Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Out Of State Guardianship Act Awaits Governor's Signature

Excerpt from: Wall Street Journal (click for full article)

 

Elder Law Attorney Ronald Fatoullah, principal attorney of Ronald Fatoullah & Associates, was honored at the annual meeting of the Elder Law Section of the New York State Bar Association in January, 2013 in recognition of his "advocacy, drafting and persistence in creating the legislative initiative for the New York State Uniform Adult Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Act."

Now, both the New York State Assembly and New York State Senate have passed the New York State Uniform Adult Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Act (the "Act" or "Uniform Act"). The bill now awaits Governor Cuomo's signature. When signed, New York will be the 37th state (plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia) to have adopted the Act.

With an increasingly mobile society, multi-state guardianship issues are not uncommon. These issues arise among snowbirds who may be residents of New York but spend their winters in Florida or another state, caregivers who may be moving sick family members in or out of New York, individuals who may be utilizing out of state health care providers, individuals who wander in or out of New York, and elderly persons who are victims of "granny snatching" into or out of New York State.

The Uniform Guardianship Act simplifies the law governing multi-state guardianship actions and will make it easier for individuals to act as guardians for their elderly parents and relatives, even if they live in states other than New York.

DDS, in dispute with parent over care of her disabled son, seeks to remove her as guardian

Excerpt from: COFAR Blog (click for full article)

 

Apparently unable or unwilling to resolve a dispute over the proper residential placement for a developmentally disabled man, the state is seeking to remove the man’s mother as his guardian. 

The Department of Developmental Services has filed in Middlesex Probate Court to remove Patricia Feeley, a COFAR Board member, as guardian of her 27-year-old son,  Michael, and to appoint James Feld, a Woburn attorney, in her place. 

Feld is described in the petition only as an “advocate” for Michael Feeley, but DDS acknowledged in a court document that Feld had never previously met Michael. 

DDS is not alleging any abuse or neglect of Michael, and in fact, has described Feeley in court documents as “devoted to him” and “concerned for his well-being.”  However, the Department contends that Feeley has rejected several suggested residential placements for Michael and is not acting in his best interest.  And DDS is further alleging that Feeley’s home, where Michael has lived his entire life, is not safe because it has excessive “clutter” in it.

N.Y. Judge Declines to Recognize Validity of Egyptian Guardianship Decision

Excerpt from: Law.com (click for full article)

 

A New York state judge has declined to recognize an Egyptian court's appointment of a son as his father's guardian.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Betsy Barros dismissed as contrary to the state's public policy the bid of Ahmed Mohamed Gabr to control the U.S. assets of his father, Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed Gabr.

Instead, the judge appointed the elder man's wife, Sana'a, as his personal needs guardian.

"This Court cannot appoint the foreign guardian as a guardian in this matter," Barros wrote in Matter of Gabr, 100223/2011. "He has no means of support and has been declared bankrupt. Moreover, despite a court order from Egypt, the Petitioner has not supported his father or his father's wife for years. His extreme animus toward Sana'a, his father's nominated guardian, current primary care giver and chosen companion, likewise makes his appointment untenable."

From One Budget Fight to the Next

Excerpt from: New York Times (click for full article)

 

Unable to stop the sequester’s job-killing spending cuts, President Obama now says he wants to move past the endless wars of budget attrition. Though he still wants a long-term deficit deal, he said last week, it is time to turn to immigration, gun control, universal preschool, a higher minimum wage and voting reform.

But Republicans are not going to allow that pivot. Most are unalterably opposed to all of those initiatives, and want to keep their focus on cutting domestic programs and fighting off tax increases. At a time when Republicans are divided on many social issues, the budget wars are one of the few things that unite them.

A variety of insidious new budget proposals are now emerging from the House. On Wednesday, by a 267-to-151 vote, the House approved a stopgap spending resolution to keep the government running for the last half of the fiscal year, replacing the one that expires on March 27.

Frequently Used Elder Law Terms

Excerpt from: Byrd & Garrett: Wealth Preservation (click for full article)

 

Attorney-in-fact. Anyone who creates a power of attorney chooses another person or organization who has the legal right make decisions on that person’s behalf. The person or organization chosen is known as an attorney-in-fact or an agent. Attorneys-in-fact do not have to be lawyers. Being named to that position does not allow them to do anything other than act in the way the power of attorney document specifies.

Incapacity. Under the law, an incapacitated person, also known as an incompetent person, cannot enter into new agreements or make decisions on his or her own behalf. A court must determine if a person is incapacitated and, once it does, that person must have a guardian or conservator appointed over him or her. It falls to the guardian to make decisions for incapacitated person.

Guardian or conservator. Courts can appoint a guardian, sometimes known as a conservator, for an incapacitated person. Guardianship responsibilities will usually be divided between two different types of guardians. One guardian will have the responsibility to manage the incapacitated person’s financial responsibilities and property, while the other will have the responsibility to make decisions about the person’s daily life, including medical or healthcare choices.

Advance Directive. Along with the power of attorney, a person can make his or her own choices about who will make decisions should that person become incapacitated. With an advance medical directive, also known as advance directive, health care proxy, or healthcare power of attorney, a person can choose someone who will act to make medical decisions, should incapacitation occur.

The R-Word and Why It Matters: The Case of Jenny Hatch

Excerpt from: Disability and Representation: Changing the Cultural Conversation (click for full post)

 

The Internet was ablaze with outrage two weeks ago when Ann Coulter saw fit to call the President of the United States a retard, and when, in an interview with Piers Morgan, she dismissed the concerns of disabled people, our loved ones and, well, anyone with any moral awareness at all by suggesting that retard is just another word for loser. When Mr. Morgan countered that using the word as a pejorative implies that disabled people are less than worthy, Ms. Coulter argued shamelessly that no one calls disabled people retards anymore.

How this woman has a public platform anywhere outside of a soapbox in a public park is beyond me.

I’m sick of Ann Coulter. You’re sick of Ann Coulter. The only person who isn’t sick of Ann Coulter is probably Ann Coulter. So I can understand it when people say we shouldn’t keep talking about Ann Coulter’s use of the R-word, because it just gives her the attention she craves. I can understand the impulse to ignore her, believe me, but it’s not going to solve the problem. Hate speech is hate speech, and it has power. Ignoring Ann Coulter may starve her of attention, but it’s not going to starve the word of its power. It’s not going to stop hate speech from wreaking its havoc.

Let’s see what happens when the word retard becomes synonymous with the word loser. Let’s see just how much people lose.

 

 

Sherman Hemsley still not buried 3 months after death; bizarre legal dispute continues

Excerpt from: Fox News (click for full article)

 

Sherman Hemsley died at his home in El Paso, Texas on July 24. But three months on, the star of the CBS series “The Jeffersons” has yet to be laid to rest as the beneficiaries of his will, and even his cause of death, have been called into question.

A worker at the Eastside location of the San Jose Funeral Home in El Paso, Texas confirmed to FOX411’s Pop Tarts column that Hemsley was still at the home, and that they were waiting for a court order telling them what to do with his body.

It was revealed in August that Hemsley’s body had not been buried amid a legal dispute between his former manager and self-proclaimed business partner and live-in best friend Flora Enchinton – who was named as the sole beneficiary in his will – and a Philadelphia man, Richard Thornton, who claims to be the actor’s brother. Thornton filed a civil lawsuit disputing the validity of the will, signed by Hemsley one month prior to his death.

Minn. Court Strikes Down State Clause Disenfranchising Those Under Guardianship

Excerpt from:Elder Law Answers

(click for full article)

A Minnesota probate court rules that language in the state's constitution that prohibits all people under guardianship from voting violates the United States Constitution and is therefore invalid.  In re Guardianship of Erickson (4^th Jud. Dist. Ct., Minn., No. 27-GC-PR-09-57, Oct. 4, 2012).

Brian Erickson was placed under guardianship in 2009 because he suffers from schizophrenia and dysthymia with psychotic tendencies that make it difficult for him to perform many activities of daily living.  In July 2012, Mr. Erickson's guardian filed a petition with the Hennepin County Probate Court seeking a declaratory judgment clarifying that people under guardianship retain the right to vote unless a court order removes that right. 

The petition was filed because there is a conflict between Minnesota Statute 524.313, which states that "unless otherwise ordered by the court, the ward retains the right to vote," and Article VII of the state constitution, which explicitly states that all people under guardianship are not allowed to vote.  Mr. Erickson attempted to reconcile these two provisions by claiming that since the state constitution did not define guardianship, the legislature could "effectuate the constitutional mandates" by passing statutes that limited the state's ability to disenfranchise people under guardianship.

Alternatives to Guardianship

April 19, 2012:

Alternatives to Guardianship
Presented by Traci Corner
Circle of Support – Guardianship

ARC Services of Macomb, Inc.
This presentation will focus on alternatives to guardianship and guardianship as provided by the Michigan Mental Health Code for individuals with developmental disabilities.

A Child’s Legacy Is More Than Money

Excerpt from New York Times: (click for entire article)

Most people hear the word inheritance and think about money. I don’t — or more precisely, it’s the least of my worries when it comes to my young daughter. Deciding how to handle the money we will give to our child when we die was the easiest part of the legacy planning my wife and I did. We contacted a trust-and-estate lawyer and drew up a plan with all the proper trusts in place. We looped in our financial adviser and our insurance broker. We made sure our beneficiary designations forms were filled out properly. And most important, we picked a guardian for our daughter.

It cost us a bit of money and it took a lot of time to pull together the information and change existing documents — money and time that often cause people to shy away from such planning. Since we’re in our 30s, we hope to have another 50 years to go, and that means we’ll revisit it many times. But we have peace of mind.