Law Permits Parents to Nominate Guardians
Parents will be able to nominate, in their will, a person to be the guardian of their adult child with intellectual disabilities as a result of Senate Bill 157, which was recently passed by the Ohio General Assembly.
This law, which goes into effect in May 2008, alleviates the concerns of parents who are apprehensive about who, when they die, will protect their adult son or daughter's interests. These parents want to ensure that a stranger will not serve as their child's guardian.
Samuel A. Peppers III, the Ohio State Bar Association's technical expert on the bill, in his support for the legislation said, "… the need for statutory authority for parents to designate a guardian for an adult incompetent child is great. The enactment of this new statute and the changes to the two current statutes will provide peace of mind to parents in this situation."
Law Protects Individual Rights
Provisions in the law protect the adult's interest in avoiding unnecessary guardianship. Before the parents' nominee may be appointed as guardian, certain procedures must be followed:
- an application must be filed with the probate court,
- the individual with a disability must be provided notice, including the right to appointed counsel, and
- a probate court hearing must be held to determine if an individual needs a guardian and to consider whether there are less restrictive alternatives to guardianship.
These procedural requirements were included in the bill following a recommendation by the Probate Judges Association and the Ohio Legal Rights Service. Senate Bill 157 was signed into law in February, and becomes effective in May 2008.
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