Each year, hundreds of thousands of elders face abuse, neglect, or exploitation by family members and others. Many victims include older, frail, and vulnerable people. They cannot help themselves and depend on others to meet their most basic needs.

Many perpetrators of elder abuse include those with the closest relation or access to a position of trust to the elder. For example, Family Members, Guardians, or Healthcare Workers. Sometimes, they include so-called Professionals like a Trustee, Conservator, or Personal Representative of the Estates. Spouses supposed to protect the interests of the surviving elder spouse can also abuse them.

Our attorneys serve on the panel of counsel carefully screened and selected. They represent clients of the Maine Legal Services for the Elderly (LSE) agency. Through the years, we represented LSE clients in difficult situations involving dementia, lost memory, Alzheimer’s Disease, financial abuse, and property boundary problems.

We also handled complicated financial and will execution issues that arose in the probate of an elderly person’s estate. In each case, we feel a tremendous sense of pride and goodwill in advancing, advocating, and addressing the wrongs to which the elder sometimes falls prey.

Elder abuse is an umbrella term used to describe the following:

• Physical abuse, physical pain, or injury.
• Sexual abuse (e.g., non-consensual sexual contact of any kind)
• Emotional or psychological mental anguish (e.g., humiliation, intimidation, or threats)
• Financial or material exploitation (e.g., using the resources of an older person, without their consent, for someone else’s benefit)
• Neglect or failure of a caretaker to provide goods or services necessary to avoid physical harm, mental anguish, or mental illness (e.g., abandonment, denial of food, or health-related services)