Elderly, mentally ill and children trapped in broken court system
Thousands of Ohio’s most vulnerable residents are trapped in a system that was created to protect them but instead allows unscrupulous guardians to rob them of their freedom, dignity and money. Even judges who oversee the system acknowledge that it is broken, that it has ripped apart families, rendered the mentally ill voiceless, and left some elderly Ohioans dying penniless in nursing homes.
Anyone could end up in this system that currently controls the lives of 65,000 Ohioans, especially decisions about medical care and personal finances. And almost anyone can become a guardian — a loved one, a close friend, a stranger, even a felon.
One Columbus lawyer proudly proclaims that he likely is guardian of more wards than anyone in the country — about 400 people.
This system, which is supposed to look out for the health and well-being of the elderly, the mentally disabled and children, is directed by probate judges in 88 counties. And for lack of detailed guidelines from the state, the counties have 88 different ways of overseeing guardians and their wards.
The Ohio Supreme Court recognized the problems and assigned a committee nearly eight years ago to come up with rules. This year, the committee finally put forward a plan that falls far short of national standards and what advocates say is necessary to protect vulnerable Ohioans.
Meanwhile, probate court dockets are overloaded.
The courts also handle other family matters, such as adoptions, marriage licenses, wills and disputes over estates. And the demand for guardianships will grow as the number of people 65 or older in the U.S. doubles by 2050.
Without significant changes in the guardianship system, Ohioans will see more neglect and abuse of those who are supposedly being protected. A yearlong Dispatch investigation found many such cases:
A severely autistic man ballooned to 513 pounds because his guardian— his mother— allowed him to gorge on junk food and microwave dinners despite repeated warnings from his caseworkers.
After 45 years of marriage, an elderly couple was separated for months in their final year because of a guardian’s failures.
An eccentric woman forced into guardianship against her will was left broke and homeless because she looks and talks differently from most people and let her house deteriorate.
A mentally disabled man brought home paychecks after long hours of lugging drywall and plywood at Home Depot only to have his legal guardian — his mother— pocket some of his money for herself.
Ohio’s system has allowed some lawyers appointed as guardians to ignore elderly and mentally ill people while placing
Broken system
When presented with The Dispatch’s findings, many advocates and probate judges across the state, including Franklin County Judge Robert G. Montgomery, said the system is broken or in need of significant changes.
A Dispatch survey of Ohio’s probate courts, for example, found that nearly 90 percent do not require a credit check for prospective guardians. And as many as 61 percent do not require them in the lowest-rated nursing homes.
It also has allowed some lawyers to bill their wards, many of whom they never see, thousands of dollars in questionable legal fees for such routine tasks as paying utility bills or buying wards Christmas presents with their own money. criminal-background checks, opening the door for felons to become guardians entrusted with the assets and care of vulnerable people.
Guardians are required in most counties to submit paper status reports about their wards only every two years. Other courts require an annual report. There is no requirement that probate courts independently verify the information on those updates, and many don’t.
Ohio does not require guardians to visit wards. A few counties require monthly visits that mirror national model standards, but more than threequarters of Ohio’s probate courts do not require that guardians meet with the people they make decisions for. Ever. More than 80 percent of Ohio probate courts do not conduct financial audits or random in-home inspections, according to 72 of 88 counties that responded to the Dispatch survey last fall.
More than two-thirds of the counties do not track cases that had been investigated for possible wrongdoing or that had been forwarded to local lawenforcement agencies— cases that likely deserve extra scrutiny.
The lack of standards and accountability for guardianships puts Ohio far behind other states, such as Indiana and Tennessee, which recently enacted laws to strengthen their guardian systems.
But in Ohio, if adults in guardianship receive little attention from the courts, minors receive even less. In many cases, courts never check on children after appointing a guardian unless the child has assets, which means the guardian must file a statement of financial accounts.
Call for reform
Attorney General Mike DeWine said he was appalled and
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