His guardian’s conflict of interest was astounding to me, and yet it was perfectly legal. Victor was an elderly gentleman with a sharp mind and a frail body, living alone. He was widowed and had no children; he had emigrated from Italy as a young man. He had no relatives who could come to his aid.
Fortunately, he did have a few surviving friends, and one of them contacted us about his situation. It turned out that, when Victor had been admitted to the hospital, a social worker made the decision that he was unable to continue living on his own. On Monday, Victor found himself being transported by ambulance to a nursing home rather than back to his apartment. What happened next is a nightmare that I hope will never again occur in Ohio.
The nursing home was a dingy, smelly, utterly depressing old house. There were no recreational facilities or activities for the residents.
Victor did not want to remain there, but he found out that he had been placed under a guardianship by the nursing-home owner, without ever being examined by anyone from the Probate Court.
Instead, the doctor employed by the nursing home had signed an affidavit saying that Victor needed to be placed under the guardianship of the nursing-home owner. By the time our organization became involved, the nursing-home owner had control over Victor’s retirement benefits and received Medicaid benefits to keep him in the home.
Challenging the guardianship proved to be difficult, but eventually it was transferred to me and we moved Victor to a much better facility.
I would hope that guardianship reforms also will ban the granting of guardianships where there is a clear conflict of interest. With Ohio’s current patchwork of 88 county laws, I’m sure that the situation I’ve described is not unusual.
A person whose business stands to benefit financially from obtaining a guardianship should be barred from acting in this fiduciary role.
~LINDA A. ROOMANN
Source:
Guardian Regs Must Rule Out Conflicts
So true, and we must add, abolish roundabout conflicts of interest as well.
ReplyDeleteExamples: Public guardianship program hires lawyer to petition for guardianship. Lawyer is paid with funds of the incapacitated person. Lawyer makes generous contribution to the "non-profit," five million dollar agency.
Public guardianship program hand-picks guardian ad litem "for" the incapacitated person. Guardian ad litem is paid with funds of the incapacitated person. This same GAL is hand-picked, over and over again in literally hundreds of cases involving the public guardianship program. Not surprisingly, this GAL never, ever criticizes the public guardianship program. This GAL even takes astounding, extra-legal measures to shield the program from any scrutiny from the court, to protect her lucrative meal ticket.
Public guardianship program dumps client after client, even those who can afford a better place, into dangerous, filthy hellholes masquerading as assisted living facilities. NO ONE examines the finances of the public guardianship program to figure out whether kickbacks might explain this otherwise incomprehensible practice. Or maybe the program is dumping these clients into these hellholes to preserve a third of more of the client's income for its ever-increasing fees?
We'll never find out, because the GAL is the key to accountability, and she's so, SO in the bag!
Conflict of interest is common in guardianship cases.
ReplyDeleteThank you Attorney LINDA A. ROOMANN you are an inspiration to other attorney's who are silently outraged by the scheming of the probate CARTEL easy money with grand opportunities to profit personally along with facilities who are part of the cartel with a national pattern of operation kept in the dark for years.
ReplyDeleteBeware when you or anyone you care about enters a health care facility they are prime targets, easy prey for the guardianship gang every case generates profit.
Hospital social workers case managers are the front lines for the protection industry.
Who designed this system? Who is profiting? Who is fiercely opposed to any reform? Follow the $ and the votes and we're next so don't think you are safe you have your POA's ready if needed. Having PoA's is better than not having these documents but be ready to fight in court to produce these documents judges seem to go blind, deaf and dumb and roll right over PoA's like road kill.