Imagine an older adult, in her 70s, who has been the rock of her family for decades. Her grown daughter, who has longstanding substance-abuse problems, has come back to live at home after being evicted from her apartment. But instead of getting back on her feet, she begins to steal money from her mom. And when she’s confronted, she takes it out on the one person who gave her a second chance. She threatens to put her mom in a nursing home, screams at her, and refuses to leave the house. Her mom is torn between wanting to support her daughter, and the realization that she cannot continue to live this way.
The above scenario happens more often than it should. What are the legal options for the victim here? What are the emotional complexities that influence her path forward?
At the Center for Elder Law and Justice, our elder abuse prevention team tackles these questions every day. Older adults come to us with problems ranging from financial exploitation, where in the hands of an untrustworthy relative, a joint bank account or a Power of Attorney document becomes a chance to steal money, often accompanied by emotional and physical abuse. Feelings of guilt and hesitation on the part of the victim can come with all these crimes, because the abuser is often a member of their own family.
Another common scenario happens when an older adult falls victim of an international scammer, who has convinced them to cash out their life savings and send it out via wire transfer. Not only is the older person financially devastated, the emotional toll is heavy as well. None of this is easy to cope with.
With the emotional toll of abuse weighing heavily on our clients, CELJ’s social workers are a key part of our Elder Abuse Prevention and other units. They help plan for our clients’ safety while the legal process plays out, and get them linked with social services as necessary.
From a purely legal perspective, our attorneys have found that there are many ways to use the law to achieve justice for our clients. We use housing court and evictions as an alternative to removal through Family Court or the lengthier ejectment process. We revoke Powers of Attorney held by untrustworthy agents and pursue recovery of stolen funds. We also provide advice to the Enhanced Multidisciplinary Teams in the seven westernmost New York counties. This allows us to work with criminal prosecutors as well as other agencies to come up with a holistic plan to tackle some of our hardest cases.
While our direct relationship with the Crime Victims Legal Network (CVLN) comes through our elder abuse prevention staff, CELJ has a wide range of other units handling many aspects of elder law. While the private bar is the best place to turn for things like estate planning, older adults still need other legal services, and that’s where we come in. Our agency’s work includes eviction defense, healthcare and Medicare/Medicaid advocacy and appeals, court-appointed guardianship, consumer protection, money management, and custody and kinship issues. We have partnerships with local hospitals that allow on-site attorneys to meet with clients at their bedsides should they have any immediate legal needs, and we advocate for better assisted-living facilities both at the local nursing homes as well as at the state policy level.
Justice for the woman mentioned above can take many forms. She may want an eviction. She may need help recovering funds. She may want a referral to counseling and a supportive ear. At CELJ, we have realized that for as many different kinds of abuse there are out there, there are just as many avenues to solve those problems. Older adults don’t have to suffer in silence, and we encourage them to reach out to us so that we can continue to fight for them.
(The Center for Elder Law & Justice, a part of the CVLN, is a nonprofit legal services agency serving Western New York. CELJ can be reached at (716) 853-3087 or at elderjusticeny.org)