Elder Care and Filial maintain Laws

Could you be legally liable for paying for the care of an elder parent? Under something called Filial support Laws, you most categorically could in thirty states.

Imagine you pick up your mail one day and start rifling straight through it. Junk mail, bills...and then you come across something seeing suspiciously like a letter from a law firm. You open it and learn you need to pay ,000 in nursing home bills for your mom or they home will sue you. Talk about a shocking piece of mail!

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Can this categorically happen? In 30 states, it most by all means; of course can happen and does all the time. The laws are extremely old. They originated in England when communal assistance was limited. Families were anticipated to band together and pick up the cost of care for family members. communal assistance was available, but only intended for elders who had no family.

When the United States was settled, much of the legal thorough the country adopted was based on English law. It was, after all, what people new. The Filial support Laws were part of that body of laws and thus adapted. Although 30 states have these laws, each state has a slightly dissimilar version. In some states, only the children of the man are responsible for providing care while other states expand the requirement to include grandchildren! In California, it is a misdemeanor to not comply with the law! In other states, family members can sue other family members to make them pitch in on the cost of care.

At this point, you are probably very concerned in seeing a list of the states that have such laws. In alphabetical order, they are Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The appealing thing is these laws sat dormant for a very long time. Only recently have they gained the attentiveness of, oddly enough, senior housing facilities such as nursing homes. These facilities are using the laws to try to get family members to pay the bill or at least get motivated to help persuade Medicare to cover the bills.

You might be thinking this is one of those things that sounds nasty, but rarely happens. In truth, it is occurring more and more as the baby boomer generation continues to reach their golden years. With the gigantic loss of value in relinquishment accounts due to the current economic troubles, one can presume it is only going to get worse.

Elder Care and Filial maintain Laws