California Supreme Court docket Requested to Strengthen the Proper to Counsel for Hundreds of Conservatees

Britney Spears isn’t the only one with legal problems.

SAN FRANCISCO – July 21, 2021 – (Newswire.com)

The California Supreme Court was asked today to convene a blue ribbon panel to review deficiencies in legal defense services for adults involved in probate proceedings. The application was submitted by the Spectrum Institute and a variety of organizations working on disability rights, elderly care and mental health services, along with a national coalition promoting the right to legal assistance. Spectrum Institute is a not-for-profit organization that is at the forefront of conservatory reform. The application is available online at: https://spectruminstitute.org/request.pdf

The motion identifies several ways in which the right to legal assistance violates the rights of many of the 70,000 adults currently in conservatoire, as well as the 7,000 seniors with cognitive impairments and adults with developmental and other disabilities addressed in new conservatory applications each year has been.

“Superstar Britney Spears is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to conservatives who have been denied legal advice or who have received inadequate legal advice,” said Thomas F. Coleman, legal director of the Spectrum Institute. “Worse still, many proposed Conservatives do not get a lawyer at all, which then requires them to represent themselves in these complicated legal proceedings – an impossible task for people with significant cognitive disabilities.” Once someone is preserved, they are unlikely to ever have their freedom regained. It is for this reason that the conservatoires have been called a form of “civil death”.

The application is expected to be included in the court’s administrative file and to be examined by the judges in due course.

Organizations that join the motion are: National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel; The Coelho Center for Disability, Law, Policy & Innovation; California Supports Nursing Home Reform; Mental health counseling services; Autistic self-advocacy network; TASH, different brains; Sage Eldercare Solutions, Kasem Cares, and the Long Beach Bar Association, as well as their LGBTQ lawyers and allies.

For more information on the request, contact Thomas F. Coleman, Legal Director, at: [email protected]

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The California Supreme Court is calling for the right to legal assistance to be strengthened for thousands of Conservatives