These conflicts resulted in this elder lawyer being in court over the last few weeks:
1. Mom objected to daughters’ petition to have a professional guardian and conservator appointed for her.
2. Veteran objected to petition to have professional guardian appointed for him.
3. Father/Husband objected to daughter’s and wife’s competing petitions to have a guardian and conservator appointed for him.

Regardless of condition, a person who is the subject of a guardianship petition has the right to object to it. As part of the guardianship process, that person receives a copy of the guardianship petition, another document explaining how to object to it, and a third, bright blue document labeled “OBJECTION,” with boxes to check to specify the nature of the objection. This surprises some of my clients, who are trying to help a parent or sibling or child so affected by dementia or brain injury that parent or sibling or child clearly has no capacity to read or otherwise understand the documents delivered to them. When it comes to notice, guardianship law does not distinguish between the completely incapacitated and those that are less so. Everyone is entitled to it.

Everyone who objects to guardianship is entitled to a court hearing of the objection. In Multnomah County, the court requires parties to engage in mediation before the court will schedule a hearing. Again, some of my clients have a hard time understanding this. First of all, Dad didn’t even object because he had no idea what the papers said. It was freeloading son guiding his hand in the objection, afraid that the gravy train was coming to an end. Second of all, how in the world is Dad going to participate in mediation or a hearing or anything deeper than an exchange of pleasantries, given the progression of his dementia. The law doesn’t care. Dad gets his day in court, even though he doesn’t know what day it is.

People in Dad’s shoes are entitled to notice and their day in court because guardianship and conservatorship threaten to take authority over their health and their money and to give it to someone else. This poses such a substantial infringement on someone’s civil rights that the right to notice, to object, and to be heard in court is almost unassailable, even if a person clearly needs this infringement to stay alive.

That day in court comes at a cost, though. The financial cost is substantial. In one recent hearing that lasted an entire afternoon and that is scheduled to go another day, four attorneys and a professional guardian were present. They will all ask to be paid from the protected person’s funds, if the court appoints a guardian. The emotional cost of a day in court is substantial. Imagine sitting in a courtroom and listening to a parade of people describe to a judge how you got lost and ditched your car, or how your house is filthy and you can’t keep yourself clean, or why your child ought to be put in charge of your money. I have represented Dad or Mom in so many of these hearings and I have walked out devastated by the family carnage, wondering if it was worth it.

While writing this, I took a call and listened to a story of someone suffering from dementia, living in squalor, refusing help, starving. I explained the guardianship process, almost reciting the above paragraphs to the caller, explaining the costs. “Do I just have to let her die?” the caller asked me. No, I said. There is a road that you can take to help her. It can be a hell of a road, though.

Those that see that road and embark on it anyway amaze me. Sometimes petitioning for guardianship is literally thankless, and even when successful, it solves some problems but not others. Still, my clients want to do something to help, even if that something is costly and painful and limited. Sitting still is not an option for them. I take those cases with the hope that some of that courage and devotion rubs off on me.