Create your own visitor map!
My name is David. I'm an avid reader. I enjoy the outdoors, good food (cooking as well as eating), travel, and movies. I really love watching Georgia Bulldogs football. If you want to talk about Georgia Football, I'm all ears. My favorite TV show is House.
I'm a lawyer. I practice law in Dalton, Georgia. Most of my practice is devoted to helping elders find, get and pay for good long-term care. If you have an Elder Law question, send me an email. If you're just looking for general information on Elder Law topics, then here are a few links:
My law firm website
Medicare.gov
2008 Financial limits for Georgia Medicaid
Eldercare Locator
Social Security website
If you're still wondering what's "Elder Law?", the National Elder Law Foundation defines Elder Law as encompassing each of the following areas:
- Health and Personal Care Planning, including giving advice regarding, and preparing, advance medical directives (medical powers of attorney, living wills, and health care declarations) and counseling older persons, attorneys-in-fact, and families about medical and life-sustaining choices, and related personal life choices.Pre-Mortem Legal Planning, including giving advice and preparing documents regarding wills, trusts, durable general or financial powers of attorney, real estate, gifting, and the financial and tax implications of any proposed action.Fiduciary Representation, including seeking the appointment of, giving advice to, representing, or serving as executor, personal representative, attorney-in-fact, trustee, guardian, conservator, representative payee, or other formal or informal fiduciary.Legal Capacity Counseling, including advising how capacity is determined and the level of capacity required for various legal activities, and representing those who are or may be the subject of guardianship/conservatorship proceedings or other protective arrangements.Public Benefits Advice, including planning for and assisting in obtaining Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Veterans benefits, and food stamps.Advice on Insurance Matters, including analyzing and explaining the types of insurance available, such as health, life, long term care, home care, COBRA, medigap, long term disability, dread disease, and burial/funeral policies.Resident Rights Advocacy, including advising patients and residents of hospitals, nursing facilities, continuing care retirement communities, assisted living facilities, adult care facilities, and those cared for in their homes of their rights and appropriate remedies in matters such as admission, transfer and discharge policies, quality of care, and related issues.Housing Counseling, including reviewing the options available and the financing of those options such as: mortgage alternatives, renovation loan programs, life care contracts, and home equity conversion.Employment and Retirement Advice, including pensions, retiree health benefits, unemployment benefits, and other benefits.Income, Estate, and Gift Tax Advice, including consequences of plans made and advice offered.Counseling about tort claims against nursing homes.Counseling with regard to age and/or disability discrimination in employment and housing.Litigation and Administrative Advocacy in connection with any of the above matters, including will contests, contested capacity issues, elder abuse (including financial or consumer fraud), fiduciary administration, public benefits, nursing home torts, and discrimination.
April 16, 2008 is National Health Care Decisions Day