Linda Kincaid Announces Governor Brown Has Signed AB937 into Law to the San Bernadino Board of Supervisors

NASGA’s California Advocacy Liaison Linda Kincaid’s Mother, Carol Hahn, passed Saturday, August 17, 2013.  Two days after Carol Hahn’s death, Governor Brown signed AB937 – legislation created to clarify conservatees’ rights to visitors, mail, and phone calls.

Linda stands in front of the Board of Supervisors in honor of her Mother who was a victim of conservatorship abuse the final years of her life.

Carol Hahn leaves behind her daughter, a stellar advocate for victims of unlawful and abusive guardianships and conservatorships and for reform.
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Linda Kincaid Speaks at the 082013 Board of Supervisors Meeting to Honor Her Mother, Carol Hahn

Brown signs bill to protect rights of conservatees

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) — Gov. Brown signed a bill into law Monday protecting the rights of people under a conservatorship. That’s when a judge appoints someone to handle the affairs of a person due to old age or physical limitations.
An ABC7 News I-Team investigation uncovered cases in which the Santa Clara County public guardian was restricting access to conservatees.

The law clarifies a conservatee’s right to have visitors, phone calls, and personal mail.

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Brown signs bill to protect rights of conservatees

Linda Kincaid Reports: Advocates Urge CA Governor Brown to Sign AB937

AB937 states that a conservatee has the right to have visitors, to make and receive phone calls, and to receive personal mail. Although these basics rights are already affirmed in California statute, they are not specifically clarified in California Probate Code.

Some conservators take the position that they have absolute power over a conservatee. Santa Clara County’s Public Guardian took that position until flagrant abuse was exposed by ABC7 I-Team in San Francisco. A Los Angeles County Deputy Public Guardian recently expressed her opinion that conservatees lose their personal rights when they are conserved.

AB937 corrects that misunderstanding.

“ SECTION 1. Section 2351 of the Probate Code is amended to read: 2351. (a) Subject to subdivision (b), the guardian or conservator, but not a limited conservator, has the care, custody, and control of, and has charge of the education of, the ward or conservatee. This control shall not extend to personal rights retained by the conservatee, including, but not limited to, the right to receive visitors, telephone calls, and personal mail, unless specifically limited by court order.”

AB937 went to Governor Brown for signature on August 12, 2013. Elder rights advocates and disability rights advocates throughout the country are urging the Governor to support personal rights and human dignity by signing AB937.

Comments to Governor Brown can be submitted by email to:  http://gov.ca.gov/m_contact.php

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Advocates Urge Governor Brown to Sign AB937

Editorial: Bill that cloaks judicial discipline process is wrong

Something smells bad in Raleigh regarding legislation the General Assembly passed in its closing hours that closes to public view the discipline process for state judges.

The bill concentrates power for disciplining these judges in the hands of the N.C. Supreme Court, taking that power away from the Judicial Standards Commission, a more diverse group that includes judges, lawyers and layman citizens.

Furthermore, the bill passed even though it had been soundly defeated in the state Senate a week before the legislature went home, only to be resurrected in the session’s closing hours and approved with the votes of many senators who had spoken forcefully against it only days before.

Gov. McCrory should take the advice of the state Bar Association and veto this bill. We’re sure, now that the bill has been widely reported on by the state’s news media, that the legislature will not dare try to override this stinker.

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Editorial: Bill that cloaks judicial discipline process is wrong

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New laws mean changes for judges, elections

N.C. lawyers oppose increased secrecy in disciplining judges

The groups who say they were ambushed by the N.C. legislature this year have new members: some of the state’s most prominent judges and leaders of the legal community.

Judges and lawyers normally fare well in dealings with the General Assembly.  But many of them have publicly mobilized against a last-minute Republican bill that would change how North Carolina disciplines its jurists.

This week, and for the first time in its history, the North Carolina Bar Association asked a governor to veto a bill.

On Wednesday, more than two dozen of the group’s former presidents, including seven from Charlotte, followed up with a letter to Gov. Pat McCrory asking him to block the changes. It was sent to Bob Stevens, McCrory’s legal counsel and past president of the Mecklenburg Bar.

The bill’s supporters, which includes most Republicans in the General Assembly, say it streamlines certain procedures and puts more disciplinary authority where it belongs, with the Supreme Court.

That includes giving the state’s high court authority to punish its own members. Critics, however, say the bill shrouds in secrecy what is now a substantially public process, undermining trust. By consolidating disciplinary authority with the Supreme Court, they say, it increases the odds for conflicts of interest and sets North Carolina up for potential partisan embarrassments that have hit other states.

John Wester, a Charlotte attorney and past state bar association president, said the importance of the debate extends beyond courtrooms and law offices.

“We underestimate the authority that our system gives to our judges,” Wester said. “It’s a great blessing that we’ve had judges with impeccable integrity. But when there’s an exception, we have to have a reliable process that the public can believe in.”

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N.C. lawyers oppose increased secrecy in disciplining judges

New laws mean changes for judges, elections

A public campaign financing program meant to limit special interest influence in judicial elections in the state met its death in the legislature during the final hours of the long session.

The bill repeals the public financing law that used certain fees attorneys paid to the bar, $3 checked-off funds on tax forms and state funds that gave judges an opportunity to agree to certain spending thresholds and rules to tap into public campaign funds.
The state was one of the first in the country to pass such legislation that will soon be history.  

The change comes despite pleas by all but one judge on the state’s Court of Appeals.

Other changes targeted at the state’s judicial system include a law that gives the Supreme Court the authority to discipline its own judges rather than six senior judges on the Court of Appeals. That measure also takes the public out of the know when it comes to judicial misconduct.

Currently, hearings before the state’s adjudicatory panel are open to the public. Under the new law they would not be.

Chief Justice Sarah Parker and John Martin, chief judge of the N.C. Court of Appeals and chairman of the Judicial Standards Commission, urged lawmakers not to adopt the new changes on the basis of conflicts in judges having to discipline their peers, no avenue for revealing public exoneration and leaving no public record of the process.

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New laws mean changes for judges, elections

New Virginia Law Aims To Help Elderly Victims

Every year there are more than 1,000 cases of financial exploitation of adults in the State of Virginia. The sad reality is elderly individuals are at a great risk of being taken advantage of by caregivers, including both professionals and relatives. Thankfully, legislators in Virginia recently passed a new law that is designed to help reduce that number.

The new law, which was implemented as of July 1, 2013, creates a criminal penalty for those who aim to take financial advantage of seniors. The law specifically states that it is a crime to financially exploit any mentally incapacitated adults.

One tragic case highlights the dangers of financial exploitation and involved a woman, Jeannie Beidler, who says her uncle financially exploited her grandparents, both of whom were suffering from dementia. Beidler says her uncle was their live-in caretaker and not only financially abused them, but also subjected them to physical abuse and neglect. The uncle would let the elderly couple sit around in their own waste for days while he forced Beidler’s grandmother to write him blank checks.

Once the scheme was finally uncovered the uncle was arrested and charged with abuse and neglect, but there was no crime for the financial exploitation he had engaged in. Now that the new law has been passed future cases will allow prosecutors to go after those people who preyed on vulnerable seniors in their time of need.

Sadly, stories of seniors being scammed out of the money it took them a lifetime of hard work to earn are increasingly common. According to a study by MetLife, incidents of elder financial fraud increased by 12% from 2008 to 2010, amounting to a whopping $2.9 billion in stolen money.

There are a lot of reasons why seniors are such attractive targets for financial crime. Experts say that those over the age of 50 control over 70% of the country’s wealth, yet many may not realize the true value of the property they possess. As elders become more physically frail, they may not see or hear as well or think as clearly as they used to, leaving openings for unscrupulous people to take advantage of them. As a group, the elderly are also likely to suffer from disabilities that make them dependent on others for help. These “helpers” may have nearly limitless access to the assets of their victims, and often exert powerful influence over the senior.

Though financial exploitation is bad enough, the fact is financial crime often goes hand in hand with other kinds of senior abuse. In many cases, caregivers who try and steal money from an elderly person have also been found to have either physically abused or neglected them.

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New Virginia Law Aims To Help Elderly Victims

Connecticut Department on Aging Will Better Serve State’s Growing Senior Population

(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Dannel P. Malloy, joined by Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman, state Department on Aging (SDA) Commissioner Edith Prague and members of the General Assembly’s Aging Committee, held a ceremonial bill signing today for Public Act 13-125, An Act Concerning the Department on Aging.  The legislation fully establishes SDA which was statutorily created on January 1, 2013 and will ensure that Connecticut’s seniors have access to the supportive services necessary to live with dignity, security, and independence.

“Under the leadership of Commissioner Prague, this department will greatly improve the quality of life for our state’s growing senior population,” said Governor Malloy.  “Over the last decade, the number of elderly residents living in Connecticut has grown nearly 5 percent and currently makes up more than 14 percent of the state’s population – that number is expected to grow to 21.5 percent of the population by 2030.  This is why it is crucial that we have an office specifically designed to assist these residents and administer the services and programs that they depend on day-in and day-out.”

The department will be responsible for managing a variety of federally funded programs at the state level under the Older American’s Act.  All appropriate functions, programs, and duties within the Department of Social Services’ (DSS) State Unit on Aging and Office of Long Term Care Ombudsman will be transferred to the newly-formed SDA.  In March, Governor Malloy tapped former State Senator Edith Prague of Columbia to serve as the Commissioner of SDA.

“There’s much we need to do to help elderly residents in our state and, now that we have a department that focuses specifically on them, we can work on improving the way we deliver those services,” said Lt. Governor Wyman.  “As the past chairman of the State Senate’s Committee on Aging, Commissioner Prague has experience on issues pertaining to elderly services and is well-respected by her colleagues in both parties as a staunch advocate for senior citizens across the state.  I am happy to have Commissioner Prague as a partner as we work towards the Governor’s goal of improving the quality of life and care for Connecticut’s older adults.”

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Connecticut Department on Aging Will Better Serve State’s Growing Senior Population

Area Organization to Investigate Abuse Against Disabled

Wandtv.com, NewsCenter17, StormCenter17, Central Illinois News-

DECATUR-The governor signs legislation to better protect the elderly and disabled from abuse and exploitation. The act is supposed to expand protective services for disabled adults who live at home.
  
At the Community Home Environmental Learning Project, or CHELP, they’ve been investigating elder abuse for 27 years. Diane Drew oversees cases of elder abuse. But now with a new state law she’ll be looking over different cases.

“We will also be looking at citizens 18 and older with a disability,”Drew says.

Before cases were handled by the inspector general.

“They only had five people statewide to investigate,”Drew says.

And as the Belleville News Democrat uncovered, it was not enough. The deaths of 53 severely disabled adults who lived at home were not investigated because they were ineligible for services.
  
At the Decatur-Macon County Senior Center, Director Leslie Stanberry says the act will be a big help.

“We do see a lot of disabled people under sixty who use our services who come in,” Stanberry says.
 
Before the law passed if they got a call about abuse for someone under 60, “basically what we would have done would have done is say you need to call the police” Stanberry says.

Now they can refer the cases to CHELP.

” I definitely think it’s going to be a good thing for our citizens with disabilities,” says Drew.

More eyes to look over cases, more hands to help a vulnerable population.

At CHELP it means more training for some workers. They’re already going through it.

The law also sets up a division to investigate suspicious deaths of disabled people.

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Area Organization to Investigate Abuse Against Disabled

Law ramps up abuse reporting

Although Colorado urges medical and other professionals to report cases of abuse of at-risk elders, it had been one of only three states that did not mandate it.

However, starting July 1, 2014, SB 13-111 will require not only medical and law enforcement professionals, but others — including clergy and financial institutions — to report known or suspected abuse or exploitation of adults over the age of 70.
Those who don’t may face criminal prosecution.

While many of the county’s resources, such as its Adult Protection Team and 24-hour hotline to report abuse, are not new, spokesperson Haley McKean said the county is already ramping up outreach programs to educate and train those that will soon be required to report abuse.

“Counties do anticipate an increase in our adult protection caseloads when the state’s new mandated reporter law goes into effect next summer,” said Arapahoe County District 2 Commissioner Nancy Sharpe, who was part of a statewide elder abuse task force that helped usher in the new legislation.

Arapahoe County is home to more than 41,000 adults age 70 and older — a population that, according to the Colorado State Demography Office, is expected to double by 2025. Statewide, that number is expected to expected to increase 28 percent by 2017, and 142 percent by 2032.

“The law is great, but it’s disappointing we had to pass legislation to get people to do what they should be doing in the first place,” said Karen Dennison, 47, of Denver, who works as a contract home health aide. “I guess it gives us the flexibility to report things directly to the state, but I’m curious to see how a lot of these home health care company policies on reporting may change that.”

Caseworkers found that 487 at-risk adults suffered self-neglect, 287 were neglected by their caregivers, 208 were exploited financially or otherwise exploited by a person in a position of trust, and 131 fell victim to some form of abuse. Most were over the age of 60, frail or suffered from dementia or mental illness.

Among the most common incidents in 2012 were cases of self-neglect, neglect and financial exploitation.

“I guess it’s a step in the right direction to make more people responsible,” Dennison said. “More people means more eyes. It can’t hurt.”

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Law ramps up abuse reporting