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Friday, February 20, 2015

Moments of Lucidity and Legal Capacity




One particularly tricky patch of terrain that attorneys who deal with older clients must navigate is determining when "moments of lucidity"can support a finding of "legal capacity." One law professor exhorts attorneys to exercise caution, noting that they "may spend too much time being impressed by a client's ability to remember who is the president or the names of their children, and too little time asking more probing questions."

Assessing in these situations can be difficult, especially when clients still in the early phases of dementia can suffer from impairments that are not easily recognizable. Fortunately, there are handbooks available put together through a joint effort of the American Psychological Association and the American Bar Association for determining a client's legal capacity, one dedicated to attorneys, one to psychologists, and another to judges.