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 ...

Tagged with: Elder Law

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 ...

Tagged with: Elder Law Hanover County Circuit Court Judge Timothy S. Fisher Newport News Circuit Court Supreme Court of Virginia News

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 ...

Tagged with: Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli Elder Law General Assembly

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 ...

Tagged with: ADR Elder Law

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 ...

Tagged with: Elder Law Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death

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 ...

Tagged with: Elder Law Real Estate

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 ...

Tagged with: Elder Law

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 ...

Tagged with: Elder Law Practice Tips Wills & Trusts

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 ...

Tagged with: Elder Law Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Leslie M. Alden

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 ...

Tagged with: Elder Law Judge Mosby G. Perrow III Lynchburg Circuit Court Negligence