The Law is Behind the Times

Sometimes we live in a fantasy world by thinking that just because something is immoral that automatically makes it illegal.  That was the case with us. Someone had stolen everything from our dad. This had been done at a time when he suffered from advanced Alzheimer’s. His will, his living trust, and his IRA beneficiaries had been changed at a time when he couldn’t always remember who his beneficiaries were. He had trouble finding a fork in his own kitchen, but yet drastic changes were made to his estate planning, giving one person control of every dime he owned.  That’s just wrong. What person can say that it’s not?  It had to be illegal. That’s what we thought, at least.

But we were wrong.

Everything was taken from my dad at a time when he couldn’t comprehend what was happening, but the manner in which it was done was all technically legal.

Excerpt from A Life Well Stolen

Preface Continued

Soon after that day, I came up with my share of the money our lawyers had asked for and my sisters put in their part. Our battle continued, and two months later we reached a settlement with the person who had robbed our dad.  It was a small victory, really, but we had at least recouped part of what was taken from him.

Nevertheless, the victory tasted bitter to me.  Justice had been to me what it was all about and that hadn’t been served. I knew that this was surely happening to many others, caused by a shortcoming in our legal system, and since my dad hadn’t received justice, I knew others wouldn’t either. We had won something for our dad but, by settling, we hadn't changed anything and the very thing that had happened to our dad and our family would happen to others.

All because of something one of our lawyers had said to us right before we agreed to settle.

“The law is behind the times,” she’d said, and it was true.

 Alzheimer’s was relatively unknown a few years ago, yet we’ve learned a great deal about the disease in a short amount of time and the legal system hasn’t kept pace. Those suffering from this disease are left unprotected and easy targets because the law allows for moments of competency in legal matters such as changing a will or beneficiary designations. These moments can be as short as a few minutes as long as there is a witness to verify an aptitude that any Alzheimer’s expert will tell you does not exist in advanced levels of the disease.  And, the burden of proof lies not with that witness to prove this moment of competency but with those that have been affected to prove otherwise; and in doing so they must embark on a possibly futile effort to prove that the witness was either mistaken or dishonest. Since the law offers little to no protection, this problem will likely continue unabated, and I think that is a great injustice to all of those who are victims of this disease or will become so.