Abstract
Family members may be very involved in the legal concerns of an older person and may even have a stake in the outcome. While family and friend involvement is very important they need to be helped to understand the ethical obligations that lawyers are required to follow. It is possible, in some circumstances, for more than one family member to be clients of the same lawyer. This is common in married couples. However, there are several reasons why lawyers always need to meet with the client alone for at least part of the case evaluation process. The lawyer will need to explain to the family member or friend his professional duties to his client of loyalty, confidentiality and avoidance of conflicts of interest.
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Notes
- 1.
A “power of attorney” herein refers to and includes, from time to time, general, specific, continuing, enduring and durable powers of attorney of whatever nature and all other legal documents executed by a capable person wherein another is appointed to act as legal representative for that person for some stated purpose(s) while the latter is competent and/or incompetent.
- 2.
Bengston et al. (2002).
- 3.
It will not be possible in this chapter to explore the vast array of emerging family law issues arising from later-life divorce, re-marriage, cohabitation and grand-parenting.
- 4.
Lowenstein and Bengtson (2003).
- 5.
Supra note 2.
- 6.
Gibson and Hartley (2006).
- 7.
Extract from the ethics brochure, “Understanding the Four C’s of Elder Law Ethics?” prepared by Wake Forest University, School of Law,and adapted by the American Bar Association, Commission on Law and Aging.
- 8.
Supra note 7, Piccini-Roy (2005).
- 9.
Sabatino (2000).
- 10.
Silberfeld and Fish (1994) at 47–48.
- 11.
Fleming and Morgan (2001) at 741–742.
- 12.
Sabatino (2000), supra note 10, at 502–503.
- 13.
Fleming and Morgan (2001), supra note 12 at 761.
- 14.
Fleming and Morgan (2001), supra note 12 at 762.
- 15.
Fleming and Morgan (2001), supra note 12 at 778.
- 16.
Park et al. (1992), at 639.
- 17.
Butterwick et al. (2001).
- 18.
Larsen and Thorpe (2006), 301.
- 19.
Wood (2001) at 811–812.
- 20.
Foxmen and Mariani (2010), 17.
- 21.
Mariani and Begler (2008) at 277.
- 22.
- 23.
Gary (1997) at 414.
- 24.
Wood (2001), supra note 20 at 801.
- 25.
Radford (2001–2002), supra note 23 at 651–652.
- 26.
- 27.
Radford (2001–2002), supra note 23 at 612.
- 28.
Gary (1997), supra note 24 at 432.
- 29.
Wood and Karp (1994) at 57.
- 30.
Hull (2005).
- 31.
Hancock (2002).
- 32.
- 33.
Ramesh (2004).
- 34.
In Canada this filial support obligation historically existed in the Civil Code of Quebec, and was introduced in most Canadian jurisdictions about the time of the Depression in the 1930s as a response to the government’s difficulty providing for the older members of the population. In effect the statutory obligation, where enacted, has rarely been employed in modern times because of the availability of direct health care in virtue of Canada’s universal health insurance and indirect health care available in long-term care institutions at a cost not exceeding one’s federal pension. However in Burgess v. Burgess, [1994] O.J. No. 4004 (Ontario Prov. Div.), Mr. Justice Fisher stated he believed the Ontario provisions were added, “to allow the State to make well-off children pay for parents in nursing homes rather than the State paying for them.” Indeed the judge remarked, “the effect of [statutory filial support obligations] is far more sweeping.”
- 35.
Supra note 7, Bala (2005).
- 36.
Tilse et al. (2005).
- 37.
McGuire and Macdonald (1996) at 550–551.
- 38.
Gary (1997) supra note 24 at 400 and 413.
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Soden, A.M. (2012). Family Matters: Some Emerging Legal Issues in Intergenerational and Generational Relations. In: Doron, I., Soden, A. (eds) Beyond Elder Law. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25972-2_5
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