Immunity and Impunity

Attorney Eliot B. Gersten, who represents a disinherited farm caretaker, said some conservators “act as if they have impunity as well as immunity.”



Source:
Probate Case To Test Lawyer Immunity Limits

Poem by Sol Ehrlich

God, keep me working, keep me fit
At windows I don't want to sit
Watching my fellows hurrying by:
Let me stay busy 'til I die.

Grant me the strength, breath and will,
Some useful niche in life to fill,
A need to serve, a task to do:
Let me each morning arise anew.
Eager and glad that I can bear
My portion of the morning's care.

God, I don't want to sit about,
Broken and tired and all worn out.
Afraid of wind and rain and cold,
Let me stay busy when I am old.

Although I walk with slower pace,
Still let me meet life face to face.
This is my prayer as time goes by:
God keep me busy 'til I die.

Source:
Final Report of the Dade County Grand Jury, See page 21

Conservators and Lawyers Line Up

I find it very interesting that the county has stepped in to take temporary conservatorship of Phoebe Hearst Cooke’s estate to protect her from the wolves and scammers, but I wonder who will be protecting her from the county’s conservators and all the lawyers who will be lined up, always eager to help an old lady in distress.

Source:
Who's on her side?

See also:
Tentative Ruling to Seal Records

No-One's Policing the Police

"I do not trust an organisation that can hide everything inside its walls and under this legislation to say that substitute-decision making which seems to be the bellwether word in that organisation and in the Guardianship Board is the best thing, no it's not, it's not if no-one's policing the police, so to speak."

Source:
Error cost elderly man $19k, inquiry told

Civil Death

"We call it civil death. Once you are under guardianship, that's it – you basically become a non-person"

Source:
Scotland on Sunday

Less Rights than a Criminal

UNDER GUARDIANSHIP, SENIORS AND DISABLED HAVE LESS RIGHTS THAN A CRIMINAL *

1. The right to marry – STRIPPED

2. The right to vote – STRIPPED

3. The right to apply for government benefits – STRIPPED

4. The right to have a driver’s license – STRIPPED

5. The right to travel – STRIPPED

6. The right to seek or retain employment – STRIPPED

7. The right to contract – STRIPPED

8. The right to sue and defend lawsuits – STRIPPED

9. The right to manage property or to make any gift or disposition
of property – STRIPPED

10. The right to determine his or her residence – STRIPPED

11. The right to consent to medical and mental health
treatment – STRIPPED

12. The right to make decisions about his or her social environment or other social aspects of his or her life – STRIPPED

* Each right stripped is determined on a case by case basis by the sitting judge. His/her decision is based on testimony from the court appointed examining committee. Usually, and unfortunately, the judge and the examining committee rubber stamp what the petitioner alleges.

“Seniors have become victims of the legal process. When you become old, you should not, by the action of a court, automatically lose your rights just because some family member or impersonal administrator calls you incompetent.”
— Senator Larry Craig, Chairman, U.S. Senate’s Special Committee on Aging

Quote from: Stolen Lives By: Barry Yeoman Source: AARP The Magazine

See also: People in the Know

People in the Know

Guardianship and conservatorship abuse is apparently nothing new.

People in the know speak out about guardianship abuse and fraud

The following are some quotes about guardianship abuse and fraud from highly respected sources:

"This [guardianship] is an area ripe for fraud and where most fraud abuse has in fact occurred." — Karleen F. DeBlaker, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Pinellas County, Florida (4/2004)

Reports of guardians stealing from their wards' bank accounts and other wise abusing guardianship powers are surfacing with disturbing regularity. 'This problem is going to get bigger and bigger,' says E. Bentley Lipscomb, AARP's Florida state director and a former state secretary of elder affairs. — GUARDIANS DRAWING INCREASED SCRUTINY, AARP Bulletin

It is a system that in practice often serves lawyers over clients. Even as the court's lax oversight allows guardians to neglect their responsibilities, it also permits some lawyers to take unnecessary control of people's lives. — Washington Post, 2003

Judges and their favored professional conservators and guardians, expert witnesses and court investigators have unspoken agendas: money, power and control. When an elderly individual is brought into court and forced to prove his or her competence, we soon see that the system does not work. We have a system rife with court-sanctioned abuse of the elderly. Why? Judges override protections that have been put in place in the codes. It happens every day. Judges disregard durable powers of attorney — the single most important document each of us can create to determine our care should we become incapacitated. Judges ignore our lists of pre-selected surrogate decision-makers. The current system does not work. This reality is most apparent when a wealthy individual falls victim to these involuntary proceedings and his or her wealth becomes a ripe plum to be shared by the Judge’s favorites. — Diane G. Armstrong, Ph.D., excerpt of prepared statement before the U.S. Senate's Special Committee on Aging, February, 2003. Author of The Retirement Nightmare: How to Save Yourself from Your Heirs and Protectors: Involuntary Conservatorships and Guardianships

The denial of these rights is the consequence of a court determination that an individual is legally "incompetent" or "incapacitated" and the appointment by the court of a guardian to act as surrogate decision maker on the person's behalf. The real tragedy is that mounting evidence suggests that many of these individuals having been stripped of their right to self-determination are being poorly served, and even victimized and exploited by the very persons or agencies appointed to protect them and to make decisions on their behalf. — House of Representatives, Select Committee on Aging Report

...guardianship can divest an elderly person of all the rights and freedoms we consider important as citizens. — Chairman of the Senate Special Committee, Larry Craig

"Ironically, the imposition of guardianship without adequate protections and oversight may actually result in the loss of liberty and property for the very persons these arrangements are intended to protect. — Chairman of the Senate Special Committee, Larry Craig

“Instead of serving to protect the assets of incapacitated persons, the existing guardianship system presents the opportunity for unscrupulous guardians to loot the assets of their wards and enrich themselves with impunity.” — New York Grand Jury

Elderly people are routinely stripped of basic rights in court hearings. — Detroit Free Press

"Outside of execution, guardianship is the most radical remedy we have." — Elias Cohen, Philadelphia Attorney and Gerontologist

The gulag of guardianship: the legal system meant to protect our elderly is a national disgrace. — Money Magazine

"... older Americans are being robbed of their freedom and life savings by a legal system created for their protection." and "Although relatives are the most common exploiters, the damage they cause generally stays within the confines of their own families. By contrast, greedy professional guardians can wreak havoc on a far larger scale. In many states, there are few prerequisites for entering the guardianship business: no special training, no licensing process, no enforceable professional standards." — AARP: The Magazine, January/February 2004

"These are not isolated, occasional blips. This constitutes a significant portion of the cases out there. They were flat-out rip-off situations." — Robert L. Aldridge, elder law attorney and a member of ElderLawAnswers.com

Re: forced incompetency: Visit assisted-living facilities [and retirement communities] and establish employee contacts; obtain voluntary limited financial guardianship; if there is money in the estate, do paperwork to force an evaluation of competency; get control over everything and the ward [senior] loses all rights. — Pinellas County Internal Auditor, Robert W. Melton, "Dirty Tricks of Guardianships – The Need for Change." April/2004

Once judged incompetent and placed under a conservatorship [or guardianship], a citizen becomes a nonperson, with fewer rights than a convicted felon in a penitentiary. Your income goes to the conservator, who also controls your assets. You can't write a check, use a credit card, or make an ATM withdrawal. — Robert Casey, Editor, Bloomberg Wealth Manager

"This is something that ought not to be taken lightly. Seniors have become victims of the legal process. When you become old, you should not, by the action of a court, automatically lose your rights just because some family member or impersonal administrator calls you incompetent." — Senator Larry Craig, Chairman, U.S. Senate's Special Committee on Aging. (February, 2003)

"[O]ne startling conclusion about the whole process of incompetency was drawn from the realization that in almost every case examined the aged incompetent was in a worse position after he was adjudicated incompetent than before. The study could identify no particular benefit which flowed to the incompetent that he could not have received without a finding of incompetency." G. Alexander & T. Lewin, The Aged and the Need for Surrogate Management, 136

Source: Justice for Florida Seniors Archive