Planning Ahead for 2016: Attorneys as Mandatory Reporters of Suspected Abuse?

With the 2015 AALS Annual Meeting in our rear-view mirror, we can begin thinking about programming for January 6-9, 2016 in New York City! Whew!  No rest… no rest….

The new officers for the Aging and the Law Section include Chair-Elect Nina Kohn, Syracuse Law, Secretary Roberta Flowers, Stetson Law, and Treasurer Jack Sahl, University of Akron Law.   Mark Bauer, Stetson, as outgoing chair will continue on the executive committee.  If other law professors reading this blog would like to volunteer to be on the planning committee for January 2016, that would be great too.  Just email one of us to let us know!

The preliminary plans are to work on a joint program with a professional responsibility focus, looking at emerging potential roles for attorneys to protect older adults from abuse or neglect, including consideration of whether attorneys are — or should be — “mandated” reporters of suspected abuse of adults.  A mandatory reporting obligation, already a fact of life for some professionals, including social workers in certain contexts and attorneys in some states, raises important questions of client identity, autonomy, confidentiality, and conflicts of interest, just to name a few concerns.  Let us know if you have a work in progress — or additional thoughts — along this line.