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Elder Law Research Guide

This guide focuses on practical resources, useful for the Medical-Legal Partnership for Seniors Clinic (MLPS).

Introduction  

Elder Law is a legal field that encompasses many different practice areas.  These practice areas include financial planning; estate planning; major entitlement programs such as Social Security income, pension and retirement benefits, Medicare, and Medicaid; health care considerations; planning for incapacity, including living wills, durable powers of attorney, and right-to-die issues; and discrimination against the elderly. This guide is designed to  help students find the best research resources for topics in Elder Law. This guide will be particularly useful for the students in the Medical-Legal Partnership for Seniors Clinic (MLPS).

Search Tips:

When researching elder law issues for clinic work, Practice Guides are often the best starting point. They offer practical, step-by-step guidance, sample forms, and jurisdiction-specific procedures. Consider consulting a Practice Guide for help with:

  • Advance Planning
    Topics include advance health care directives, financial powers of attorney, and simple wills.

  • Medi-Cal Access & Share of Cost
    Learn how to qualify for Medi-Cal, manage Share of Cost obligations, and navigate eligibility rules.

  • Medicare & Ambulance Bills
    Understand Medicare coverage for ambulance services and how to appeal denied claims.

  • Ambulance Bills from San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD)
    Explore local billing practices and potential defenses or payment options.

  • Conservatorship & Mental Health Rights
    Research the rights of individuals under conservatorship and those affected by involuntary holds under Welfare & Institutions Code § 5150.

  • Veterans Benefits
    Includes both general benefits and those available to surviving spouses.

  • Texas Inheritance & Probate
    Covers Texas succession laws for real property and the small estate probate process (if applicable).

  • Transfer on Death (TOD) Deeds in California
    Learn how TOD deeds work and how they can be used to transfer real property outside of probate.

Terms of Art

1. Common Terms Used in Durable Powers of Attorney for Financial Management (DPOA) Cal. Prob. Code §§ 4000 - 4545.

  • Agent means the same as attorney-in-fact for financial matters, i.e., the person authorized to act for another. Although the term "attorney-in-fact" is used in the Probate Code, the term "agent" is used in the statutory form DPOA.
  • Attorney-in-fact means a person granted authority to act for the principal in a power of attorney, regardless of whether the person is known as an attorney-in-fact or as an agent. This includes a successor or alternate attorney-in-fact and a person delegated authority by an attorney-in-fact.
  • Durable power of attorney means a power of attorney that can be exercised notwithstanding the principal's subsequent incapacity.
  • Durable power of attorney for financial management (DPOA) Although the term is not found in the Probate Code it is a convention some practitioners use to distinguish a power of attorney used to manage the principal's assets or to make financial or business decisions from the power of attorney for health care (PAHC) or advance health care directive (AHCD) used to make health care decisions for the principal.
  • Power of attorney means a written instrument that is executed by a natural person having the capacity to contract and that grants authority to an attorney-in-fact. A power of attorney may be durable or nondurable.
  • Principal means a natural person who executes a power of attorney.
  • Springing power of attorney means a power of attorney that by its terms becomes effective at a specified future time or on the occurrence of a specified future event or contingency, usually the subsequent incapacity of the principal. The springing power of attorney may be durable or nondurable.

2.  Common Terms Used in Advance Health Care Directives and Powers of Attorney for Health Care Cal. Prob. Code §§ 4600 - 4806.

  • Advance health care directive (AHCD) means either an individual health care instruction or a power of attorney for health care (PAHC).
  • Agent means an individual designated in a PAHC to make a health care decision for the principal, regardless of whether the person is known as an agent or attorney-in-fact, and includes any successor or alternate agent.
  • Health care decision means a decision made by a patient or the patient's agent, conservator, or surrogate regarding the patient's health care, including selection and discharge of health care providers and institutions; approval or disapproval of diagnostic tests, surgical procedures, and programs or medications; and directions to provide, withhold, or withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration and all other forms of health care, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
  • Individual health care instruction means a patient's written or oral direction concerning a health care decision for the patient.
  • Patient means an adult whose health care is under consideration and includes a principal under a PAHC and an adult who has given an individual health care instruction or designated a surrogate.
  • Power of attorney for health care (PAHC) means a written instrument designating an agent to make health care decisions for the principal.
  • Principal means an adult who executes a PAHC.
  • Surrogate means an adult, other than the patient's agent or conservator, authorized by the Health Care Decisions Law to make a health care decision for the patient.

 

Databases  

Organizations