Montgomery County Judge Comments on State Progress on Protecting the Elderly

By

Judge Lois E. Murphy
Image via the Senior Law Center.
Judge Lois E. Murphy.

The Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee, working to ensure the safety of the state’s elderly population, issued recent updates on its progress. Among the information providers was Judge Lois Murphy of the Montgomery County Orphans’ Court. Lauren Jessop presented her comments in The Bradford Era.

The Judiciary Committee is working closely with the state’s Aging and Youth Committee to consider strengthening guardianship laws.

Changes must be gauged carefully. Revisions will need to protect state residents who have been assessed as no longer able to make decisions for themselves.

But an overly burdensome legislative approach could do more harm than good.

Testimony at a recent hearing seemed to reach the reasonable position that guardianship become a tactic of last resort, after other safeguard measures have been exhausted.

Guardianship in Pennsylvania can proceed legally without counsel. Further, there is limited oversight of professional guardians’ actions. And procedures are not consistent across all counties.

Murphy’s update reported progress on court actions included evidence that monitoring of court-appointed guardians is improving. And data-collection efforts on results are yielding additional information in greater detail.

The committee isn’t limiting itself to consideration of elderly guardianship; those arrangements that aid the state’s youth are also being evaluated.

More on Judge Lois Murphy the state committee on which she serves is at The Bradford Era.

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What is a legal guardianship?

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