On YouTube at least. Hello. Hi. We’re just setting up. That’s better. Walking really, really fast because we’re really behind. We’re behind by one minute. All right, let’s do this. Okay.
We’re going to talk about guardians today and some local news.
Happy Friday, Facebook and YouTube. Welcome to Disclosure Live with Brandi Austin Law Firm. I’m Aisha Patel and I have here with me, Heather Jamison. It’s May 11, 2018. And on today’s episode, we want to recap our fifth anniversary party with you all since we didn’t do Facebook Live last week and then discuss some legal information. But first, we’ll cover a few fun and couple local news stories.
So Heather, do you want to start? Yes. Did you know what today is? What if today? Today is National Eat What You Want Day. Oh my God. I love it. Yes. I have kielbasas. Eat all you want today. I do not. My protein shake is in there waiting on me. But for those that can actually get out there and enjoy themselves, today is a day that you can eat whatever you want without feeling guilty about it. Yay. Well, that’s good.
I’m going to have to do that. I’m going to have to get a box of pizza tonight. All right. Next up, we have National Military Spouse Day. And always, the Friday before Mother’s Day is National Military Spouse Appreciation Day. And it’s an important day when citizens of the United States acknowledge the significant contribution and support and sacrifices of a spouse in the armed forces, along with the tremendous strength and patriotism…
That they have. Yes, so hats off to not only just our military, but good thing keeping the home safe and secure while they’re away. Next up, it’s actually National Provider Appreciation Day as well. So within that, it’s also known as Child Care Provider Day. So it’s annual and celebrated on the Friday before Mother’s Day as well. And it’s a special day that’s set aside to recognize, of course, child care providers, teachers, and other educators of young children everywhere.
Child care providers deserve a big thank you for dedication, commitment, and compassion. So again, thank you. We appreciate you helping and assisting with the kids. All right, let’s do some local news, Heather. You want to start with the local news? Yes. I’m not sure if many of you know, but Arlington is an American dream city. The city has worked very hard to create an atmosphere where tradition is valued, but also progress is essential. So…
While attempting to do this, Arlington landed itself in a position where they are now considered the 10th most diverse city in the United States.
The city is centrally located between Fort Worth and Dallas, so it’s somewhat of a suburb to the chaos that surrounds the larger cities, but it’s accessible and has plenty of other offers. So congrats to Arlington. Yay! Okay, and we may put down some links for you guys to check out some of this information on Arlington and stuff.
Okay, so the next news that we have available for you is that the City of Arlington is accepting applications for interested residents who would like to participate and serve on the board or commission. Members of board and commission assist the mayor and the city council members in making recommendations and general policy changes impacting the city.
Most board and commission function in advisory capacities, and some have final decision-making authority, even. Some may require specialized training and licenses. Members are appointed by the mayor and city council to serve a two-year term, and serving on a board or commission provides residents with an opportunity to give input into the matters that shape Arlington, their residents, their nearby future. It remains a vibrant, thriving community for all.
This was said by Jennifer Whitman, the interim deputy city manager.
For Arlington. And some of the boards, and if you guys are interested in a detailed list, we’ll provide it to you guys also. But some of the boards are like Animal Service Center Advisory Board, Citizen Environmental Committee, Electrical Board, Emergency Physicians Advisory Group, the Library Advisory Board, North Texas Higher Education Authority, Parks and Recreation Board, the Zoning Board…
So, and the application deadline is Friday, May 25, 2018. That’s two Fridays from today, the second Friday from today. So, be sure to apply for it. If you guys need the link, we can provide that as well, but a Google search will get you there. Okay, so for the fun part, we’re going to talk about our party. Yes. It was amazing. I have to say, one of my favorite parts, I guess, was the mariachi. Oh, yes.
And it wasn’t so much, which, yes, kudos. Thank you very much. But I guess right when Miss Austin cut the ribbon at that moment, that’s when they just went off. So it was a very good highlight. What was your favorite part about it? So, of course, all of the guests, everybody that walked in, they had such great spirit. And we had so many supporters that were there today, but the tacos.
The tacos were delicious. So we wanted to thank everybody who came, but the tacos. I forced everybody to eat a taco. Everybody who was just there for five minutes was like, no, let’s get a taco. Another part of the highlight was that, you know, we were, yes, we had a huge turnout, but we did have… Brandi always plans very well. So, of course, we had a lot of leftovers. So the whole firm the next day got the leftovers, and we just literally, you know, because everybody was kind of entertaining and moving around. Yeah.
I know I didn’t really get to eat as much, but yeah, the next day, yeah. Oh, that tres leches cake, though. I don’t know if you took some home, but I even took some home. It was delicious. My mom and I ate out of literally the pan. I actually did not get to try any of it, so I’m jealous, but… It was delicious. But yeah, some of the events and stuff, you know, we did have the beer tasting, which everybody really enjoyed that. Yes, they did. Everybody went on about the margaritas as well too, of course, so…
In our little giveaways, you know, we did give out different gifts. Right, there was a tequila bottle that we gave out, and there was the plant that I really wanted. I put my card in. And, of course, the next morning, Brandi’s like, here’s your card back.
All right. Okay. So today we’re here to talk about guardianships and Heather knows guardianship inside out and what they do, who can they help, and how do we get one? There was a recent suit brought against some Texas courts for not complying with what’s called ADA, which is Americans with Disabilities Act. And there was a concern about the courts monitoring these guardianships. So tell us a little bit more about that, Heather. Just to kind of…
Throw something out there and just wanted to let everybody know that there are only, okay, there’s 240 counties in the state of Texas. There are only 11 of those counties that actually have a statutory probate court to oversee those guardianships. And just to kind of touch a basis on that, the number-wise, it’s…
The statutory probate courts, that means that that judge that has been elected by the people to serve as that judge, one, they have legal… they would have been an attorney, different qualifications, and they specialize in probate, estate, elder, so that they’re very well rehearsed in the different statutory codes that we have to deal with and are able to understand that. With that being said…
In guardianships, we’ll just kind of touch base on what guardianship is specifically. Guardianships provide those with an intellectual disability, which I want to separate, not a mental disability because there is a difference. The court-appointed person oversees their medical, financial, and personal decisions.
The courts are always taking civil rights. When you do a guardianship, you remove civil rights from that person. So it’s very important that when obtaining a guardianship, you can prove not only that the individual is incapacitated to the point that they cannot care for themselves or make sound decisions in their life. After a guardianship has been granted by the courts, the court does keep a very specific eye on that proposed ward…
And basically make sure that the incapacitated individual is not being taken advantage of. Because we deal with elderly abuse as well too. Same situations can happen when dealing with mentally incapacitated people because they can’t make those decisions. And so if you put a piece of paper in front of them and say, hey, sign this, they’re going to sign it. They’re not going to understand the intellectual or the ramifications that come from it.
With this recent suit that I was kind of… there is a class action suit that there is an attorney that is basically doing a class action against those counties in which that don’t have a statutory probate court, because basically what it is, is that these judges…
The other counties, besides 11, they don’t have that background to be able to know what is best for that proposed ward. What they basically are doing is these attorneys present themselves. It’s not so much that attorneys aren’t moral and they’re going to do the right thing for the proposed ward, but it’s more so that they’re taking their clients’ information at face value and presenting it to the court saying that this is what’s in the best interest.
So they may not be meeting the standard that may be required by the courts, and by courts I mean by statute, to prove up their matter in those smaller counties. Generally, whenever you go in front of a judge and take away somebody’s rights, you have to be able to prove certain things, and without being able to prove certain things, which are in the code itself…
Then you’re not entitled to that guardianship over another person because you’re removing these fundamental rights that they have: the right to vote, the right to be married, the right to pick the person they want to be married to.
The right to have any sort of medical treatment and the type of… to drive. To drive, to vote, yes. So these are fundamental rights that you as a person are entitled to, and these rights are being removed. So the goal is that before these rights are removed, this person… to be able to prove that this person cannot make decisions for themselves because they have a mental, intellectual, some sort of disability.
The argument is by the attorney who’s bringing the suit is that these requirements are not being made, and thus the class action suit to try and get somebody in place in these courts that do not have statutory probate judges to overlook and make sure everything is being done right. That’s correct.
And while guardianships do provide people with protections and someone to care for them, it isn’t the only option. There is a power of attorney and also what’s called a guided decision-making agreement or a family settlement agreement. And basically what that is, is when you file a guardianship, because ultimately when you’re dealing with someone, we do estate planning, so the majority of the time what we always try to assist is to kind of cut these off before it occurs.
But if you have a child that is born with an intellectual disability, even upon turning 18, they cannot execute that power of attorney because they don’t have the capacity. So the only legal way to do that would be to file that guardianship and present it to the judge. Judges, there’s two types of probate, or guardianship, sorry. It’s guardian of person, guardian of estate. Guardian of person, you actually get to make the day-to-day care decisions for that person. It kind of takes the…
Medical power of attorney’s place, whereas the guardianship of estate is more the durable power of attorney, financial. You need to assist with those. So within doing that, sometimes removal of that person’s rights, because again, it’s case-by-case basis, and it also pertains to their health. So even if there are people that there’s intellectual disabilities, there’s people that have different ranges of those disabilities. So again, we can’t make a uniform decision as to what’s best. What is case-by-case is…
And so when we get in there, that’s where we may end up doing the power of attorney. The judge saying, okay, hey, let’s not remove anything, but we’ll either go here with the power of attorney or let’s do a family settlement agreement, spell out the terms, what everybody can and can’t do. So then that way there is that extra protection for that person as well too. And a lot of times if it’s an elderly person, they…
And the reason why they’re seeking guardianship is because they’ve come to a point in their life where they’re not able to make decisions for themselves. If there are the proper documentation put in place beforehand through estate planning, then that may take away the need for guardianship. And unfortunately if the individuals that are born with that intellectual disability, even a guardianship may be a good place, but there are other options also available, and an education in these other options is absolutely necessary…
And the research to facilitate these other options available to try and get the best help needed possible. Okay, so with a guardianship, someone has complete control over someone’s life, right? Yes. And with these other options, what exactly is the role of the incapacitated person and the role of the individual designated to control the incapacitated person? I mean, when it comes to the proposed ward itself, it’s kind of just…
Another person in which you can go to rely on to make those decisions. So say if you’re wanting to enroll in school, this person can assist as far as with your FAFSA, getting things prepared for you, trial, litigation. I mean, there are so many. It’s literally basically taking that entire person’s being, their decisions, and you being accounted for for that person’s needs. So that…
Again, if it goes the route for 100% guardianship and you’re, again, the actual guardian of the person or estate, guardian of the person, it’s the day-to-day, the small things, making sure that they have food, taking them grocery shopping, going to the doctor’s office, doing just the day-to-day things that the majority of us take for granted on that basis. But then, of course, financially, it’s filing taxes, doing anything financially, bank accounts. And that’s, again, where we come into…
You know, elder, not just elder abuse, it does happen with these. So guardianship, there is more teeth behind it because there is already a court proceeding and the courts, they have their own rules and regulations of yearly accounting and…
If you mismanage that person’s funds, there’s big ramifications that come from that. And obviously so. Yes. And so, but that’s basically, you know, it’s literally taking… I know as parents, we assume that role in the day-to-day care, you know, for our children, but then once you hit that 18 mark, that’s where that ceases, and then now you have to move to the next step, but you’re still basically parenting them, unfortunately, so…
Well, that’s our show for today, you guys. Do not forget, Sunday is Mother’s Day, so happy early Mother’s Day to everybody. Today is May 11, 2018. We’re glad you joined us on Disclosure Live with Brandi Austin Law Firm. Please enjoy your weekend. Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and leave us comments, ask questions. We’ll see you next week. My name is Aisha Patel, and I have here with me… Heather Jamison. And thank you guys for joining us. Happy Friday. Bye-bye.
See you later. Bye.
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