Good News - September 2018

The Law Offices of Cyn- thia J Arevalo, Value Care at Home & Presidential Place Assisted Living Facility hosted a lunch on August 9 for professionals working with our seniors to educate about Florida’s New Injunction for Protection Against Exploita- tion of Vulnerable Adults. This law became effective on July 1st, 2018, and it’s the first of its kind in the nation. In summary, the new injunc- tion law creates a legal process for a vulnerable adult, an organization acting on behalf of a consenting vul- nerable adult, or a vulnerable adult’s court appointed guardian to ask a judge to temporarily freeze the assets in questionAND prohibit con- tact between the vulnerable adult the exploiter. The law is applicable to an adult who is unable to care for or protect them- selves or whose ability to per- form certain activities of daily living, is impaired due to a disability or the infirmities of aging. Incapacity is not a re- quirement for the majority of the sections of the law. The process involves filing a petition in circuit court; the in- junction is issued without giv- ing the alleged exploiter any warning. A hearing is held after 15 days. Then the judge decides whether to continue the injunction, to order the al- leged exploiter to perform cer- tain actions or to order other necessary relief to protect the vulnerable adult. The team hopes to con- tinue to educate our commu- nity to help protect our vulnerable adults. OUT AND ABOUT 32 SEPTEMBER 2018 Good News • South Florida Edition Forum Educates Advocates About New Legal Protections for Seniors Cynthia J Arevalo, Gabie Goni, Buddy Heland, Brenda Centeno, Cathleen Pinson, Jessica Lodispoto