mill” operation.

From March 2003 to March 2005, the companies targeted Ohioans 65 and older with a marketing campaign to dissuade them from obtaining a will. The court says a sales representative would then give “high-pressure” in-home presentations about the purported benefits of purchasing the companies’ living trusts.

The court permanently barred the companies, and co-owners Jeffrey and Stanley Norman, from marketing or selling such products in Ohio.