Congress has recently passed the Senior Safety Act to better protect senior citizens from elder abuse and exploitation. The new law allows financial service providers such as banks and brokerage firms to disclose financial information to law enforcement if they believe it may be a result of elder abuse. The law gives financial institutions immunity from being sued to allow them to stop financial exploitation of elderly clients.
The Senior Safety Act allows employees of financial institutions to report suspicious activity dealing with elder abuse to appropriate government agencies and law enforcement without facing the possibility of being sued in court. This makes the process of stopping abuse and finding the people who perpetrate it more efficient.
[Read more…] about New Law Allows Banks and Brokers to Fight Elder Abuse
UPDATE – January 2017: The ban on mandatory arbitration agreements has been temporarily blocked. U.S. District Judge Michael Mills, who sits in the Northern District of Mississippi, granted a preliminary injunction, which keeps the rule from being implemented. Martinson & Beason, P.C. will continue to monitor the status of the rule as it makes its way through the court system.
More than two years after an exposé by the New York Times and a promise for change from the governor, the employees of New York state-run group homes—facilities that care for people with developmental disabilities and mental illness—who were found to have abused residents still have their jobs.
According to a recent article in the New York Times, Clara Marshall, an older woman suffering from dementia, moved into a nursing home after her family was no longer able to provide the care she needed. Tragically, after only five months in the facility, Clara was found dead in her room, strangled after getting her neck caught in side rails meant to protect her from rolling out of bed.