Tag: Conservatorship Guardianship

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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Justice Sleeps While Seniors Suffer

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Justice Sleeps While Seniors Suffer By Jack Leonard, Robin Fields and Evelyn Larrubia Nov. 14, 2005 12 AM PT Times Staff Writers Emmeline Frey was wheeled toward the bench, escorted by a family friend. She was 93 years old and frail, suffering from dementia and a broken hip. In San Diego County’s busy Probate Court, it was up to Judge Thomas R. Mitchell to decide how to preserve the $1 million she had amassed pinching pennies over a lifetime. On the recommendation of Frey’s attorney, he appointed a professional conservator named Donna Daum. Frey’s affairs were now in the hands of a caretaker acting under court supervision. Her money should have been safe. It was not. Daum gave her son, a car salesman turned financial advisor, more than $500,000 of Frey’s savings to invest. Over the next four years, the investments lost more than $100,000 in value while the son collected commissions. Mitchell, who described himself as the “super father” of the seniors who entered his courtroom, never questioned what Daum was doing with her client’s money or why her son was involved. The case illustrates how inaction and inattention by the courts have left many elderly Californians vulnerable to abuse by the very people entrusted with their care. Professional conservators wield enormous power over people deemed too infirm to look after themselves. They choose their doctors, control their bank accounts and decide where they will live — even who can visit them. Probate courts, which appoint conservators, are supposed to monitor their conduct, scrutinize their financial reports and fine or remove those who misuse their authority. Yet the courts have failed dismally in this vital role. A Times examination of more than 2,400 conservatorship cases since 1997 found that… Read More

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