Georgia Court Explains How To Acquire An Emergency Guardianship

There are not many cases on point explaining whatit takes to acquire emergency guardianship. St. Joseph’s Hospital located inSavannah, Georgia petitioned the court for an emergency guardian for ClaudineFarr. The hospital was seeking the guardian to assist Farr’s discharge. Thepetition included test results, affidavits from doctors, and otherdocumentation stating that Farr was incapacitated due to her severe Parkinson’sdisease.

In In theInterest of Farr, the court determined that to acquire emergencyguardianship there must be an actual emergency. The court interpreted the plainmeaning of the statute that states the petition for an emergency guardian shouldinclude not only the circumstances surrounding why an emergency guardian shouldbe appointed, but also an emergency situation that is “immediate and poses a substantialrisk of death or serious injury, illness, or disease.” In this case the hospitaljust wanted to transfer the patient to another facility. Under the statute, the transfer did not qualify as an emergency. Had the hospital been seeking a guardian the outcome may have been different.

See Luke Lantta, Georgia Appellate Court Clarifies What it Takes For an Emergency Guardianship, Bryan Cave Fiduciary Litigation, Jun. 11, 2013.

Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.