Courts around Indiana have started their own guardianship programs based on the Lake County model program in Allen, Elkhart,
Lawrence, St. Joseph, Tippecanoe, and Vanderburgh counties.
To help address the need for guardians for patients of a northwest Indiana hospital, Lake County Judge Diane Kavadias-Schneider – with others in the court and with permission from Indiana Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard – worked on a guardianship program that involved temporary volunteer guardians.
Today it's a growing practice area, but three decades ago, only a handful of attorneys practiced what is now known as
elder law and not many more were aware of what it was.
The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the appointment of a third-party guardian for an incompetent adult because a disinterested person may hopefully prevent unnecessary disputes caused by mistrust between the woman's children and husband.
The Indiana Court of Appeals used an opinion issued today to caution courts to not assume a child is exerting undue influence over a parent when analyzing cases involving adult children assisting an aging parent.