Legislature Creates New Process for Disputes over Visiting Vulnerable Adults

By Doug Chalgian on January 11, 2020

Michigan guardianship law has been amended to allow probate courts to appoint limited guardians to supervise visitations with incapacitated adults. Specifically, a new section MCL 700.5306(6) provides grounds...

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Reflections from a Costly Goose Chase

By Doug Chalgian on March 3, 2019

The crux of this unpublished opinion is whether the cost of litigation initiated by a conservator that turns out to be a big waste of money, should be...

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Capacity to Nominate

By Doug Chalgian on December 16, 2018

The question is this: When a person who is the subject of a petition for guardianship or conservatorship nominates an individual they want to serve in those capacities,...

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COA Sets the Record Straight on Priorities

By Doug Chalgian on June 8, 2018

This new published Court of Appeals opinion shouldn’t surprise anyone. The COA holds that where a professional guardian/conservator resigns, and the only adult child of the ward petitions...

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Better Than Nothing?

By Doug Chalgian on May 22, 2018

The Michigan Supreme Court has issued an Order denying leave in In Re Conservatorship of Rhea Brody.  However, this same Order “further notes” that the Opinion of the...

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Meritless is Good. Frivolous would have been Better.

By Doug Chalgian on October 13, 2017

This is a Chalgian and Tripp case just handed down from the Court of Appeals. Unpublished.  Click here to read In Re Conservatorship of Ueal E. Patrick. Ueal...

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Seeing Redd

By Doug Chalgian on September 21, 2017

Here’s another important published opinion on the topic of adult guardianships. The case is about the removal of a guardian of an adult ward appointed under EPIC. The case deals...

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Another Brody Bombshell

By Doug Chalgian on September 21, 2017

UPDATE:  This decision was subsequently revised.  Some of the problematic aspects of the COA opinion were corrected.  See Better Than Nothing? for details.   This is a published...

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Attorney-Fiduciary Relationships

By Doug Chalgian on January 27, 2017

A new published circuit court case addresses the often confused issue of who an attorney hired by a fiduciary represents and is accountable to. This is technical stuff,...

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Medical Experts Carry Conservatorship Case

By Doug Chalgian on December 2, 2016

Nice analysis in this recent unpublished COA opinion. Click here to read In Re Conservatorship of Stephen Michalak.  Congrats to my colleague Valerie Kutz-Otway for her successful advocacy...

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Doug Chalgian

About The Author: Doug Chalgian

I am an estate planning, probate litigating, elder law attorney. This is a blog for clients and professional colleagues. In it I offer my ideas about the state of the law and the practice of law. I believe we are living through a unique period during which the law (which is traditionally slow to change) and society are attempting to evolve to address the explosion of people living long lives. I find these developments fascinating and enjoy being involved in this evolution.