Recommended Website: HALT

WHAT WE DO FOR YOU:

Improve Legal Access – HALT works to strengthen protections that assure consumers access to accurate and timely legal information and assistance.
Empower Legal Consumers – HALT educates policy makers, the media and the public about the rights of legal consumers, and promotes increased accountability in the legal profession.
Hold Lawyers Accountable – HALT works to strengthen consumer protections against unethical, negligent and incompetent attorneys.
Strengthen Small Claims Courts – HALT publicizes the advantages of small claims courts, educates consumers about how to use these user-friendly courts, and advocates for systematic reforms that increase access to them.

Source:
HALT

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!

If you are in guardianship/conservatorship litigation, or about to enter litigation, the first thing to do is read and devour the guardianship/conservatorship laws of your state. You may think it’s your attorney’s job to know, advise, and take care of you. After all, that’s what you’re paying dearly for.

But here’s the reality: attorneys get paid whether they win or lose your case. Most want to win, of course, because of dedication, compassion, pride, or ego, But, if you lose, you still pay your attorney. You both go to the bank – you to make a withdrawal, your attorney to make a deposit!

And attorneys make mega bucks by taking on lots of cases. They juggle their expanding caseload and give minimal attention to the cases in the forefront, saving maximum attention for litigation. To you, there is only one case in the world; to your attorney, you’re one of many in the stack.

Because it’s your case, and because guardianship/conservatorship many times involves life and death, it’s to your advantage to know as much about guardianship/conservatorship law as your attorney. All guardianships, for instance, by law must contain certain aspects of due process, including notice to the AIP (alleged incompetent person), a hearing to determine incompetency, etc. If you know there was no incompetency hearing in your case, as an example, then you’ve got something to shout about! A jurisdictional issue can have the whole case thrown out of court and end your nightmare!

So, don’t count solely on your attorney. Count on you!

Not all attorneys are bad. Many take pride in their profession and pour their heart and soul into their caseload. Still, many attorneys are members of the “good old boy’s club” or “incest club.” Sometimes, they work for the guardian – sometimes they work for you. Sometimes they work for each other by trading or referring clients. If you familiarize yourself with the state statutes, and your attorney feeds you a line, you’ll taste baloney.

Source:
NASGA:  Know Your Rights!

Recommended Website: Victims of Guardians

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT UNLAWFUL AND ABUSIVE GUARDIANSHIPS / CONSERVATORSHIPS:

Many lawyers write articles suggesting advance directives, including a Durable Power of Attorney (“durable,” meaning it remains in effect after a person becomes incompetent). 

Question: But what if you wind up in front of a corrupt judge who ignores the grantor’s wishes?
Answer: He can override any legal document executed by the AIP (“alleged incompetent person.”) (Note: The person is only “alleged” to be incompetent until they are legally adjudged to be incapacitated; then they are described as the “ward.” They are actually wards of the State.)

Question: Aren’t there any safeguards against that?
Answer: That’s up to your state legislators and prosecutors. An honest judge will hold a full evidentiary hearing to determine the validity of the prior Durable Power of Attorney – the issue being whether the AIP was incompetent at the time of execution. A corrupt judge will not hold any hearing; he/she will just ignore the Power, and sometimes invalidate (with a stroke of the pen) even a Last Will and Testament, putting all sorts of liberties in the hands of the fiduciaries.

Question: Why would a judge do that?
Answer: By unlawfully overriding the powers granted, he can then put his academic or political buddies into the guardianship, to make-work and feast on fees.

Question: What is the quid pro quo; i.e., what’s in it for him/her?
Answer: That we will not know until the prosecutors start prosecuting judicial corruption in a meaningful way.

Source:
VictimsOfGuardians

Beware Of Predatory Elder Law And Probate Lawyers

Few would allege that elder law and/or probate attorneys are completely unnecessary but due to causes as simple as greed and as scandalous as often times complete disregard of the Constitution in local and county probate courts, many predatory elder law and probate attorneys have begun unconscionably enriching themselves at the expense of their clients and everyone else involved, however, innocent their involvement. Abuses have become commonplace enough, one should “Beware Of Predatory Elder Law And Probate Lawyers.” A cottage industry of predatory elder law and probate attorneys make their primary incomes “living off the land,” by attaching their fees, which are often out of control, to the estates and assets whenever there is some controversy among families that causes one family member or another to “lawyer up.”

Unfortunately I have twice been victimized in such situations and I am certain that thousands, if not millions, more Americans have had similar experiences. My first experience involved the estate of my second ex-wife’s father. He had intended to give his estate, which included property in Oklahoma with at least one oil well on it, equally to his three children. He had set up a trust, but had appointed the wife of a cousin as the Trustee of the estate. The Trustee was not to be trusted and in addition to rifling through my ex’s father’s safety deposit boxes and emptying his bank accounts using a power of attorney after his death, employed the services of an attorney to keep the family at bay. The ploy was successful but resulted in the attorney selling the property in Oklahoma and using most of the proceeds to pay his own fees, giving a crumb of just $1000 or so to the Trustee.

Full Article & Source:
Beware Of Predatory Elder Law And Probate Lawyers

Recommended Website: Not Dead Yet – The Resistance

Not Dead Yet is a national, grassroots disability rights group that opposes legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia as deadly forms of discrimination against old, ill and disabled people.

Not Dead Yet helps organize and articulate opposition to these practices based on secular social justice arguments.

Not Dead Yet demands the equal protection of the law for the targets of so called “mercy killing” whose lives are seen as worth-less.

Source:
NotDeadYet.org

Fiduciary Watch: Public Admonishment of Judge Charles R. Brehmer

The Commission on Judicial Performance has publicly admonished Judge Charles R. Brehmer of the Kern County Superior Court.

The commission determined that Judge Brehmer should be publicly admonished for misconduct relating to the judge’s 2008 campaign for judicial office. Judge Brehmer violated the Political Reform Act (Act) by receiving cash contributions in excess of $100, failing to disclose the true source of a $15,000 loan to the campaign, failing to disclose $9,000 in contributions on a pre-election campaign statement, failing to timely file three semi-annual campaign statements, and failing to deposit the $15,000 campaign loan from his campaign treasurer into the campaign committee’s bank account and instead depositing it into his personal bank account.

The judge admitted three of the violations in a stipulation with the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) wherein the judge also agreed to pay a $5,500 fine. The additional violations, not addressed in the FPPC stipulation, were found by the commission. The FPPC determined, and the commission concurs, that there was no evidence of any intent to conceal information from the public on the part of Judge Brehmer.

Full Article and Sourc:
Public Admonishment of Judge Charles R. Brehmer

Fiduciary Watch: California Judges Claim They are Over Disciplined

California Judges want the Commission on Judicial Performance to leave them alone. How arrogant can California Judges be to think that they should not be monitored?

Tension between California’s jurists and the Commission on Judicial Performance? That’s nothing new. Fits of judicial pique against the watchdog panel have spiked and ebbed ever since state voters created it in 1960.

But 52 years later, frustration — one justice described it as “palpable anger” — with the 11-member commission has grown to such a high level that there’s now open, albeit cryptic, talk by two judges associations of forcing changes upon the disciplinary agency.

“There seems to be a scope or mission creep to their work,” said California Judges Accociation then President David Rubin, a San Diego trial court judge. “There seem to be significant instances of over discipline. And there seem at times to be issues of discipline for errors of law over real substantive violations of canons of ethics.”

The CJP appears to offer one of the few topics where the CJA and the Alliance of California Judges share similar views. Alliance Director Thomas Hollenhorst, a justice on the Fourth District Court of Appeal, echoed Rubin’s critiques and added what he said is judges’ growing resentment over a pointed tone in both the commission’s advisory letters and disciplinary proceedings.

“What you’re hearing from judges is a concern over what appears to be an attempt to sort of rub judges’ noses in offenses,” said Hollenhorst, who teaches judicial ethics and has served as a special master for the commission.

Commissioners and CJP Director Victoria Henley say they’re perplexed by the claims of over disciplining. They note that the numbers of admonishments, advisory letters and even ousters ordered each year by the CJP have changed little over the past decade. And with five judges and lawyers serving on the panel, they add, there’s significant empathy for what it takes to run a courtroom today.

“Everyone is very aware of the personal effect discipline has on judges,” said seven-year commissioner Judith McConnell, the administrative presiding justice of the Fourth District. “The commissioners take their job very seriously.”

Full Article and Source:
Fiduciary Watch:  California Judges Claim They are Over Disciplined

Recommended Website: The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care

The Consumer Voice is actively fighting to end the misuse of antipsychotic drugs as chemical restraints.

Our campaign seeks to address this problem through:

• Legislation
 •Regulation and Guidance
•Education

Residents of long-term care facilities are increasingly being placed on antipsychotic medications despite having no proper diagnosis to warrant their use. Twenty-six percent (26%) of all nursing home residents are given antipsychotic medications. Use is even higher (nearly 40%) among residents with dementia – the very individuals that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns are at serious risk of medical complications and death from taking antipsychotics. In addition, far too often the dangers of these medications are not even discussed with residents and their families and are administered without consent.

Source:
TheConsumerVoice.org

Recommended Website and Book: Marked for Destruction

A Shockingly Powerful Story; A True Crime Exposed.
by Officer John Caravella /retired

What Adele Fraulen might have thought to be nothing more than a meaningless bad dream one night in 1935 would actually come true. At age 79 she would find herself living a nightmare — a struggle for her life, simply because she innocently trusted the wrong professionals to help with her portion of a Million Dollar inheritance; they would steal her very existence. Her neighbors, Chris and Patricia Zurillo, would realize that Adele’s life was going terribly wrong and dedicate themselves to freeing her from captivity.

“Marked For Destruction” is a rare book that exposes an ever-expanding crime against our elderly.

Source: MarkedForDestruction.com

From the Author:

AN ESSAY: REFUSE COURT EXAMINATION ORDER – FREEDOM FROM INTERFERENCE

Imminent danger to the alleged incapacitated person, who is criminally and civilly innocent, begins with a court ordered pre-trial examination by an examining committee.

Court ordered examinations, and examining committee members, are controlled by statute. If indicated, the committee’s examination must be comprehensive and include:

1. A physical examination;
2. A mental health examination;
3. A functional assessment;
4. A diagnosis, prognosis, and recommended course of treatment.

Read the Essay: Freedom From Interference

Recommended Website: Financial Abuse of the Elderly

~ UNDERSTAND IT TO DEAL WITH IT EFFECTIVELY ~

In a sentence, Florida’s exploitation law (FSS 825.103) states that when someone maliciously takes the property of an “elderly person,” they are committing exploitation. That’s the essence of the law.

But there is also an important requirement: Within this law, an “elderly person” is defined as someone 60 years of age or older who is suffering from the infirmities of aging to the extent that their ability to adequately care for and protect themselves is impaired. The law states that the elderly person must suffer a physical or mental infirmity. Therefore, exploitation is based primarily on infirmities or disabilities and not deception.

This is why exploitation is not fraud and why it can be much more devastating and offensive. Fraud is generally defined as deception that is carried out for the purpose of achieving personal gain while causing injury to another party. Exploitation requires more than that. It requires that the victims suffer disabilities that make them more vulnerable. And when the victim is more vulnerable, the victim impact is far worse.

Source:
FinancialAbuseOfTheElderly

Read Excerpts From Joe Roubicek’s New Book in Progress: “KILL MOM, KILL DAD; Disposing of the Elderly for Profit