We receive calls at Mangsen Law from friends and family members reporting that their loved one has been the victim of financial exploitation. Anger, outrage and disbelief are just some of the feelings that the callers express. They want to do something to help, and they don’t know what to do. We offer the following suggestions to anyone who finds that a vulnerable friend or family member has been the victim of financial exploitation (improper taking of money/property):
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1. Immediately call Adult Protective Services to report suspected abuse, neglect, or
financial exploitation 1-800-96-ABUSE (1-800-962-2873) and report the same to the local police.
2. If your friend or family member has capacity but is a vulnerable adult, they can sue for undue influence and exploitation of a vulnerable adult because they have a cause of action against the perpetrator and may recover actual and punitive damages and they can sue for theft and they have a cause of action for threefold the actual damages, reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs.
3. If the vulnerable adult is believed to have been incapacitated at the time of the
transactions, an incapacity petition could be filed to determine your friend or family member’s incapacity and extrapolate back to the date of the transactions and have an expert give an opinion that the victim was probably incapacitated at the time of the transactions. That would be evidence to use to unwind the transactions that were done.
4. Depending on the facts, perhaps claims for embezzlement, fraud, fraud in the
inducement, misrepresentation, misappropriation, and a host of others could be made and proven to unwind transactions that took place and to hold the perpetrator accountable.
5. Using a Power of Attorney (POA) document does not in any way exempt a perpetrator who has committed any of these offenses.
Diana Mangsen focuses her practice as an elder law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Largo, Dunedin and the Tampa Bay area.
For more information, visit our website at
https://www.mangsenlaw.com/
or call (727) 888-6282.