Adults Facing Guardianship Need Adequate Legal Representation, AARP Tells Congress

By Natalie Missakian

AndreyPopov/Getty Images/iStockphoto

En español | AARP is backing legislation that would help states train and recruit law students to represent adults facing guardianship proceedings in court.

More than 1.3 million adults in the U.S. are living under court-ordered guardianship because they are unable to manage their own affairs. These adults may lose the ability to make decisions about where to live, how to spend their money or how to treat an illness. They may even lose their right to get married or vote.

Because so much is at stake, AARP is endorsing the Guardianship Grant Flexibility Act, sponsored by U.S. Sens. Mike Braun (R-Indiana) and Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania). The legislation would allow states to use federal grants for programs to train and recruit law students to help these adults, either by providing legal representation or becoming court-appointed guardians ad litem, representing their best interests. The programs would be administered through law clinics supervised by a licensed attorney, according to the bill’s sponsors.

“Unfortunately, many people subject to guardianship proceedings cannot afford to hire attorneys to represent them, and states do not have adequate funding to provide representation,” Bill Sweeney, AARP senior vice president for government affairs, wrote in a letter endorsing the legislation. “These individuals are too often left without a voice in the system, or an advocate to protect their rights.”

Often, guardians are family members or friends, but public guardians are appointed when no one else is willing to serve in the role. While many guardians do their job well, over the years, cases of abuse, mismanagement and conflicts of interest have also made headlines around the country.

That’s why AARP has long called for stronger oversight of these arrangements, and the use of less restrictive alternatives, such as power of attorney agreements, when possible. We’ve successfully pushed to reform state guardianship systems in Virginia, Florida, Alabama and other states.

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Adults Facing Guardianship Need Adequate Legal Representation, AARP Tells Congress

Legal representation urged for adult guardianships in Nevada

By Colton Lochhead
Las Vegas Review-Journal

 

A committee tasked with fixing the state's guardianship program wrangled Tuesday with the concept of legal representation and how it might apply to state's guardianship courts.

Several members at a meeting of the Nevada Supreme Court Commission to Study the Administration of Guardianships threw heavy support behind the idea of mandating attorney representation for those facing adult guardianships.

While attorney representation is a right given to anyone facing criminal charges, the infirm and elderly in the state who are facing the loss of many of their constitutional rights that comes with a guardianship are not guaranteed the same right.

"One of the most important things we need to do is make sure the people who are losing their rights have legal counsel," said Sally Ramm, of the state's Aging and Disability services.

Chief Justice James Hardesty, who chairs the commission, said he thinks many of the problems that he has heard from family members who feel that their loved one was taken advantage of could have been solved if the ward was given an attorney from the beginning of the process.

Hardesty had a simple recommendation for the panel.

"(Wards) are entitled to an attorney and I think they should have one appointed," he said.

The biggest hurdle for the panel is finding out the best way to fund such representation, and a subcommittee will discuss the most feasible way to do so.

The concept isn't so foreign to some parts of the state, though.

Judge Frances Doherty, who oversees Washoe County's guardianship cases, said that Northern Nevada county has been providing attorney representation to those under guardianship, often referred to as wards, through the county's senior legal aid program for the past two years.

If the panel fails to provide that representation to the thousands of other wards throughout the state, Doherty said, the commission might have been formed for naught.

"We would fall short so significantly as a commission if we failed to affirm the right of the individual facing guardianship in the adult arena to have their own attorney," Doherty said.

The panel was formed after longstanding problems with the system — which handles thousands of guardianship cases in Clark County each year — were exposed in a series of Las Vegas Review-Journal articles in April. Highlighted cases showed a lack of oversight by the courts that left infirm and incapacitated people vulnerable to financial abuse.

The panel was originally supposed to provide recommendations to the state Legislature by the new year, but the Supreme Court recently extended the commission's length by an additional six months.

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Legal representation urged for adult guardianships in Nevada