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Did You Know: Florida Now Has an Elder Abuse Fatality Review Team Statute?

You learn something new every day. Today I learned that Florida now has an Elder Abuse Fatality Review Team Statute. This was discussed in an article by Ellen Cheek, Chair of the Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation Committee of the Elder Law Section of the Florida Bar. Cheek published the article in The Elder Law Advocate Volume XXVII, No. 3. Fall 2020.  

Senate Bill 400 is the bill that authorized the creation of the Elder Abuse Fatality Review teams across the state. The bill became law on July 1, 2020 as Florida Statute 415.1103. A link to the bill can be found here. 

Senate Minority Leader Audrey Gibson spearheaded the bill. This new law provides a mechanism for systematic review and data collection in fatal cases of elder abuse. The author states that this is similar to those statutes that have been in place for years for child abuse and domestic violence fatalities. 

The author of the article Ms. Cheek states that elder abuse, though unfortunately common, is not well documented. The author Ms. Cheek states that it is expected that elderly people will die, that there is a pervasive assumption that a senior’s death was from natural causes, and that no investigation is required. 

The author states that the Elder Abuse Fatality Review Team Statute provides a promising opportunity to finally gather much-needed data and information pertaining to fatality cases of elder abuse. Florida Statute 415.1103 authorizes the state attorney in each circuit to create a Review Team and to refer for its consideration closed cases in which a fatality was caused by elder abuse or neglect. 

The review teams are intended to be multi-disciplinarian teams consisting of  members representing aging services, geriatric medicine, elder law, law enforcement, and prosecution, among other areas. The author states that this diverse membership allows for careful scrutiny of all circumstances and factors leading up to death, as well as the identification of problems and gaps in services from many different perspectives. The decision on whether to form the Elder Abuse Fatality Review Team is within the discretion of each circuit’s state attorney. 

Hopefully, we all learned a little more about elder abuse today, thanks to Ellen Cheek, Chair of the Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation Committee of the Elder Law Section of the Florida Bar. 

If you have more questions regarding an Elder Law matter, you may call Ann Marie Giordano Gilden at Ann Marie Giordano Gilden, P.A. at 407-732-7620 and set an initial consultation. You may also visit my website at: AnnMarieGildenLaw.com; and check me out on these other sites: Ann Marie Giordano Gilden on Facebook; Ann Marie (Giordano) Gilden on LinkedIn; and Ann Marie Giordano Gilden on AVVO and Lawyers.com. 

This article is for informational purposes only, and it does not form an attorney client privilege.