By: Teresa N. Phillips, Esq., ForsterBoughman In our initial posts on this blog, we told you about the curious case of Douglas Arthur Keegan, the ward of an Orange County Guardianship that was initiated in 2015. Mr. Keegan’s case was unusual because he had been living alone in a hotel for years, regularly used a laptop …
Continue reading “Restoration of Capacity: Update on The Keegan Guardianship”
By: Teresa N. Phillips, Esq., ForsterBoughman When a party initiates a guardianship proceeding, various legal fees and court costs are inevitably incurred. In Florida, guardianship proceedings have two steps, and each step involves attorneys and costs. The first step is to determine if a person who is the subject of the petition (commonly referred to as a ward1) lacks legal capacity …
By: Teresa N. Phillips, Esq., ForsterBoughman I Care A Lot is the title of a new Netflix release which tells the fictional story of a predatory professional guardian, Marla Grayson. Marla described herself as a “lioness”, and the elderly population with little to no family, are her prey. It is a dramatized story of the professional guardian who goes after …
By: Teresa N. Phillips, Esq., ForsterBoughman Welcome to the second part of our introduction article to this blog wherein we explore the weaponization of Florida Guardianships. Today, we continue to take a look at when guardianships go wrong and seek to understand what went wrong and look at preventive measures people can take in an effort to avoid …
Continue reading “Unintended Consequences: The Weaponization of Florida Guardianships (Part 2)”
By: Teresa N. Phillips, Esq., ForsterBoughman It is no secret that in 2019, with the exposure of Rebecca Fierle, the professional guardian facing numerous criminal charges of neglect and abuse which allegedly led to the death of at least one ward, the Florida Judiciary is on notice that guardianships need more oversight. Guardians, who serve with court authority, need to be more carefully watched and their actions (or inactions) scrutinized to …
Continue reading “Unintended Consequences: The Weaponization of Florida Guardianships (Part 1)”
