New book exposes guardianship abuse and how judges, lawyers steal your money

New book exposes guardianship abuse and how judges, lawyers steal your money


I have read this book and it is good.  We experienced many of the things covered in this book when our Dad was a ward of the San Diego Public Guardian and we encountered government agencies...  PG, APS, County Counsel and others that "protect".

elder abuse, guardianship, conservatorship, public guardian, probate court, corrupt courts, attorney, lawyer

Conservatorship strips 81-year-old widow of all possessions

Conservatorship strips 81-year-old widow of all possessions: Here in America, none of us expect to have our home, property or legal rights infringed upon without due process. But things work a little differently than you might expect in one court system.

Her attorney Michael Hoskins believes what happened to Tinnon wasn't legal, ethical or even American.

"She wasn't given an opportunity to defend herself. All of this happened without her having any knowledge of it," he said.

The trouble started for Ms. Tinnon when her grandsons thought someone was stealing from her. They asked the probate judge, Randy Kennedy, to put her in a guardianship.

The grandsons' attorney said Ms. Tinnon didn't have the ability to make rational decisions. The hearing lasted all of 10 minutes. No medical proof was offered. No doctors, not a single witness testified.

Ms. Tinnon didn't know about the court hearing until after the judge signed her rights...

Read more: http://www.wsmv.com/story/16106989/conservatorship-strips-81-year-old-widow-of-all-possessions#ixzz4AxNg4W45

Thousands of similar cases...happened then and continue to happen now...

elder abuse, guardianship, conservatorship, elder

Lawyers for Legal Ghosts: The Legality and Ethics of Representing Persons Subject to Guardianship

Lawyers for Legal Ghosts: The Legality and Ethics of Representing Persons Subject to Guardianship


Number of Pages in PDF File: 56  Complete document located below:

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2788912

Nina A. Kohn 

Syracuse University - College of Law

Catheryn Koss
University of Kansas - Gerontology Center
June 2, 2016

Washington Law Review, Vol. 91, No. 2, 2016
Abstract:      

A person subject to guardianship has been judicially determined to lack legal capacity. Stripped of legal personhood, the individual becomes a ward of the state and his or her decisions are delegated to a guardian. If the guardian abuses that power or the guardianship has been wrongly imposed — as research suggests is not infrequently the case — the person subject to guardianship may rightly wish to mount a legal challenge. However, effectively doing so requires the assistance of an attorney, and persons subject to guardianship typically have not only been declared by a court to be incapable of directing their own affairs but have been stripped of the capacity to contract. As a result, those who wish to challenge the terms and conditions of their guardianship, or even merely to exercise unrelated retained rights, can be stymied because attorneys are unwilling to accept representation for fear that it is unlawful or unethical. Drawing on constitutional law, as well as the law of agency and contract, this Article shows why such representations are, contrary to the assumptions of many attorneys, not merely legally permissible but essential to protect fundamental constitutional rights. It then explores the professional rules governing attorney conduct in order to show how attorneys may ethically represent persons subject to guardianship. Finally, it proposes a modest change to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct to clarify attorneys’ duties in this context.

Keywords: Guardianship, Conservatorship, Legal Ethics, Due Process, Disability, Agency Law, Contract Law, Professional Responsibility, Elder Law