Miami-Dade Institutes its New Guardianship System

As you may have heard Tallahassee seems set on overhauling Florida’s  guardianship laws well Miami-Dade has that same spirit as they have just implemented a new system for appointing guardians to oversee those deemed incapacitated. What is new about the system? Does it change how to file for guardianship? What about if you plan on filing as the guardian of a loved one, will this new registry system create roadblocks for you?

• Miami-Dade’s probate court this week (March 21, 2015) began operating a “registry” system to appoing rotating guardians that many think will eliminate out of the judge’s selection process for guardians.
• Is this reform necessary? Many say yes as the Dept. of Elder Affairs stats suggestguardianship and sadly guardianship abuse can mean big bucks several years ago the Dept. had 10 professional guardians, now it has over 400.
• Presumably, if a Judge liked you they may give you more preferential appointments, but those days are gone in Miami-Dade County, which begs the question is a rotating registry on its way in Broward and Palm Beach county? 
• One great new improvement is transparency of the system, according to Judge Maria Korvick, the administrative judge of the Miami-Dade probate division.
• This is actually one of the many reforms that Tallahassee law makers are considering for Florida as a whole! The proposal in the House however was amended yesterday to give judges more flexibility to make “specific findings of fact listing why the particular person was selected” byt he court as guardian, making the rotation schedule the norm except in exceptional circumstances.
• Some counties will have problems with this though as they simply may be too small for a rotation to work according to Representative Jose Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami. (Thus the exceptions)
• This bill got unanimous support that Thursday so you can expect rotating systems to be discussed by all counties in the future.
• Obviously we can hope to see a lot more reform out of House Bill 5 and Senate Bill 318 that discuss guardianship reform, but it is interesting to see Miami-Dade jumping the gun and instituting this type of reform this week.

Want to learn more about Guardianship in West Palm Beach and Florida in general? Check out our FAQ video library here.