(a) Every superior court shall provide all private conservators with written information concerning a conservator’s rights, duties, limitations, and responsibilities under this division.
(b) The information to be provided shall include, but need not be limited to, the following:
(1) The rights, duties, limitations, and responsibilities of a conservator.
(2) The rights of a conservatee.
(3) How to assess the needs of the conservatee.
(4) How to use community-based services to meet the needs of the conservatee.
(5) How to ensure that the conservatee is provided with the least restrictive possible environment.
(6) The court procedures and processes relevant to conservatorships.
(7) The procedures for inventory and appraisal, and the filing of accounts.
(c) An information package shall be developed by the Judicial Council, after consultation with the following organizations or individuals:
(1) The California State Association of Public Administrators, Public Guardians, and Public Conservators, or other comparable organizations.
(2) The State Bar.
(3) Individuals or organizations, approved by the Judicial Council, who represent court investigators, specialists with experience in performing assessments and coordinating community-based services, and legal services programs for the elderly.
(d) The failure of any court or any employee or agent thereof, to provide information to a conservator as required by this section does not:
(1) Relieve the conservator of any of the conservator’s duties as required by this division.
(2) Make the court or the employee or agent thereof, liable, in either a personal or official capacity, for damages to a conservatee, conservator, the conservatorship of a person or an estate, or any other person or entity.
(e) The information package shall be made available to individual courts. The Judicial Council shall periodically update the information package when changes in the law warrant revision. The revisions shall be provided to individual courts.
(f) To cover the costs of providing the written information required by this section, a court may charge each private conservator a fee of twenty dollars ($20) which shall be distributed to the court in which it was collected.
(Amended by Stats. 2005, Ch. 75, Sec. 147. Effective July 19, 2005. Operative January 1, 2006, by Sec. 156 of Ch. 75.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018