Anthony Scifo - Elgin Probate Lawyer Reviews & Ratings

Recent Notable Cases and Representations:. 2024: Terminating a Biological Father’s Parental Rights after trial in a contested adoption proceeding;. 2023: Successfully stayed a civil Wrongful Death proceeding in its entirety (including any pleadings and discovery) pending the conclusion of a notable criminal proceeding pending in Kane County, Illinois, where my client is accused of murdering an individual approximately twenty (20) years ago. Said murder case is regularly covered in the news media;. 2022: Successfully obtained a Plenary Order of Protection against a Mother on behalf of the guardian and two minor children from having any communication or interaction with the children based on Mother’s egregious behaviors and previous endangerment of said children;. 2021: Successfully obtained a dissipation award in excess of $116k against a Husband after trial in a marital dissolution proceeding who had another “secret” family out-of-State;. 2021: Successfully terminated the guardianship of a minor child and obtained reunification between child and father from a grandmother who actively prevented the minor child from having a relationship with her father for years [upheld on appeal];. 2020: Successfully obtained over a hundred-acre farm and placed same into a special needs trust for a disabled person’s benefit that a Bank Trustee sought to sell over four years of litigation;. 2019: Obtained a One Million Dollar Judgment against an individual for the wrongful death of his mother, specifically for being the intentional cause of her death (his murder trial is still pending). Additionally, I applied the “Slayer Statute” in a Declaratory Judgment against said individual in a separate proceeding so that said individual could not receive any benefit as a result of his mother’s death from any source;. 2019: Successfully defeated a spouse's claim to a business with a yearly gross revenue in excess of $10 million (determined premarital), as well as successfully retaining the marital residence worth in excess of $1.50 million in a highly contested marital dissolution proceeding;. 2018: Successful application of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (“HAGUE”), as well as the International Child Abduction Remedies Act (“ICARA”), to compel settlement with a mother who, without permission, retained a Minor Child in the United States and would not allow contact between said minor child and her father;. 2017: Successful retrieval in excess of $175k pursuant to a Citation to Recover Assets in a Probate proceeding where there was a dispute as to whether the Decedent intended her cousin to be named as a pay-on-death beneficiary of her account;. 2016: Successful representation as Court-appointed counsel for an elderly man whose family member sought guardianship of both his person and estate and who involuntarily committed him to a nursing home, where he was forced to take psychiatric medications against his will. After successfully petitioning for an Independent Medical Examination, the Petitioners withdrew their Petition for Guardianship, and my client was set free of his own accord;. 2016: Litigation Counsel of Record for Erin Merryn (nom de plume). Erin is a world-wide activist against child sex predators and a proponent of Erin’s Law, an initiative to promote education in public schools to prevent childhood sexual abuse, for which she regularly speaks before Congressional Committees both domestic and abroad. As of May 2016, Erin’s Law has been passed in 27 States, having first been signed into law in Illinois by then Governor Quinn. Most recently, she was the primary participant in a TLC special “Breaking the Silence” about this topic;. 2015:    Successful representation of a pregnant woman detained and tried in Indonesia for the premeditated murder of her mother. I successfully obtained $150k from her mother's trust to ensure my client had criminal legal representation in Indonesia that could have resulted in death by firing squad. Additionally, I ensured that my client’s daughter was born in a hospital in Indonesia as opposed to the prison infirmary.  Finally, I was designated by Order of the Court to be responsible for stipend funds to ensure my client had access to adequate food, toiletries, and medicinal care while pregnant and incarcerated;. 2015:   Successful representation as Court-appointed counsel for a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia whose family member sought guardianship of both the person and the estate over my client. After preliminary hearings, the Petitioner withdrew his Petition for Guardianship, and, to my knowledge, my client is free to exercise her wishes both medically and financially to this day;. 2015:    Successful defense of a removal action preventing Wife from leaving the State of Illinois with the parties’ two minor children. Complexities of the case included, but were not limited to, Wife filing no less than five (5) Orders of Protection against Husband within a two (2) year period for, inter alia, physical assaults and abuse.