The Clay County Clerk’s Office will host a Vulnerable Adult Injunction Workshop on Thursday to help residents better understand a recently enacted law that aims to protect vulnerable adults of any age from financial exploitation.
According to Tara Green, the elected clerk for the Clay County Court System, vulnerable adults are more susceptible to exploitation than ever due to new technologies and the ease of access to bank accounts and financial data.
In order to help the Florida Legislature and Clay County residents protect those at risk, the Clay County Clerk’s Office will be hosting a brief information sharing session - the Clay County Vulnerable Adult Injunction Workshop - which Green says will focus on the civil actions that can be taken to protect against the exploitation of a vulnerable adult. “Particularly around the fiduciary responsibilities of guardians as well as any potential abuse from family members or anybody of the like,” she said. “Our goal is to provide an overview of, basically, what the process is.”
Green said they’ll aim to answer questions like:
- Who is considered a vulnerable adult?
- What constitutes exploitation?
- Who can legally file a petition for a vulnerable adult injunction?
“Certain kinds of things that would constitute that kind of exploitation would be if someone is depriving a vulnerable adult of their funds or any property, a breach of any fiduciary duty to a vulnerable adult, bank account misuse, failure to provide just basic necessities are just a couple examples that would potentially warrant some type of action on behalf of the courts,” Green said. “And this is a mechanism where an individual petitioner can come in, or an individual can come in and file petition to the court with, basically, a reasoning behind, an explanation behind, why they feel like there’s been an exploitation. Then from there the courts will decide if it’s warranted and what action needs to be taken.”
The workshop on Florida Statute §825.1035 is scheduled to run from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Thursday, January 10, 2019, in the Clay County Library Headquarters Fleming Island Library meeting room at 1895 Town Center Blvd.. Green will be joined at the event by members of local law enforcement and other community partners. The workshop is open to the public.
Brendan Rivers can be reached at brivers@wjct.org, 904-358-6396 or on Twitter at @BrendanRivers.
