Title
Title
Rules and Forms | Probate Conservatorship: Confidential Declaration Forms (Action Required)
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Summary
Summary
The Probate and Mental Health Advisory Committee recommends adopting one form, revising one form, and revoking and replacing one form for use as declarations regarding the abilities and capacities of a probate conservatee or proposed conservatee. This recommendation updates the forms to conform to the law as amended by recent legislation, including Assembly Bill 1194 (Stats. 2021, ch. 417) and Assembly Bill 1663 (Stats. 2022, ch. 894), and makes the forms easier for professional declarants to use to communicate their conclusions to the court.
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Recommendation
Recommendation
The Probate and Mental Health Advisory Committee recommends that the Judicial Council, effective January 1, 2025:
1. Adopt Confidential Declaration on Medical Ability to Attend
Hearing--Probate Conservatorship (form GC-325) for use by a medical or religious practitioner to make a declaration regarding a person’s ability to attend a hearing;
2. Revise Capacity Declaration--Conservatorship (form GC-335) to:
• Retitle the form as Confidential Capacity Assessment and
Declaration--Probate Conservatorship;
• Remove the content regarding the medical ability of a conservatee or proposed conservatee to attend a hearing;
• Focus a clinician’s assessment and declaration on the aspects of a person’s mental capacity relevant to the issues raised in the proceeding in which the declaration is to be filed;
• Use language that allows clearer communication of clinical conclusions to legal audiences; and
• Add content regarding capacity to consent to placement and medication to treat major neurocognitive disorders that is currently on form
GC-335A; and
3. Revoke Major Neurocognitive Disorder Attachment to Capacity Declaration--Conservatorship (form GC-335A) and replace with a new optional form, Everyday Activities Attachment to Confidential Capacity Assessment and Declaration--Probate Conservatorship (form GC-335A), to allow a clinician or other professional to offer conclusions regarding the person’s ability to perform everyday activities.
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