Process Services
Today, I submitted the petition for Guardianship and associated orders as part of a packet to be delivered to Patrick at his care facility. I learned that this must be performed by a third party to the court action. So, I did a quick scan of available process servers in the Puget Sound and chose one that was fully automated, had a lot of good reviews, and guaranteed to make delivery in time to file with the court this week.
The process for Emergency Guardianship isn’t clear but according to the information packet on Guardianship this notification had to happen within 5 court days of the petition itself. Unfortunately, we didn’t cover this topic with Patrick while we were in our visit yesterday and probably should have. I’ll call his physician first thing tomorrow and arrange for a phone conversation so that he is not surprised when the order arrives. Mary and I will need to spend time today collecting our thoughts, so that we can be his best advocates in the moment.
This conversation won’t be easy. The petition argues that due to his “severe mental illness,” we are requesting complete Guardianship and Conservatorship for 60 days. At the time that the petition was filed this seemed appropriate. As Patrick centers himself under the care of physicians, we anticipate that he may object to the breadth of the order. Hopefully his caregivers and legal counsel will explain the request in context. It is our hope that a more limited set of orders could be in place by the time he concludes his stay and returns home. The last thing that we want is for this process to interfere with his improvement or plan to return to us.
Patrick’s lawyer and the court’s visitor have both accepted their appointments and they will both begin their investigation on how best to proceed. It’s unclear to us yet how long the process will take and, therefore, when we can schedule the hearing. However, it doesn’t seem likely that the petition will be heard before the 14-day visit expires. And, I anticipate that we will get good advice from our own attorneys, once they have been engaged. In the meantime, we will continue to do our best to protect his interests as best we can.