Guardianship Attorney
A guardianship attorney can assist when your loved ones reach a point in their lives where, due to a cognitive deficit or disability (especially in younger adults), they cannot effectively manage personal, medical, and financial matters and it is time to consider a court ordered guardianship or conservatorship.
Signs That a Loved One May Need a Guardianship Attorney
- Inability to manage finances (unpaid bills, shut off notices, susceptibility to scams)
- Difficulty staying safe without help (leaving on the stove, inability to remember how to return home from a local store);
- Trouble communicating decisions and processing new information (cannot explain why leaking pipe remains unfixed).
What is Guardianship?
It is a legal process with many rules and requirements. The goal is to have a judge determine whether someone has the mental capacity to handle his or her own affairs. Once someone is declared incapacitated, someone else, the guardian, is legally required to manage all of his or her affairs from finances to living situation.
For judges to appoint guardians, individuals must be incapacitated with medical evidence to support incapacity. Incapacity occurs when people lose the ability to receive and evaluate information causing the inability to manage their financial affairs or care for their physical health and safety. A doctor’s assessment and report of incapacity is an essential component of a guardianship proceeding.
There also must be no viable alternative. If a person has valid, adequate powers of attorney and the agents are able and willing to assist, there is no need for a guardian.
Once a guardian is appointed, the court retains oversight of the guardianship. Guardians must file annual reports with the court detailing all expenditures of the incapacitated person’s money, as well as the personal care provided. Failure to comply with these legal requirements, among others, may result in the guardian being replaced with a court-appointed guardian (a guardian chosen by the judge).
How Rothkoff Law Group Can Help
We can establish a guardianship to protect and provide for incapacitated adults and developmentally disabled family members. We are mindful of our duty to appropriately and compassionately advocate for the disabled and cognitively impaired while addressing the wishes of those who provided for them. We strive to be a resource for those forced to go through the guardianship process.