What is the number one problem with the Marchman Act?

Hello, everyone. Its Mark. And welcome back. In this video, I want to talk to you about the number one problem with the Marchman Act. What is the number one problem with the Marchman Act?

The number one problem is the Guardianship statue. That’s right, the Guardianship statue. Got you. So let me take you back about seven years ago when we first launched our practice, drug and alcohol attorneys. And at that time, we were seeing a lot of cases where there was primary substance use, alcohol, marijuana and other types of drugs and maybe some pills too.

Fast forward seven years and we are seeing cases where there is significant mental illness. I’m talking about bipolar, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, multiple personality disorders, eating disorders. And sometimes those are coupled with substance use and sometimes they are not. And this has been somewhat of a dramatic shift over the last two years. And without getting political, there certainly seems to be a correlation between the uptick in mental health cases and the covid 19 crisis because people have been isolated and things of that nature.

And so we’ve been getting lots of calls and people are saying, well, I want to March 1 at my loved one. And I said, well, hold on a second. Let’s talk about that because I think there’s a better solution here. And perhaps this is not something I would have said seven years ago, but certainly now with the guardianship statute and my partner order is so absolutely fabulous at using it for these types of cases. So frankly, at this point, I wouldn’t say the entrepreneur act is obsolete.

But if it’s done alone and you have a serious mental health issue going on, I think that it’s pretty darn close. So the guardianship statute was really intended when it was first created for cases, a bit like when my father was getting older and before he passed away and having issues of dementia and evidence of stroke damage. The idea would have been if we needed to, we could have gone into court and got a court order to take control of his medical decisions, financial decisions, things of that nature. Thank goodness we never had to cross that bridge. But when you’re dealing with somebody who has serious mental health issues and they won’t go to treatment, they won’t take the medication, they need to be stabilized.

They have access to finances. They want to determine where they live, who they live with, and their ability to travel. The Marchman act simply just doesn’t cut the mustard. The March monarch is a treatment specific statute. What do I mean by that?

I mean that it’s a court order that says your loved one will go to treatment for a period of up to 90 days, which, as I’ve said in previous videos, can be extended sometimes 180 days and even 270 days. So it’s a treatment specific statute. And perhaps there are times when that is appropriate, but the guardianship statute gives you a lot more control, okay? It will give you the authority to make medical decisions. I need to put your lover into treatment, but it also can give you access to the medical records where they live, who they live with, their ability to travel, controlling of their finances.

I mean, really excuse my French a broad array of things that you might need in order to make sure that they are not only going to treatment, but they’re going to be there long enough so that they can finally rid themselves of this curse and you can finally live a normal life, and so can they. And obviously, we’re talking about the miracle of recovery. Now, what’s the best of both worlds? Well, the best of both worlds is to do a Marchman Act and a guardianship together. And we do a lot of those.

We do a lot of Marchman Act and guardianship together. And why do we do that? Well, if we’ve obviously got substance use and we can prove it, that’s great for a Marchman Act. And what’s really great about the Marchman Act is that we can file at least the first part of it on what’s known as an expart a basis. What does that mean?

It means that the police and one of our investigators is going to go to the scene and pick up your loved ones, sometimes off of the street. And if you don’t know where they are, we’re going to go find them for you and take them somewhere where they can be safe. And we can keep them there for five to seven days until we can get into court, either on parts of the Marchman Act or on a hearing for an emergency temporary guardianship. So now you’re really talking about something that’s powerful, right? And if you are willing to sort of see the process through, you could have a Marchman Act court order.

You can have a guardianship court order. And that means you have two different judges that in theory, you can go back to to enforce your rights as either the Guardian or the parent or whoever it might be who is seeking relief. But one of the things that frustrates me and makes me really upset is when I get people calling me and there are two issues that they call me about that I find frustrating, and I find very upsetting for them. Number one. Number one is when they say they’ve spoken to another lawyer who either does sort of elder law or they’ve spoken to the family lawyer who tells them that it can’t be done.

You can’t get guardianship over somebody who has a mental health disorder. And I’m here to tell you that with all due respects to some of my colleagues who practice in that arena, they simply don’t know what they’re talking about. We have been doing this successfully for seven years. And I’m here to tell you that if you want to get guardianship of your loved one. You don’t need to wait until they’re old enough to be using a Walker Because frankly, if they’ve got a substance use, A mental health disorder, they’re never going to get old enough Where you have to worry about it.

That’s the first thing. The second thing that makes me frustrated Is when they’ve spoken to a Marchman Act lawyer who says, well, you’ve got substance use here, and so you should definitely file a Marchman Act, and I’m here to tell you that you don’t put a square peg into a round hole. Not every case is a Marchman Act, and if there are serious mental health issues, Shoehorning the case into a Marchman Act Is simply not the right thing to do. And I have had people call me and tell me they want a Marchman Act, And I say, listen, you don’t have enough here for a Marchman Act, or it’s not the right thing. And I’m not going to take your case Because I’m going to be doing you a huge disservice by doing so.

We have the only law firm in the entire country that does nothing but help families Whose loved ones have substance use and mental illness. And I’m simply not going to shortchange you, And I’m not going to violate our mission statement, which is to help you to save your loved one. And so if you call me and you say, listen, I want to March for an Act, I’m going to give you an honest opinion and tell you whether or not you can really file it. The other thing is, obviously, if there is substance use, but we can’t prove it, Then what do you do? You can’t shoehorn that into a Marchman Act Because it’s going to get in front of a judge and he or she’s going to dismiss your case.

The guardianship is the way around that, because if there’s mental health issues going on, Even if you can’t prove substance use or there isn’t substance use, you can still file for guardianship. You can still put them into treatment. You can put them into a facility that can care for somebody who has a primary mental health issue, and you can get them the help they need. And so, look, I apologize that this was a bit of a rent, But I felt like this needed to be told what the number one problem is with the Marchment Act, and the statute in and of itself isn’t bad. It’s just the conditions in which it’s being used.

Our environment has changed, the needs of our clients have changed. And so with that being said, if you have any more questions, we are here to help you, and that’s what we’re do. So anyway, with that said, rent over. Thanks for tuning and see in the next video. Bye.