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House Bill 2080 |
House Author: Thompson, Senfronia et al. |
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Effective: 1-1-14 |
Senate Sponsor: Rodriguez |
House Bill 2080 amends Estates Code provisions relating to guardianships. The bill sets out provisions regarding the payment of filing fees, attorney's fees, and other costs in guardianship proceedings. If the court finds that a party acted in bad faith or without just cause in prosecuting or objecting to an application in a guardianship proceeding, the court may require the party to pay all or part of the costs of the proceeding or to reimburse the ward's estate for the cost of the applicant's attorney's fees. The bill exempts a guardianship proceeding from certain civil procedure rules relating to claims for relief and expedited actions and repeals certain provisions governing compensation for attorneys, mental health professionals, and interpreters appointed in a guardianship proceeding. The bill also sets the nonrefundable fee accompanying an application for a certificate of registration as a private professional guardian at $40 and exempts this fee change from Government Code provisions relating to the implementation of new or amended court costs and fees.
House Bill 2080 authorizes a court, on request, to exclude certain information about a person protected by a protective order from any document filed in a guardianship proceeding and sets out procedures for the court to maintain confidentiality of such information. The bill specifies that the appointment of a person convicted of a terroristic threat or continuous violence against the family of the ward or incapacitated person as guardian is presumed to be not in the best interests of the ward or incapacitated person. Moreover, a person subject to a protective order for family violence may not be appointed guardian of a proposed ward or ward who is protected by the order.
House Bill 2080 authorizes the appointment of a guardian ad litem in any guardianship proceeding to represent the interests of an incapacitated person, a proposed ward, a nonresident, an unborn or unascertained person, or an unknown or missing potential heir. The bill authorizes the referral of a contested guardianship proceeding to mediation and sets out the conditions under which a mediated settlement agreement is binding and enforceable.
House Bill 2080 requires an order appointing a guardian of the person, or both the person and the estate, to specify the rights of the guardian with respect to physical possession of the ward and determination of the ward's domicile. This order, or an order appointing a guardian with limited authority, must contain a required notice that any peace officer may use reasonable efforts to enforce these rights, with immunity for good faith acts. The bill provides a guardian of the person with the power to sign documents to facilitate employment of a ward under certain conditions, requires a certified guardian to declare in the annual account and annual guardian of the person reports any investigations of the guardian by the guardianship certification board during the accounting or reporting period, and authorizes a guardian of the person who files the annual report with the court electronically to use an unsworn declaration.
House Bill 2080 authorizes, but does not require, a court to appoint an attorney ad litem for a person with only physical disabilities who applies for the creation of a management trust. The bill revises related provisions concerning the appointment, bond requirements, and annual accountings of trustees of management trusts and clarifies the optional and required management trust terms that apply to trusts for wards or incapacitated persons and those that do not apply to trusts for persons with only physical disabilities.
Current law provides that probable cause for a court-initiated investigation to determine whether a person is an incapacitated person and a guardianship is necessary may be established based on an information letter submitted by an interested person. Previous law authorized the inclusion of certain information in the information letter. House Bill 2080 revises that provision to specify that the interested person must include that information, to the best of the person's knowledge, in such a letter. If the interested person is a family member of the person believed to be incapacitated, the letter must be sworn to or contain a written declaration signed under penalty of perjury that the information in the letter is true to the best of the person's knowledge.