Elder Law « Virginia Lawyers Weekly

New guardianship statute applies to multiple courts

By Deborah Elkins
Published: July 22, 2011
Tags: Elder Law

Modern families are blended, extended, even over-extended. They have to find ways to care for each other over time and distance. Providing care for an elderly relative in declining health is challenging under the best of circumstances.
It gets even more complicated when that care has to cross state lines.
“We have such a fluid society, with [...]

‘Mutual wills’ depend more on trust than law

By Alan Cooper
Published: July 19, 2011
Tags: Elder Law, Hanover County Circuit Court, Judge Timothy S. Fisher, Newport News Circuit Court, Supreme Court of Virginia News

Second marriages and “first” children are generating more issues in estate-planning practice, as couples continue to divorce and remarry before they can celebrate that golden anniversary with one spouse.
One of those issues is making sure the children of each spouse get treated equitably when the last parent dies.
Mutual wills, sometimes accompanied by a contract to [...]

AG would get new powers to look at nursing home abuse

By Peter Vieth
Published: February 14, 2011
Tags: Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Elder Law, General Assembly

A bill sailing through the General Assembly would expand the attorney general’s power to investigate nursing home abuse and neglect, even in cases where the patient does not receive government assistance.
Currently under Virginia law, state investigators can subpoena only records of patients receiving state medical assistance, even if there are other potential abuse cases involving [...]

What to do about Mom? Mediation may be the answer

By Alan Cooper
Published: December 6, 2010
Tags: ADR, Elder Law

Mom was in her 90s when she started having blackout episodes.
Her oldest daughter, who lived two hours away, was adamant that her mother could no longer be left alone in her own home.
But Mom didn’t want to move in with any of her three children, not because there was any animosity, but because she didn’t [...]

Patient dies from complications from multiple pressure sores – Confidential Settlement

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: November 29, 2010
Tags: Elder Law, Medical Malpractice, Wrongful Death

This case involved a mandatory arbitration clause in a nursing home contract. Plaintiff’s decedent’s son signed the contract as “responsible party”. The son did not have power of attorney nor had he been appointed legal guardian or conservator.
Defendant filed a motion to dismiss because arbitration was a condition precedent under the [...]

Reverse mortgages: an elder law planning tool

By Alan Cooper
Published: September 27, 2010
Tags: Elder Law, Real Estate

Reverse mortgages have been a standard item in the toolbox for Fairfax elder law specialist Evan Farr.
A reverse mortgage, which pays cash for an older person’s home equity, can allow her to stay where she most wants to be – in her own home.
Sometimes, Farr says, a reverse mortgage is the only way. That’s why [...]

Include long-term care in retirement plans

By Gary S. Williams
Published: September 27, 2010
Tags: Elder Law

Current estimates from American Association of Retired Persons put the annual cost of a private nursing home room at a national average of $78,000.
As older Americans are still struggling to reassemble their retirement plans from the worst economic downturn in 70 years, relatively few are considering the potentially most devastating threat to their plans: the [...]

Marketing estate plan ‘maintenance’

By Peter Vieth
Published: September 22, 2010
Tags: Elder Law, Practice Tips, Wills & Trusts

Recognizing that many clients make estate plans but fail to keep them updated, some estate planning lawyers are experimenting with new ways to keep clients in the fold and up to date.
One Virginia lawyer is traveling to Massachusetts to learn about a program where clients agree to subscribe to an ongoing estate planning maintenance program.
Other [...]

Nursing home bill unpaid, but cat got care

By Alan Cooper
Published: August 26, 2010
Tags: Elder Law, Fairfax County Circuit Court, Judge Leslie M. Alden

Spending $8,000 on a nursing home resident’s pet cat “Spunky” was “highly suspicious,” said a Fairfax Circuit Court judge.
But that “extremely large” sum purportedly paid by a woman who had a general power of attorney for the resident did not let the nursing home go after the woman for an alleged misappropriation of funds, the [...]

Nursing home patient breaks tibia, sprains ankle in fall – $300,000 Verdict

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: August 9, 2010
Tags: Elder Law, Judge Mosby G. Perrow III, Lynchburg Circuit Court, Negligence

An 83-year-old bed-bound nursing home patient, who was dependent on nursing home staff for all activities of daily living, was allowed to fall from the side of her bed to the floor while an aide was changing the patient and her sheets. As a result of the fall, the patient sustained a subtle fracture of [...]

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