Recommended Website: Clear the Bench - Arizona

We are an association that is seeking to provide education to the people of Arizona about the selection of judges, the performance of judges and what the public can do to make sure fair people are put on the bench and remain on the bench.

Clear the Bench Arizona is located in Phoenix and works with many people who have been victims of the court system, Arizona State Bar and attorneys and is seeking to clear up and clean up the system from politics and profiting off of the people it is supposed to protect.

MISSION STATEMENT:
Educate Arizona voters on the importance of judges observing principles of the “rule of law” in deciding cases; Educate Arizona voters on their right to non-retain judges who do not follow these principles; Evaluate judicial performance on the basis of the Arizona Constitution, established statutory law, legal precedent, “rule of law” principles (as a means of providing substantive information to educate voters).

ClearTheBench-AZ.com

Michelle Graves: Power of Money - Elder Financial Abuse (With NASGA Affiliate, Tom Fields)

Elder Financial Abuse is fast approaching epidemic levels as an aging population finds itself vulnerable to internet predators, scam artists, family members and friends. On Part 1, two recognized experts in this area, Craig Matthews, Esquire and Tom Fields, Ohio Director of National Association to End Elder Financial Abuse discuss some of the challenges facing seniors today. A must watch!

Source:
Power of Money - Elder Financial Abuse

See Also:
NASGA:  Irving Lincoln Fields, Ohio Victim

Types of Elder Abuse

NASGA affiliate and advocate Danielle Jesserer addresses guardianship abuse as a form of elder abuse in the early segment of  this interview: 



Source:
Type of Elder Abuse YouTube

How To Prevent Financial Abuse of the Elderly

Elder financial abuse is an expensive drain on the U.S. economy. A study of media reports from April to June 2010 "estimated that financial exploitation cost older adults at least $2.9 billion" that year, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office, or GAO. According to the report: "The money that older adults lose in these cases is rarely recovered, and this loss can undermine both the health of older adults and their ability to support and care for themselves."

That often means that taxpayers end up footing the bill for housing and medical care once an exploited senior has been drained of his or her assets. In fact, the report says that in 80 cases involving Utah's elderly, that state's Medicaid program could pony up about $900,000 in Medicaid costs alone.

The GAO report points out that unless law enforcement, the courts and adult protective services get better at protecting the assets of older adults, this country could see a sharp increase in the amount of public dollars replacing private funds that are illegally drained from their estates. And as the senior population increases, those numbers will only continue to climb. Certified Fraud Examiner Steve Lee says that "pre-grave robbing" -- which often goes unreported -- is an issue frequently encountered by private investigators, specialists in elder care law and colleagues.

Tom Fields' personal experience has led him to crusade for more effective legislation targeting elder financial abuse. "There is a clear lack of protection under current laws and legislation," says Fields, who is from Mentor, Ohio. He believes that in addition to current law being insufficient, law enforcement often has little idea of how to handle these cases.

"It's true that police reaction to cases of elder financial abuse varies widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and there is little crime-specific training available to them. Many jurisdictions treat these cases as civil, rather than criminal, cases, leaving families to struggle with stopping the siphoning of an elderly person's assets via a sluggish court system.

Full Article and Source:
How to Prevent Financial Abuse of Elderly Parents

Ohio Resident Questions Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) Integrity

I am copying below three e-mails which I received from representatives of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) concerning the reason why the CFPB’s "privacy attorneys" blackened out what it did from the material which the CFPB now posts online at http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=CFPB-2012-0018-1047.

You can easily determine exactly what these attorneys blackened out by comparing pages 3 and 5 of the redacted version posted by the CFPB to the same pages of the unredacted version which I post online at http:\\home.roadrunner.com\~tvfields\UnredactedCFPBSubmission.pdf.

By making this comparison, you can verify the following:
• NOT redacted from page 3 is the reference to my father by the line which reads “The second example is represented by the page copied below from the medical record of my father.”
• NOT redacted from page 5 are the signatures of my father, Dr. Steinmetz, Nurse Nemeth and Dr. Sonneborn.
• What was redacted includes (1) the mention of an attorney’s involvement, (2) the mention of the attorney’s relationship to the parties, (3) the identity of Boca Raton Community Hospital, (4) all references to the fact that the patient was on a morphine drip, under a Do Not Resuscitate order, and just hours from dying of cancer.
• What remains after the redaction leaves false impressions about what was redacted. For example, it leads some people to wrongly suppose that what was redacted on page 5 was filed with the court as the patient’s Will and then contested as such. It leads others to wrongly suppose that the patient had not made out and saved his Will before these notes were entered into the medical record.

Considering what was and was not redacted, I have concluded that, contrary to the reason given in these e-mails, the redactions were NOT to protect the personal privacy of others.

To make this point even clearer, I post online at http:\\home.roadrunner.com\~tvfields\ReasonableRedactions.pdf what these redacted pages might have looked like if the purpose of the redaction was just to protect the personal privacy of others.
~ Tom Fields

----- E-Mails Received from the CFPB -----
From: CFPB_Ombudsman@cfpb.gov 7:42 PM
To: tvfields@oh.rr.com
Subject: RE: Update re. Request for Congressman LaTourette's Assistance

Mr. Fields -- Thank you for sharing this email with our office. It appears that you unfortunately may not have received the subsequent email that we sent to you, which explains that the information you requested be posted contains confidential information. Todd Vanlaere, who is posting the comments, offered to post your comment without the confidential information if you wish to resend it to him. Again, he can be reached at: todd.vanlaere@cfpb.gov.

We are attaching our previous email for your reference.

Thank you again for contacting the Ombudsman's Office, CFPB Ombudsman’s Office
Tel: 855 830 7880 (Toll-free)
Fax: 202 435 7888
consumerfinance.gov
*************************

From: Todd.Vanlaere@cfpb.gov [mailto:Todd.Vanlaere@cfpb.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2012 3:54 PM
To: tvfields@oh.rr.com
Subject: RE: Request for Clarification

Dear Mr. Fields:

I just wanted to touch base with you and let you know that I've received your email, and I am aware of your concerns about your submission. Your concerns are being addressed and I anticipate that I will be able to post your submission soon, but please advised that there will be some redaction. If you'd like me to send you the final redacted version of what our privacy attorneys clear to post prior to posting it, I'm happy to do so.

Thanks,
Todd
*************************

From: Todd.Vanlaere@cfpb.gov [mailto:Todd.Vanlaere@cfpb.gov]
Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2012 9:20 AM
To: tvfields@oh.rr.com
Cc: CFPB_Ombudsman@cfpb.gov; Hubert.Humphrey@cfpb.gov; Brett.Kitt@cfpb.gov
Subject: re. Request for Clarification

Dear Mr. Fields:

I have attached a redacted copy of what you have submitted to us. As a matter of policy, we redact comments that discuss individuals other than the commenter to protect their personal privacy. Therefore, as you can see, a lot of your document has been redacted. Per your request, I will not post anything for public viewing until you approve it.

Thanks,
Todd

Ohio Resident and Advocate Reaches Out to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

This summer, I attended the forum on financial abuse whose agenda appears online(see FN:1). Hubert "Skip" Humphrey III, the head of the CFPB’s effort to protect older Americans, gave the keynote speech. Other presenters included Bob Blancato, the Elder Justice Coalition’s national coordinator, and Richard Browdie, current chairman of the National Council on Aging’s board of directors. I introduced myself to each of these presenters and delivered to them a document which, with a few changes, the CFPB now makes available for viewing at and downloading (see FN:2) This document focuses on the need to: (1) prevent the financial exploitation of individuals with severe cognitive impairment at the time they execute wills, trusts, POAs, deeds, mortgages and other important legal/financial documents, and (2) prevent the ruinous litigation which often results under such circumstances.

I began the original document with an introduction to the 3-minute video that ABC News broadcast and currently presents online (see FN: 3) as part of the full report which appears online (see FN: 4). Those who have watched this video and read the full report appreciate the following:

(1) the video was recorded in a hospital by the attorney who appears in the video;
(2) this attorney was disbarred and indicted for the actions he recorded in this video, in which he takes advantage of an 88-year old widow’s infirmity to obtain from her a Will and Power of Attorney;
(3) this video and report exemplify the lack of protection provided under such circumstances by our current laws and legislation, including the Elder Justice Act, the Elder Abuse Victims Act, the Older Americans Act, the Americans With Disabilities Act, state APS laws, and state guardianship laws.

I also discussed in the original document the 5-step forensic interview protocol for preventing such abuse which I advocate. This protocol is based upon recommendations of the American Medical Association and others. I identify and link many of my sources on pages 9 and 10 of the document (see FN:5).

The changes to the original document are discussed on the document’s first page. One of the changes is the addition of proposed legislation which I was encouraged to draft after the forum by the board of directors for the Ohio Association of Senior Centers. Another change is the CFPB’s redaction of some of the material. Exactly what the CFPB redacted can be easily determined by comparing pages 3 and 5 of the CFPB’s redacted version to the same pages of the unredacted version which I post online (see FN:6).

I am now waiting for the CFPB and others to answer the drafting questions which the Ohio Legislative Service Commission (LSC) has posed in its analysis of the proposed legislation.

~Tom Fields

Footnotes:
1. Agenda
2. Document
3. ABC 3 Minute Video
4. ABC Full Report: Mary Ellen's Mansion
5. Unredacted Version

Elder Protection and Abuse Prevention Act

MANY CASES AROUND THE COUNTRY DEMONSTRATE THE NEED FOR legal reforms to prevent individuals suffering SEVERE cognitive impairment from being financially exploited at the time they execute wills, deeds, trusts, POAs and other important legal/financial documents -- and also prevent the ruinous litigation which often results under such circumstances.

In order for legislation like this to be effective, it needs to put in place specific safeguards like the interview protocol recommended here, which addresses what most medical and legal authorities recognize but fail to adequately address, namely (1) cognitive impairment is a disability, and (2) the more severe the impairment, the greater the disability and susceptibility associated with it.

This interview protocol is based upon the following five steps
• STEP 1: Use a CHECKLIST to identify situations which involve individuals with SEVERE cognitive impairment and so require the rest of the protocol to be followed
• STEP 2: Have an INDEPENDENT examiner ask the transferor OPEN-ENDED questions to learn what business, if any, he wants or expects to conduct at this time
• STEP 3: Have an INDEPENDENT examiner ask the transferor to provide details about what he expects the document to include
• STEP 4: Have an INDEPENDENT examiner ask the transferor questions which others might reasonably want to ask if they were present, including questions about the transferor's understanding of the suspicions that his signing the document might raise and the transferor's ability to address those suspicions
• STEP 5: Have an INDEPENDENT examiner explore potential conflicts between the transferor's expectations and the content of the document

Full Article and Source:
Elder Protection and Abuse Prevention Act

Note: For more information, email Tom Fields at TVFields@oh.rr.com

NASGA Affiliate's Petition Collects Its 100th Signature! More Needed!

NASGA Affiliate Tom Fields created this petition with one purpose in mind, to guarantee for all the justice which he and others, including many of NASGA's members, have been denied.

According to Fields, this petition addresses a common injustice practiced by authorities according to which the criminal complaints of its citizens are routinely dismissed as civil complaints, often without even attempting an investigation of the facts.

According to Fields, without the Constitutional guarantee sought by this petition, too many of us have been denied the justice which we believe our Constitution guarantees us, especially its FIFTH and SEVENTH AMENDMENTS, according to which

• No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, and

• In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved ...

By means of the Constitutional guarantee sought by this petition, due process of law will require just what this guarantee says in all matters, both criminal and civil.

Fields believes many of NASGA’s members will want to sign this petition. He also believes it is important for them to do so, and do so quickly. Why? Because this petition needs 50 more signatures in order for the White House to include it with other petitions under its Open Petitions tab.

Finally, Fields notes several of those who have signed encountered various difficulties while trying to sign. A major difficulty was created by one ISP, which had been inadvertently blocking the e-mails which the White House sends to confirm the identity of the person creating the account needed to sign the petition. Fortunately the ISP cooperated to identify and resolve the difficulty.

Anyone who needs help signing the petition or wants more information about it should call (440/255-7693) or write (tvfields@oh.rr.com) Fields.

Sign the Petition

See Also:
White House Creates Website for Online Petitions

Advocate Tom Fields Fights for Elder Rights

Tom Fields' father lay dying in a hospital bed in Florida on a morphine drip for cancer.Fields, a Mentor resident, believes that during his final hours his father was the victim of financial elder abuse by people close to him.He said his father's wishes about his property were altered as a new will was written."People took advantage of my father and got him to sign a document," Fields said."There was no protection against this. A protocol could have stopped that."Fields is now an independent advocate fighting to get laws passed to protect families in similar situations.

"People took advantage of my father and got him to sign a document," Fields said.

"There was no protection against this. A protocol could have stopped that."

Fields is now an independent advocate fighting to get laws passed to protect families in similar situations.

"Nothing here in Ohio holds abusers accountable," he said. "My main focus is to keep people out of the court system, which is basically taking advantage of people who are victims."

Fields' first step was writing the Ohio Department of Aging to ask it to create task forces looking at elder abuse issues and how to prevent them.

He also proposed a step-by-step list of protocols for hospitals to follow to prevent financial abuse.

Full Article, Video and Source:
Mentor Man Fighting for Elder Rights

NASGA Advocate Tom Fields Comments on Ohio Aging Summit

The goal of the Aging Summit held last week in Columbus was to foster more interagency collaboration to enhance the safety and well-being of older Ohioans.

The topic of elder abuse, growing across the nation, is close to the heart of one Ohio advocate from Mentor who spoke to CGE on it.

Tom Fields has become an outspoken advocate for a protocol he says would do much to stop the growing scourge of abusing the elder when they are at their weakest. Fields' interest in helping the elder fend away lawyers and others who are more like vultures than angels came about through a sequence of events related to his father. Fueled by his experience with his father, Fields offered an ABC News 20/20 video that shows what can happen when a lawyer and beneficiaries present a new will to a sick, elderly women in her hospital bed and ask her to "make her mark."

The short video shows Mary Ellen Bendtsen, 88, a wealthy elderly woman in Dallas who was not mentally competent to sign a new will presented to her, sign it anyway.

Fields argues that the video demonstrates a need for a good protocol that not only makes clear what questions need to be asked but who should ask these questions, how and when an interview should be conducted and how the answers to these questions should decide the validity of the document in question.

If a protocol he has asked the Ohio Elder Abuse Commission (OEC) to consider with regard to wills, deeds, trusts, power of attorney and other financial and legal documents existed, Fields says the attorney in the ABC video could have used it as an argument for why he shouldn't have been disbarred and indicted on criminal charges, as happened.

"It is in the interest of all legitimate parties that such a protocol be required under circumstances like that captured in this video report," Fields wrote in an email to CGE about a public comment he made to OEC a year ago September that asked the OEC and others "to develop and require a reliable protocol for use in circumstances like that confronted by the 20/20 report."

Fields told CGE that such a protocol would provide safeguards against attempts by person who exert undue influence over a testator to incorporate professionals such as doctors, lawyers, or accountants into their efforts to control the individual.

Fields points to reports by the National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse as proof of the growing scope of the problem. He report that he has received "promising initial responses from some lawmakers to my phone calls and e-mails," but cautions that "I understand that these responses are only preliminary and at this point do little more than demonstrate good intentions."

Full Article and Source:
Ohio Aging Summit Speaks to Elder Abuse, Advocates Call for New Protocol

See Also:
NASGA Affiliate Tom Fields Addresses Ohio Elder Abuse Commission

NASGA Affiliate Tom Fields Addresses Ohio Elder Abuse Commission

The YouTube videos shown below (shown in nine parts) present a complete, uncut, unedited 30-minute video from the September 21, 2009 Meeting of the Ohio Elder Abuse Commission that was recorded as part of a project conducted by the National Coalition of Aging (NCOA), the Elder Justice Coalition (EJC), and the international human rights group WITNESS, Inc.

It records a discussion of legal reforms needed to protect Alzheimer sufferers, stroke victims and others against fraud, undue influence and negligence when signing financial/legal documents (Wills, Trusts, Deeds, POAs etc.).



Source:
YouTube Video, Discussion of Proposed Legal Reforms, Part 1

See Also:
YouTube Video, Discussion of Proposed Legal Reforms, Part 2

YouTube Video, Discussion of Proposed Legal Reforms, Part 3

YouTube Video, Discussion of Proposed Legal Reforms, Part 4

YouTube Video, Discussion of Proposed Legal Reforms, Part 5

YouTube Video, Discussion of Proposed Legal Reforms, Part 6

YouTube Video, Discussion of Proposed Legal Reforms, Part 7

YouTube Video, Discussion of Proposed Legal Reforms, Part 8

YouTube Video, Discussion of Proposed Legal Reforms, Part 9

Additional Links:
Minutes of the September 21, 2009 Meeting of the Ohio Attorney General Elder Abuse Commission

Mr. Fields' Handouts

Public Comments Regarding the Meeting

Tom Fields' Website: Infirmed Seniors, Elder Abuse, Estate Fraud and Legal Reform

Contact Tom Fields @ TVFields@OH.rr.com