Watching Out For Our Wards

Understanding the pitfalls and positives of guardianship

To those who haven’t witnessed it first-hand, guardianship may sound like a heroic assignment in which bigger, stronger, more seasoned protectors keep individuals unable to fend for themselves out of harm’s way.  But the reality is far less ideal.

More and more cases are being assigned to professional guardians because round-the-clock responsibility for another individual’s life is often more than a family member or well-intentioned friend can bear.  We’re just seeing the earliest waves of a mounting tsunami that could send enormous numbers of individuals unnecessarily into guardianship and place unbearable stress on even the most willing and able professionals.

NGA Standards
The National Guardianship Association’s (NGA) standards and certification process ensure that professionals who take on guardianship responsibilities do so with both commitment and competence and that they’re suited to tackle the most important aspect of these cases—preserving the dignity and quality of life of the ward.

But while a certified professional guardian has demonstrated the skills and commitment necessary to take on the profound obligation of seeing to a ward’s welfare, his capacity to do so isn’t limitless.  In fact, the NGA states in its Standards of Practice that “the guardian shall limit each caseload to a size that allows the guardian to accurately and adequately support and protect the person, that allows a minimum of one visit per month with each person, and that allows regular contact with all service providers.”

Duties
In a healthy arrangement, a guardian should:

• Evaluate and act on each situation on a case-by-case basis, carefully considering those whose lives hangs in the balance as individuals.
• Be ready, willing and able to care about the ward, including demonstrating an understanding of the responsibilities that accompany the guardian’s role. Those responsibilities often range from things as straightforward as deciding where the ward will live to more complex and potentially overwhelming issues, such as deciding whether cancer care should continue or life support should end.
• Avoid over-burdening himself with too many cases, by aligning with a qualified third-party source of professional guardianship.  Such partners should put the needs and stated desires of the ward above all else and be able to remain objective in making decisions that affect the ward’s estate and quality of life.
• Have a succession plan in place, so that the death or departure of an individual or business won’t leave the ward unattended, whether for a short period while a new guardian is assigned or for a longer period if the situation goes undetected.  (Continue Reading)

Full Article & Source:
Watching Out For Our Wards

Illinois Representative David Harris Introduces Three Bills in the 2015 Legislative Session

During the 2014 legislative session, Representative David Harris (R, 53rd District), working with NASGA Director Sylvia Rudek, introduced HB5573, a bill aimed to empower and strengthen Power of Attorney and advance directives.

Despite overwhelming support NASGA received in feedback from victims, families, and guardianship stakeholders, sadly HB5573 was stalled in the Rules Committee.

Representative David Harris

Representative Harris’ commitment to protect the elderly and disabled citizens of Illinois was not dissuaded.

This year, Representative Harris, again conferring with Sylvia Rudek, has introduced three bills to the 2015 legislative session:

 HB2504 concerns the length of temporary guardianship and provides that an extension of the temporary guardianship may be granted, if specific conditions are met, for no longer than 90 days from the date of original appointment.

HB2505 provides that a temporary guardian shall have limited powers and duties (instead of “all the powers and duties”) of a guardian of the person or estate which are enumerated by court order.

HB2506 provides that unless a guardian of the person or a disabled adult is specifically authorized by court order, the guardian shall not restrict the personal rights of the ward, including, but not limited to, the right to receive visitors, telephone calls, and personal mail.  Hearings are scheduled to discuss and debate the bills.

NASGA enthusiastically supports Senator Harris’ efforts and very much appreciates his concern and legislative action on behalf of the elderly and disabled of Illinois and victims of unlawful and abusive guardianships.

READ the Full Text of HB2504

READ the Full Text of HB2505

READ the Full Text of HB2506

TRACK All Bills From Representative Harris

See Also:
NASGA on HB5573

NASGA Members in Legislative Action

Attorney discipline: 7 punished in South Florida

The Florida Supreme Court disciplined 7 South Florida attorneys in recent actions brought by The Florida Bar. The actions:

• Herbert Wingfield Biggs, of Jupiter, was suspended for one year, effective 30 days from a Nov. 20 court order. Biggs failed to supervise a non-lawyer with whom he had a business relationship. When Biggs was absent from his law office, handling matters in Nevada, the non-lawyer, a convicted felon, solicited business, accepted funds from clients, used Biggs' letterhead and forged the attorney's signature. Further, Biggs shall pay restitution of more than $53,000 to two clients.

• James Whitcomb J. Carpenter, of Fort Lauderdale, was suspended for 90 days, effective Dec. 23, after modification of the Dec. 4 court order. Further, Carpenter shall attend ethics school and comply with other conditions. After the death of his stepfather, Carpenter initially failed to correctly identify all of the potential beneficiaries to the probate court.

• Michael Ralph Casey, of Oakland Park, was disbarred following a Nov. 21 court order. Casey is accused of defrauding hundreds of investors worldwide out of approximately $20 million. In September 2012, he was charged in federal court, with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. On April 29, Casey failed to appear for a court hearing and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest by the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida. The FBI Wanted poster indicates that Casey "should be considered armed and dangerous."

• Robert James Julia, of Miami Lakes, was suspended for six months, effective 30 days from a Nov. 20 court order. Further, Julia shall pay restitution of $3,000 to one client. Julia engaged in improper business dealings with a long-time family friend. As a result of him taking a tax loss that was attributable to the investor, Julia received tax benefits to which he has not entitled.

• S. Tracy Long, of Delray Beach, was suspended for one year, effective 30 days from a Nov. 20 court order. Long shall also pay restitution totaling $11,500 to three clients. In one instance, Long hired non-lawyers to provide paralegal services and market foreclosure defense and loan modification and shared fees with them. In another case, Long was retained to help clients with a foreclosure matter. They continued to pay him, believing that he was working on saving the home. The clients were subsequently forced to vacate the premises.

• Louis Randolf Townsend Jr., of West Palm Beach, was suspended for 91 days, effective 30 days from a Dec. 17 court order. Townsend was found in contempt for practicing law while suspended.

• Stuart Barry Yanofsky, of Plantation, is to be publicly reprimanded following a Nov. 14 court order. Yanofsky was found in contempt for failing to respond to Florida Bar inquiries in a timely manner.

Full Article & Source:
Attorney discipline: 7 punished in South Florida

Bill would ban nursing home inspections in court cases

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — One patient choked to death, another claimed he was raped. WREG has uncovered new and very disturbing details about problems at a local nursing home.

The On Your Side Investigators also discovered these same details could be kept secret.

An inspection report from federal and state health surveyors shows Signature Healthcare at St. Peter Villa in MidTown Memphis was hit with more than 20 deficiencies in August of 2014.

Read full report here.

The survey shows one resident choked to death after the facility failed to provide the proper diet, neglected to monitor the patient during meals, and never even attempted a maneuver to stop the choking.

It also reveals Signature Healthcare at St. Peter Villa “failed to thoroughly investigate” an alleged rape.

The resident wasn’t sent to the ER for a rape kit, and the nursing home never even notified police.

The On Your Side Investigators recently uncovered problems at another Memphis nursing home owned by the same company.

Dozens of viewers contacted WREG after our report on Signature Healthcare at Saint Francis.

One wrote in an email, “My grandfather died in the care of the staff at Signature Nursing home.”

Another said in a Facebook message, “My mother was Resident #5 in the story you did last night about Signature Healthcare. So glad you have put this out there.”

However, details like the horrific ones in the surveys we revealed could soon be kept secret, if a bill sponsored by Tennessee State Senator Brian Kelsey and Representative Leigh Wilburn becomes law.

Senate Bill 889 would prohibit survey and investigation results from being used as evidence in malpractice cases.

Read bill here.

Cameron Jehl is a Memphis Attorney who has sued nursing homes before. He opposes the proposed legislation.

“If the nursing homes violates federal law and federal regulations, they’re required to comply with in order to keep and take care of the elderly, then they should be held accountable for their actions,” Jehl said.

However, Senator Kelsey says attorneys will sometimes misuse negative survey results to paint nursing homes with a broad brush, rather than focusing on a single incident that led to a injury or fatality.

“I think we have to look at the instances when this information should be available and what are the instances in which it’s being used in a way that’s not exactly the full and 100 percent truth,” Kelsey said.

The bill also addresses ads that law firms often run in newspapers about problems at nursing homes.

It stipulates that if the ad mentions a deficiency, it also must be noted if and when the deficiency was corrected.

Proponents say the advertisements, often run by out of state law firms, don’t always include timely information.

When asked about using inspections in court cases, and how such evidence could be used on behalf of a plaintiff to reveal a pattern of problems that the nursing home has been made aware of, Senator Kelsey told WREG, “This is really just the beginning of the conversation. This bill will be amended when it goes through the committee process. It will get a full hearing.”

Jehl added, “These nursing homes, when they neglect and abuse the elderly, they have to be held accountable.” (Continue Reading)

Full Article & Source:
Bill would ban nursing home inspections in court cases

Ohio Supreme Court: New guardianship rules start June 1

Court-appointed guardians across Ohio will all have to follow the same set of basic requirements starting June 1 as they manage the affairs of Ohioans who are deemed unable to care for themselves — children, the elderly and people with mental disabilities.

The Ohio Supreme Court released a set of standards yesterday that will become the new minimum requirements for guardians statewide. Those rules had been left up to individual probate courts in Ohio’s 88 counties.

The new rules require training, monitoring and background checks and say that guardians must meet with their wards at least every three months.

A court-appointed committee had studied the issue for more than eight years before releasing a draft set of rules for guardians last spring — just as TheDispatch published an investigation in May that revealed how the state’s patchwork quilt of local rules has failed Ohioans.

The series, “Unguarded,” available online at Dispatch.com/unguarded, found widespread problems with the way some guardians were managing the care of their wards, including instances of abuse, neglect and financial exploitation.

The court pulled back the draft after receiving more than 100 pages of comments, prompted in part by the Dispatch series.

The committee work started in 2007 after national news stories raised an alarm about the lack of oversight in guardianship cases. While Ohio was one of the first states to form a committee to study the issue, much of the rest of the country raced ahead with comprehensive state standards.

Julia Nack is one of the state’s few certified master guardians and the director of the volunteer guardianship program at the Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging. She both commented on the draft rules and was part of the committee tasked with redrafting the rules based on that feedback.

She called yesterday’s decision by the court historic but cautioned that it is a first step.

“In general, these are positive steps forward, but not as rigorous as the national standards envision,” she said.

She would have preferred for the court to require guardians to visit wards more frequently than the four times a year outlined in the rules, for example, adding that the national model calls for monthly visits. But she concedes that the new rules are better than the previous standard, which required no visits.

In an unexpected move, the court also decided to make the rules apply to relatives who serve as guardians, according to a court news release.

Nack and other advocates had fought to make family members follow the same guidelines as lawyer guardians who charge a ward’s estate to perform the work, but that requirement was one that many of the state’s probate judges resisted.

Many judges on the committee that helped draft the rules said they feared they would not be able to find enough people to do the work if the rules were too stringent.

But feedback that the Supreme Court received also pointed out that many judges did not want to administer two classes of guardians.

Applying the rules to family members represents a sea change in Ohio, Nack said, and a long-overdue recognition of the power that guardians — family members or not — hold over the lives of the people in their care.

In fact, the Dispatch series provided numerous examples of family members who mistreated, neglected or stole from the relatives in their care.

It also showed that the lack of oversight by courts across the state allowed unscrupulous guardians — family members and court-hired guardians, including some lawyers — to take advantage of their wards.

One lawyer, Paul S. Kormanik, was indicted on 11 charges in January. One is a first-degree felony accusing him of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, a violation of Ohio’s RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said at the time.

Kormanik, who once was responsible for more than 400 court-appointed wards, already was awaiting trial on two felony theft charges. He was re-indicted on those two charges in January, and nine charges were added.

Investigators with O’Brien’s office and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office said Kormanik stole nearly $50,000 from four wards between 2009 and last year. The indictment says Kormanik, 65, hid assets from the court that belonged to wards and deposited them into his own accounts.

While the new rules could have gone further, Nack said, they provide improvements, including a training requirement for all current and newly appointed guardians, an ongoing education requirement, better monitoring of professional guardians who oversee more than 10 wards, a requirement that guardians undergo a criminal background check and a prohibition against appointing as guardians nursing homes or in-home care providers who are paid to serve the ward.

“I’m dancing around my office,” Nack said yesterday after learning that the rules would be implemented this year.

Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor said in a news release that the rules align Ohio with standards set by the National Guardianship Association and raise the level of professionalism among guardians in the state.

“We know this has been a long process, but we have never lost sight that the ultimate goal is to provide our probate courts with effective means to ensure the safety and well-being of people who need our protection,” O’Connor said.

Full Article & Source:
Ohio Supreme Court: New guardianship rules start June 1

Judicial public access committee has no public members, won’t answer questions

The Colorado Judiciary’s Public Access Committee, which has no members of the general public on it, is scheduled to finalize rules about access to judicial administrative documents in April, years after department judges exempted the judicial offices from transparency laws.

Teresa Tate, assistant legal counsel, said the subcommittee is expected to finish its work at the end of March at the request of Chief Justice Nancy Rice.

“It’s been a priority for the Judicial Branch,” she told the full committee Friday. “The Chief Justice elevated the priority.”

The rules are necessary because in 2012 the state appellate court ruled that the judicial department isn’t subject to state open records laws, which cover all other Colorado government agencies. The department apparently is writing its own rules without checks, balances or input from anyone but judicial employees.

After the meeting, Tate refused to answer questions about why it took nearly three years after the appellate ruling to formulate rules. She asked security to intervene and stop the questioning.

But it might not be up to the judiciary to write its own rules and policies as lawmakers are starting to take notice of the judiciary department, which is supposed to interpret and uphold state laws, exempting itself from transparency statutes.

“I think you bring up a valid point, with all the judicial department agencies exempt, does it make sense to just do the public defenders’ offices and not the whole of judicial,” state Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, said last week. “You raise some important concerns.”

Fields has sponsored a bill this session requiring the judiciary’s public defender’s office to comply with open records laws.

State Sen. Kent Lambert, R-Berthoud, and state Rep. Tim Dore, R-Elizabeth, also expressed concern when they learned from Watchdog.org that judicial officials decided to exempt themselves from state law.

After the meeting, state Supreme Court Justice Monica Marquez, who chairs the Public Access Committee, left the meeting flanked by a deputy and refused to answer questions about the committee’s actions or why it includes no public members.

The rules for administrative records are in five parts, Tate told the Public Access Committee, including definitions, exemptions, timetable and process for seeking redress. Part two asserts that the records are assumed open unless there is an exemption.

Those basics seem to mirror state open records laws but even if they do, the judicial rules could be changed anytime by judicial officials without legislative oversight.

Tate told the committee that all judicial offices, except the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline, are participating in writing the access rules, though apparently there are no members of the public involved in those deliberations either.

“We’re working thoughtfully to create a rule that is open and really works well,” Tate said at the meeting.

Taxpayers paid Tate $76,200 and Marquez $144,687 last year, according to a state personnel database.

Marquez was up for judicial retention last year, winning with about 68 percent of the vote, according Judgepedia.org. So she won’t come before voters again for another decade.

The full Public Access Committee is scheduled to discuss the rules April 8.

Full Article & Source:
Judicial public access committee has no public members, won’t answer questions

Tonight on T.S. Radio: Gerald's Story: Nursing Home and Drug Abuse of an Elderly Man

Patrice Gilgan joins us this evening to expose the abuse and drugging of her father at the hands of doctors and nursing home workers in two different facilities in Orange County, California. 

The first instance of abuse both physical and with drugs occurred at Irvin Cottage Board and Care where Gerald had been sent to recover from brain surgery.  Gerald was drugged within 24 hours of admittance to the home with massive doses of Haldol, Seroqel and overdosed on morphine.  There was no prescription for the morphine.  Cottage Board and Care is operated by St Joseph Hospice, a Catholic enterprise.

At a second facility, Villa Valencia Skilled Nursing, (a St Michael Hospice and another Catholic owned  enterprise), Gerald was given 7 different drugs.  None of these drugs were to be used on brain injured or individuals suffering from dementia.  When Gerald was finally freed from this facility and hospitalized again, it took more than two weeks for him to respond due to the massive drug overload in his system.

Videos of Gerald, and of some of the abuse he endured are available on the you tube channel;  Ireland Dallas.

Gerald Gilgan was a retired New York City Fire Fighter. 

This man did not deserve this callous treatment.  No one does.  Yet it happens to the elderly every day here in the US.

7:00 EST

LISTEN LIVE or listen to the archive later

See Also:
Drugging Dementia:  Are Antipsychotics Killing Nursing Home Patients?

Elder Abuse Caught on Tape

R.I.P. Dad - Justice Will be Served

Rana Goodman: Guardianship Bill SB262 Finally a Reality

This is a link to the complete bill that is intended to replace the existing guardianship bill.

As I have said all along, although many changes need to be made to the Family Court system, removing the residency requirement was a starting point for each and every victim family member that Dan and I have been working with these long months.

Thanks to the support of all of you that have signed the petitions and backed us up, our voices WERE HEARD, it has been done and much more.

Each time we spoke with the legislators working on this issue, each time we wrote about it in the paper, we pushed things that needed to be fixed.

This week in Carson City we thought it would be more of the same, but it was so gratifying to see all of that work become an actual bill.

Dan and I went to Carson City armed with copies of The Vegas Voice, we were pleasantly surprised to see copies on the desks of most of the legislators we had come to lobby. It seems guardianship was a hot topic.

By the time we arrived for our appointment at the Attorney General's office and sat down to talk, Mr. Winne flipped open his file and copies of the paper were clipped inside there too.

Dan and I glanced at each other wondering if that was good or bad and Mr. Winne said that it was the constant stories in the paper that brought the investigation forward. At this point they are collecting information from all the victims they can.

Full Article and Source:
Guardianship Bill SB262 Finally A Reality

READ SB262

See Also:
The Vegas Voice - Rana Goodman:  Private Guardians vs. Family

Steve Miller: Jared E. Shafer, Las Vegas Private Guardian and His Judges Fall Under Investigation

Elderly and disabled people being robbed of their assets by sociopathic private guardians with the help of crooked family court judges. This all sounds like the plot for a sequel to the B movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but unfortunately in today's Las Vegas, it's all very real and beginning to unfold on the local evening news.

The stories of the gruesome acts against the weakest of the weak were first told here on AmericanMafia.com, and now are about to make national news thanks to the efforts of KTNV TV CONTACT 13 producer Kean Bauman and investigative reporter Darcy Spears, VEGAS VOICE publisher Dan Roberts and political editor Rana Goodman, and the efforts of the National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse.

After writing over a dozen articles on this sad subject, I'm proud to say the story has been picked up by other investigative reporters, therefore I have linked to their reports in this column.

Bauman and Spears' fearless report aired on Las Vegas Channel 13 News Friday, March 6, turned Las Vegas upside down.

The TV report followed a series in the VEGAS VOICE, Las Vegas' newspaper devoted to the interests of our valley's vast senior population.

I say fearless because the subjects of these reports are some of the most politically connected people in our city. They are supported by a team of completely corrupt local attorneys who help them bilk the wealth of unsuspecting seniors and disabled people who have the misfortune of having no relatives living in Nevada who can become their guardian in the event they are deemed incompetent by a local family court judge.

But its not just victims with out of state relatives who are affected. If there's enough wealth involved (poor people are not provided guardians by the court), and there is family living in Nevada, the Family Court almost always finds another reason to ban the family from handling their Nevada loved one's finances.

Accusations of drug abuse, alcoholism, bad credit, being unfit, being an exploiter with no relationship with the relative, or "They are just after the money" are used in court so a private guardian can hang on to a sizable estate. The guardians use whatever excuse suits them to make sure the family will not ever have any power, and the judges always comply with the for-hire guardian's wishes. They use the same script with all families.

Appointed Guardianship Commissioner Jon Norheim obviously doesn't read briefs or motions, just rules time and again in favor of his friends the guardians. In one instance, Norheim approved an order for payment of services for an unrelated person from the account of one of Jared E. Shafer's "wards."

He didn't even check to see if the person who was named on the payment was related to the ward whose account was charged, or if Shafer was double charging, Norheim just blindly signed the order. This unrestricted power of attorney sanctioned by the court is what creates the Invasion of the Body Snatchers atmosphere I mentioned earlier.

Full Article and Source:
Jared E. Shafer, Las Vegas Private Guardian and His Judges Fall Under Investigation

See Also:
'Jared E. Shafer's Bad Laws Legalize the Bilking of Las Vegas Retirees'