Watching the Guardians: Volunteers sought to protect N.J.'s most vulnerable

Newark - As she digs into each case file, Patricia Nichols opens a window into the life a person who was incapacitated to the point where a legal guardian was appointed to manage their affairs.

Inside the county surrogate's offices in Essex and Hudson counties, Nichols spends several hours each month inputing data from case documents into a statewide database to track guardianships across New Jersey.

With each computer entry, Nichols said she knows the state's most vulnerable citizens are "now going to be part of a monitoring system that's going to take care of them, that's going to do nothing but be good for them."

Nichols said she knows she's "helping somebody somewhere down the road."

An attorney with the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender, Nichols is one of the roughly 70 volunteers across the state who are participating in the Guardianship Monitoring Program.

But with thousands of guardianship cases to monitor, there is a need for more volunteers to join the program, according to Kristi Robinson, chief, civil practice liaison for the Administrative Office of the Courts.

In recent years, the number of guardianships established annually has increased, going from about 1,900 in 2006 to roughly 2,600 in 2014, Robinson said. The number of guardianships will continue to grow as the elderly population in New Jersey increases in the coming decades, she said.

"We expect that guardianships are going to continue to rise as well and, with that, there's a need to monitor them, because the court recognizes its responsibility to protect those who are most vulnerable," Robinson said.

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In New Jersey, incapacitated individuals who receive guardianships include those suffering from mental illnesses and elderly citizens suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Guardians, who control the individuals' assets and make all financial decisions on their behalf, must report annually on the financial status and the general well-being of the individuals. But in some cases, guardians have been caught stealing from the incapacitated individuals.

Under the monitoring program, which was launched in January 2013, volunteers examine documents and input information into the electronic database as part of an effort to ensure guardians are meeting their reporting requirements and handling cases properly.

As volunteers make recommendations for potential follow-ups, judiciary staff members will review cases identified as possibly problematic and then certain cases may ultimately be referred to a judge, Robinson said.

Given how the maintenance of guardianship cases varies from county to county, the database provides a uniform way of monitoring the cases, Robinson said. The database begins with cases where guardianships were established in 2010, she said.

"The volunteers are on the front lines," Robinson said. "In reviewing the reports, they serve as the first eyes and ears."

"Fundamentally our volunteers are those who are really committed to assisting the courts in helping to protect those who cannot protect themselves," she added.

Due to the sheer volume of cases, historically there has been little to no oversight of guardianships, according to some volunteers.

Once a guardianship was approved, "then the file sits in the office of the surrogate," said Alvin Weiss, a program volunteer in Essex County and a former assignment judge in the county.

"Nobody goes back and monitors each of the individual cases," Weiss said. "You're talking (about) thousands of cases."

Now the database can function as a central registry for guardianship cases, allowing officials to identify cases where reports have not been filed and monitor the cases, Weiss said.

With paid staff members focused on their existing tasks, Weiss said volunteers like himself are able to assist with building up the database.

"It's an absolute necessity that you get volunteers...This helps improve the system," Weiss said. "It's a benefit to the public."

For more information on the Guardianship Monitoring Program, go here.

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Watching the Guardians: Volunteers sought to protect N.J.'s most vulnerable