Los Angeles, CA asked in Personal Injury, Civil Litigation and Elder Law for California

Q: What qualifies as a “dependent adult” in California?

Would a person on social security disability who has been diagnosed as permanently totally disabled due to mental illness (bipolar) and required to have a representative payee to manage their benefit payments on their behalf be considered a dependent adult?

This is regarding a wrongdoing by another to this person (not the payee) who was well aware of their disability. Wondering if the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act (EADACPA) would be the applicable law to apply to a case concerning financial abuse of this person by another fiduciary (former attorney) or if “Breach of Fiduciary Duty” should be used in filing the civil complaint.

The EADACPA gives much protection in California for this vulnerable class of citizens but is a relatively new Act and I am having difficulty finding relative case law precedent when the Act is applied to dependent adults to use in the case should it go to trial.

1 Lawyer Answer
Dale S. Gribow
Dale S. Gribow
Answered
  • Palm Desert, CA
  • Licensed in California

A: Every case is unique and more information is needed to properly answer your query intelligently. In addition, you should NOT be discussing your case on an open forum like this.

It is always a good idea to contact a local attorney that handles these types of cases in the court where you would have to appear.

In other words, I am in Palm Springs and you don’t want to hire a Palm Springs lawyer for an Orange Co case. In those cases, I usually try to refer the potential client to a lawyer that is closer to where this happened.

Most Negligence lawyers will offer a free consultation to review the facts. For other areas of law, many lawyers will bill for a consultation.

any lawyer who answers a question like this, with limited info, would be negligent in my opinion.

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