Nominations of Conservators and Guardians
For some members of society, it is necessary to provide additional legal support once they’ve reached adulthood. Alternatively, sometimes these protections become necessary later in life, such as due to the onset of illness. A competent conservator attorney can help you to create a guardianship or conservatorship.
Guardianship, also called conservatorship, is a legal arrangement that places someone under the supervision and care of a guardian or custodian. Generally, a conservator attorney makes those arrangements for adults, while a guardianship is for minors (or children) whose parental guardian can no longer provide care for them.
A guardian or conservator is most often a family member, friend, or other agent appointed by the court. Because the guardianship or conservatorship takes away significant rights, especially in the case the ward is an adult, it’s very important to have a competent and sensitive conservator attorney who considers the legal ramifications of the ward as well as the conservator.
A conservator or guardian can make decisions for the ward regarding
- The ward’s residence
- The ward’s medical procedures (including consent for treatment)
- The ward’s nonmedical services, such as education, psychiatric, or behavioral counseling
- The ward’s end of life decisions
- The ward’s debts and other expenses
- The ward’s legal or material autonomy, as much as is possible
- The ward’s rights to his or her property and assets (which also contains built-in legal protections).
Because the conservator or guardian has so much power, a ward has right to due process. An experienced conservator attorney is necessary in these cases, not only to protect the legal rights of the (potential) ward, but also to respond to the ward’s legal case and concerns about guardianship.
Especially when the ward in question is an adult parent who has become either physically or mentally incapacitated, the process of assuming guardianship or conservatorship can be extremely stressful. The best conservator attorneys have the ability to consider the rights of all parties, which is especially important since one person is losing their full rights under the law. The Law Offices of Steven Brian Davis are sensitive to this difficulty, and have over 30 years of experience serving clients with similar needs.