Category: Probate

Probate is the judicial process whereby a will is “proved” in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased, or whereby the estate is settled

Announcing the Guardianship Shield Program

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Guardianship abuse has reached the level of a national epidemic. Those whose family members have been abused by a guardian quickly find that there is often no legal redress. The Guardianship Shield program is designed to activate a national network of human rights members who will take constructive action to protect the vulnerable person. The Guardianship Shield is a proactive, grassroots program which issues human rights alerts concerning individuals at risk for problematic or coercive guardianship practices. These alerts go out to all the GS members and to human rights groups. The GS members agree to contact the parties and institutions involved in initiating the actions in question and advise these parties of their concerns. The GS members also agree to contact local media in an effort to raise public awareness of specific incidents of guardianship abuse. The issues that the Shield program addresses : 1) removal of protected person from home 2) Isolation of protected person 3) Efforts to sell home without permission of protected person 4) Attempts to legally restrain concerned family and friends 5) Efforts by guardian to remove family/friends as Power of Health Care 6) Efforts by guardian to withhold necessary medical care from protected person How it Works: If a family or friend is at risk for the above, the Shield member will contact the Shield Coordinator and ask for a public human rights alert to be issued. The Shield Coordinator will evaluate the request and then may issue the alert to all the Shield members and also to other human rights groups. By adding your name to the Shield Program, you are stating that you will take action on the behalf of others in the Shield Program. While we cannot guarantee the results in… Read More

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When a Family Matter Turns Into a Business

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By Robin Fields, Evelyn Larrubia and Jack Leonard Nov. 13, 2005 12 AM PT Times Staff Writers Helen Jones sits in a wheelchair, surrounded by strangers who control her life. She is not allowed to answer the telephone. Her mail is screened. She cannot spend her own money. A child of the Depression, Jones, 87, worked hard for decades, driving rivets into World War II fighter planes, making neckties, threading bristles into nail-polish brushes. She saved obsessively, putting away $560,000 for her old age. Her life changed three years ago, when a woman named Melodie Scott told a court in San Bernardino that Jones was unable to manage for herself. Without asking Jones, a judge made Scott — someone she had never met — her legal guardian. Scott is a professional conservator. It was her responsibility to protect Jones and conserve her nest egg. So far, Scott has spent at least $200,000 of it. The money has gone to pay Scott’s fees, fill Jones’ house with new appliances she did not want and hire attendants to supervise her around the clock, among other expenses. Once Jones grasped what was happening, she found a lawyer and tried, unsuccessfully, to end Scott’s hold on her. “I don’t want to be a burden to anyone,” she told a judge, almost apologetically. “I just wanted to be on my own.” Jones’ world has narrowed. She used to call Dial-A-Ride and go to the market, or sit in her driveway chatting with neighbors. Now she spends her days watching television in her living room in Yucaipa, amid pots of yellow plastic flowers and lamps with no shades. The caretakers rarely take her from her house, except to see the free movie each Friday at the… Read More

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