The Nevada state-wide guardianship commission has two meetings left before it wraps up its recommendations, passes them on the the Supreme court and those ideas that “pass muster” will then be forwarded to the legislative council bureau to be put into bill form so that they can go before the legislature this coming session. Which legislators will sponsor what bills is not known at this time, except one which is well ahead of the game.
Senator Becky Harris is sponsoring a bill to have the guardianship nomination form (which was part of SB262 passed last session, in part thanks to a petition with 3200 plus signatures from our readers) be part of the secretary of state’s lock-box system, something we have been urging through the commission for some time. Dan and I were thrilled when the legislative council bureau called and asked us to forward a copy of our form so they could incorporate it with theirs in the bill.
Through the work of the commission, the family court will now make sure that all “protected persons” (they will no longer be referred to as “wards”) will have pro-bono attorneys assigned to them. No longer will doctors be allowed to check off boxes on a form, they must now fill in a diagnosis properly AND, no longer can a physician’s assistant do this work, the form and diagnosis MUST be done by a doctor.
In spite of several people who served on the commission that many believed should not have been there, many long day of hard work were completed and we accomplished a great deal. I am immensely proud to have been a part of this team.