|
Edited on Sun Dec-10-06 10:09 AM by Freedom_from_Chains
There is definitely an authoritarian aspect to the Baker Act that is uncomfortable. This is one of those places where going back and studying the legislative history of the act can be helpful and also one of those places where one gets to dissect the spirit of the law as apposed to the letter of the law. I will try and give a brief synopsis for you but understand that it has been over 20 years since I studied this particular act.
The whole idea of the Backer Act was a response to the influx of senior citizens to the state which at one time was exponential. I don't know what the current states of that is but in any case you still have a lot of retires and a fairly large amount have some big money in the banks. If you have lived in Fl any length of time you know that fraud perpetrated against senior citizens is rampant. My favorite story is of the plumber who changed a widow 40k for replacing a toilet which see paid! He subsequently was arrested because he was way to blatant in his fraud and sent to prison. The widow did get all of her money back. Anyway, back to the subject.
So you have all these retires who as they age become less and less able to manage their affairs, and their children, many who live out of state, under the then current incompetence statues were unable to do anything to protect their parents or other relatives and yes maybe some potential inheritance they might have coming. And if you have ever tried to tell an aging relative that you don't think they are able to manage their affairs any longer I can tell you it doesn't go over real big. So that's a problem.
So the Backer Act was created to give a little more flexibility in the law to help relatives protect their parents and the like. But does it have the potential to be taken liberties with and abused, you bet it does, which is why we rely on the courts, and theoretical ourselves as citizens, to stay on top of these kinds of statues. I personally know a man, who was in his late 30's or early 40's at the time whose family had him Baker Acted because he was an alcoholic and was in fact killing himself. Once they had him Backer Acted they could get him in a recovery center and on the road to sobriety. Was it a questionable tactic, you bet, but it probably saved his life. When I knew him he had been sober for about 17 years and was living a normal productive life.
So, there you have it. I hope my description has been helpful but like I said it is dated and I am not fully apprised of what the current status of the act is.
Oh, as a side note, you are correct, Evangelical Christian groups are also real big at preying on the elderly for their cash in Florida, that, as I recall, was also a consideration of the act.
|