If a parent, sibling, or other close relative has recently been diagnosed with dementia, protecting their legal rights is particularly important. If at all possible, talk with your relative about the following important legal considerations.

Dementia is a progressive illness that cannot be cured, and eventually, your relative will no longer be able to make legal decisions or direct their own medical care. To prepare for this eventuality, you should talk to your relative about granting you durable power of attorney.

A power of attorney document is a legally binding directive that allows somebody else to make important legal and medical decisions for you. However, different power of attorney documents are used for different circumstances, and an ordinary power of attorney becomes invalid if the person who granted power of attorney is cognitively incapacitated.

This is obviously useless if you need to take care of somebody with dementia, so you should seek to obtain durable power of attorney instead. Durable power of attorney documents contain specific wording and remain legally binding after a dementia sufferer becomes incapacitated.

However, giving somebody else the power to make life-or-death decisions for you can be daunting, even if that person is a close and trusted relative. If your relative is still in the early stages of dementia, the two of you can create a springing durable power of attorney document that only grants you power of attorney once the illness has become more advanced.

In most cases, a person will be diagnosed with dementia while they are still in the illness's early stages and are able to make decisions for themselves. However, if your relative was only diagnosed after their dementia had become more advanced, or they decided to keep the diagnosis to themselves, they may already be incapacitated before you can tend to their legal needs.

In these unfortunate cases, your best option is to become a conservator for your relative. Conservatorship is essentially a retroactive form of power of attorney and can be granted to a dementia sufferer's relative or close friend even if they no longer have legal capacity.

You should be aware that filing for conservatorship is a long and costly procedure, with no guarantee of success at the end. You must file a lengthy petition, and submit to a thorough investigation that legal authorities conduct. You may also have to appear in court to argue your case for conservatorship.

You should, therefore, seek conservatorship only as a last resort if you feel that your relative's legal and medical rights are not respected. If you choose this option, working with an attorney with experience in conservatorship cases will strengthen your case significantly.

To think of your relative's will might seem morbid while they are still alive and active. However, once a person has been judged legally incapable, they cannot legally alter their will or other legal documents in any way.

If your relative needs to write or modify their will, and their condition is not advanced, you can help them obtain written opinions from their doctors stating that they are not yet incapacitated. If others decide to dispute your relative's will after their dementia has advanced, these opinions will be very useful for proving that the will was written before your relative's condition declined.

Taking care of legal matters for a sick loved one is always a stressful experience, but working with trustworthy and dedicated attorneys can make the process easier for everyone. If you need more advice, contact the experienced legal professionals at William C. Poole, LLC.