Monday, February 21, 2022

I-Team: Will Florida lawmakers pass meaningful guardianship reform?

by Danielle DaRos


TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CBS12) — For months, a statewide task force made up of lawyers, clerks, advocates and even a former ward, has been studying Florida's guardianship system.

Earlier this year, the Guardianship Improvement Task Force issued its final report, and recommendations to the legislature for reform.

Citing some of the CBS12 News I-Team's stories about guardianship abuse, the task force recommended several measures to increase transparency and accountability in the system.

Their top priority is establishing a statewide database to track guardianship cases. Right now, there is no way to know how many guardians are in the state of Florida, and no way to track how many wards and assets they are managing.

State Representative Linda Chaney, R-St. Petersburg, took that recommendation and filed a bill this session to establish a state guardianship database.

"It's past time that we get this statewide database and I think this is one of those things that sounds so obvious, that people think how can this be?" Rep. Chaney told CBS12 News. 

Last month, a house committee held a first hearing for the database bill, and lawmakers brought up the case of Rebecca Fierle. She was a professional guardian who was able to amass hundreds of wards, spread out over several counties.

Lawmakers said if there was a central database for guardianship cases, judges may have had warnings that she was growing an enterprise and handling a significant amount of wealth.

Fierle has been arrested and charged with abuse and neglect, after one of her wards died.

The database would contain information about a guardian's history, so judges can spot red flags before assigning them wards.

"We could probably head off a lot of these abuses that we're reading about and hearing about on the news [with a database]," Chaney said.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed support for the database bill, and it unanimously passed in its first committee.

Another guardianship bill received unanimous support in its first committee hearing: this one would require judges to consider Supported Decision Making for people with developmental disabilities, instead of putting them in a restrictive guardianship.

Representative Allison Tant, D-Tallahassee, sponsored the bill with her son in mind.

"As I can testify to with my own son, we all learn and grow," she told CBS12 News. "And my son with developmental disabilities -- I am hopeful he will be able to live his life without a guardian. So making sure we are flexible and have options is important."

A Treasure Coast advocate named Michael Lincoln-McCreight has been pushing for this Supported Decision Making bill.

When he aged out of foster care, a judge put him into a guardianship. He has a disability, but is hardly incapacitated.

A lawyer with Disability Rights Florida was able to get Michael a re-evaluation, and he was the first person in Florida to end his guardianship using the Supported Decision Making model.

Now, a team of trusted adults helps Michael make certain decisions -- but he's living an independent, free, and full life. He wants other people with disabilities to have the same opportunities.

It's not clear if the guardianship database bill or the Supported Decision Making bill will make it to the full house for a vote. Both are still in the committee phase.

On the federal level, Florida Congressman Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg, is working on several guardianship reform bills. Inspired by calls from constituents and the #FreeBritney movement, Rep. Crist has introduced bills to make it easier to petition to end a guardianship, require states to collect guardianship data, and clarify that guardians and conservators can be subject to criminal charges if they commit fraud or abuse.

While his legislation hasn't become law -- he said it's encouraging to have a long list of co-sponsors on both sides of the aisle.

"In these times politically we are so divided," Crist told CBS12 News. "To be able to cut through what's going on politics today and work on something in a bipartisan way that helps people and saves them -- it's a real pleasure to do so." 
 
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