Two guardianship cases can have nearly identical facts and finish on completely different timelines. The difference isn’t complexity. It’s whether anyone is fighting. Jill on what actually drives the timeline: An uncontested guardianship in Broward County, with a cooperative family and a competent petitioner, can move from filing to letters in four to six weeks....
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Most guardianship cases move at the pace of the court calendar. Emergency temporary guardianships don’t. When someone is being actively harmed — financially, physically, or both — the regular timeline breaks down. You don’t have weeks for the examining committee, the hearing, the order. You need authority now. Florida law provides for that, but the...
Most guardianship cases in Florida aren’t handled by board-certified elder law attorneys. They’re handled by general practitioners, probate attorneys who occasionally take a guardianship, or estate planning attorneys who got asked by a client and didn’t say no. That’s not a moral failing. It’s a market reality. There aren’t enough board-certified elder law attorneys in...
People come in convinced they’re going to win the fight over who should serve as guardian. Sometimes they do. More often, the court resolves the fight by appointing someone none of them wanted. Jill on how that plays out in practice: Florida has a statutory preference for who should serve as guardian — §744.312 lists...
By the time someone calls about a parent being financially exploited, money is usually already gone. The question is whether more is about to leave and what can stop it. Jill on what happens when an exploitation call comes in: The first 48 hours matter because financial exploitation tends to escalate. The person doing it...
Most law firms talk about personal service. Most don’t actually deliver it. The structural reality of how mid-size and large firms staff cases makes that hard. Jill on how this firm is different: The economics of a typical law firm push work down the chain. Partners bring in matters. Associates do the bulk of the...
Families wait. That’s the answer. Jill has been doing this for a long time and the same pattern shows up in case after case. Something is clearly wrong — mom is signing things she doesn’t understand, the new boyfriend is moving money out of the joint account, the brother who lives nearby has started “managing”...
People come in expecting a probate proceeding. Contested guardianships are litigation. Real litigation, with depositions, motions, evidentiary hearings, and a trial. Jill on what the early days actually involve: The framework is §744.331, Fla. Stat. — the incapacity proceeding. Three examining committee members are appointed. Each one independently evaluates the alleged incapacitated person and files...