Question for the judge: I have a family member who is unable to take care of her financial affairs, her bills are unpaid and her house is in foreclosure. She has enough income to pay her expenses but she’s not doing it. She has no family or friends to help her. Can the court help?
Answer by Judge of the New York City Civil Court of Kings County Loren Baily:
The simple answer to this question is “Yes.” The court can appoint a Guardian to help this person with their financial affairs. This is called Guardianship.
The Brooklyn Supreme Court at 360 Adams Street in downtown Brooklyn has a Guardianship office where a concerned person can come to get help in starting what’s called a Guardianship proceeding to help the person who needs help in managing his or her finances.
What will happen after the papers are prepared to start the proceeding is that the court will appoint someone called a Court Evaluator to investigate what the concerned person said in the papers that started the proceeding.
The Court Evaluator will speak to the concerned person, the person he or she is concerned about and anyone else interested in that person’s care. After that investigation is done, all of the people interested in the person’s care will come to court and tell a judge why the person needs help and what help he or she needs.
Depending on what is told to the judge, the judge can do some of the following things:
1. Agree that the person is unable to manage his/her finances and appoint someone to help either for a short period of time or a longer time;
2. Decide that the person is able to manage his/her finances and not appoint a person to help;
3. Ask for more information and set another date to return to the court.
If the court appoints a person (called a Guardian) to manage the person’s finances, that person can be a relative, a friend, a neighbor, a social services agency or any other person or agency that is qualified to manage the person’s financial affairs. The person appointed is required to take a short course in how to be a Guardian. The Guardian will have to give information to the court every year about how they are taking care of the person’s finances. The Guardian is paid from money owned by the person who needs help.
The same steps can be taken to have the court appoint a Guardian for a person who is unable to manage his or her personal affairs, such as taking care of themselves or the place where they live. The court is there to make sure that the person in need of care gets the care he or she needs and that the religious or cultural way the person lives is continued.
Judge Loren Baily is running for reelection on Sept 13th in a countywide race. Judge Baily is Jewish and has been a judge for 20 years. In 2015, Judge Loren Baily participated in the “Meet Your Judges” Forum in Crown Heights.
Another option which is cheaper and faster, is to have the parent give their child power of attorney before dementia sets in. We have conditional power of attorney documents in which my husband and I give each other power of attorney in the event one of us c”v becomes mentally incapacitated. Two of our children are named as backups.
Great answer
You have my vote