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| Jeffrey Skatoff |
What can an interested person do if there are concerns about the treatment of the ward in terms of healthcare? What if there are concerns about mismanagement of the ward's assets? Instead of starting with a full scale legal assault on the guardian (which can be expensive and may not work), the Florida Guardianship Rules provide a less drastic step - the Court Monitor.
What is a Court Monitor?
A Court Monitor is a person appointed by the Florida guardianship court to investigate and report on certain activities and events. Florida guardianship statute Section 744.107 provides as follows:
The monitor may investigate, seek information, examine documents, or interview the ward and shall report to the court his or her findings. the report shall be verified and shall be served on the guardian, the ward, and such other persons as the court may determine.Normally, the guardianship court will issue, in its order appointing the monitor, the specific reasons for the appointment. For example, if there is concern that the guardian is institutionalizing the ward where there are more appropriate and less restrictive living arrangements, a monitor could be asked to investigate and report. If the healthcare that the guardian is directing might be causing the ward more harm than good, the monitor could investigate. the monitor could even be allowed to hire an independent medical expert to assist in reviewing the healthcare of the ward. If the guardian is spending money inappropriately, the monitor could investigate before the annual accounting is filed.
Full Article and Source:
Court Monitors in Florida Guardianship
6 comments:
Sounds good, but?
The former court monitor in Pinellas County Fl. In my opinion she was in cohoots with the guardian.
My mother told the court monitor and the guardian she wanted to leave the facility and live with me, instead they lied about me and kept my mother incarcerated. My mother pleads to leave there with me ! This is in her best interest ! It is the best interest of the guardian living off my mother. This is a DISGRACE what they have done to her!
I live in Florida, the court monitor does nothing, her report means nothing and usually full of nothing but docket information already on file. It is a waste of taxpayers money. Anyone that has dealt with a court monitor in Florida with a family or friend under guardianship, I am sure will agree with me! Quit fooling yourself and the Florida taxpayer, send a police officer, they will do a better job! There is no training for this monitor, they are controlled by the Judge and Lawyer for the guardian. And the monitor just runs up the bill for the ward, uncontrolled. My mother's monitor did nothing and ran up my mother's bill for the guardian, the guardian attorney, the attorney ad litem, all appointed by the Judge. The monitor would just call them and get an update, talk to them for 30 to 40 min a piece, a day. at 90 dollars and hour for guardian, 300 for guardian attorney, and 350 for attorney ad litem. That is one huge bill, Florida cannot afford a position of fraud! Get rid of this fake position, hurting Florida families and wards! What a disgrace, this man is, feeding everyone this false story.
It does sound good. I wonder if the courts really respond to the request for a monitor.
Court monitors need to be brought in from outside the court room. Anything less is bogus. There are too many conflicts of interest within the court setting. Court monitors are most likely working with the team. It won't work.
Willlie-- it sounds good, but it's a sham I think because if the court is the one to choose the monitor, the people involved in the theft are merely allowed to police themselves.
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