Janssen v. Topliff

— Trask v. Butler1 establishes a six-point analysis to determine whether a lawyer owes a duty to a nonclient. In this guardianship case, a mother hired a *79lawyer to help her set up a guardianship for her child’s estate following the death of the child’s father. The father had designated the child as the beneficiary of his life insurance policy. The lawyer petitioned the court for a guardianship. But the resulting guardianship order neither required a bond for the guardian, nor blocked the account from access in lieu of the bond. The mother depleted the funds. The dispositive issue is whether…