Legal Question in Elder Law in North Carolina

Re: Relative Taking Advantage of Elderly Mother

I agree with the legal analysis in Jay's response to your question, however, I would caution that I did not understand from your post that your mother is unable to make her own decisions. As you might imagine, the law is very cautious about taking away the rights of an elderly person. The law doesn't require that people make good decisions, it simply requires that they know the consequences of their actions. Therefore, you would really have to show that your mother simply cannot make decisions. Usually the best way to do this is to have expert testimony from a medical professional.

Before deciding to initiate a guardianship proceeding, you should know that your mother may ask for a jury trial and, as Jay noted, your sister may ask to be appointed guardian even if you win on the issue of mental competence. This would be a very expensive case and would likely cause a tremendous amount of fighting within your family. Therefore, I would think long and hard about the trauma you may face before initiating any kind of guardianship petition.

Re: Relative Taking Advantage of Elderly Mother

On these statements, it seems your mother is under your sister's influence and unable to make decisions for herself.

A possible approach is to begin proceedings to have your mother declared disabled and a guardian appointed, *taking away* her right to act for herself.

As a daughter you have a right to initiate such action, giving due notice to your sister. Both she and mother can oppose it. And she has a right to be declared the guardian, so you'll have to show her mistreatment of your mother.

good luck.