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Florida Guardianship analysis 2016

 

Since there are no valid statistics forthcoming from the State, we decided to produce some from our own research into the Department of Elderly Affairs website http://trialstats.flcourts.org/TrialCourtStats.aspx

to the best of our understanding since there are no explanations provided on the site

 

To test the theory that “One of the biggest risk factors for being placed into a Guardianship is your zip code”.

First some overall stats:

The Probate courts spent enormous amounts of time with 41,856 Baker acts .

 

In Guardianship matters:

7402 guardianship matters were brought before Florida Courts in 2016 (this does not include standard estate probate trust matters of which there were 1121 cases.

Of those 648 were dismissed for some reason before “trial”

4,554 guardianships were created by Florida judges. This is a rate overall of .2168 per thousand.

Another 889 were disposed by something called a “non jury trial”

And 152 were “disposed” by “other means” whatever that means

Additionally 4,908 cases were re-opened, likely for extended litigation.

 

The following Florida counties each instituted at least 20 guardianships in 2016

 

County                             Population                  GSHIPS /1,000 population

Escambia 10                      303,615                           .0330*

Duval        33                      879,736                          .0375*

Pasco        10                      470,630                          .0213

Pinellas     21                      921,573                          .0228

Orange      24                   1.201,000                         .0199

Polk            10                       616,763                        .0162

Dade          60                   2.600,000                         .0238*

Sarasota     13                     386,109                         .0336*

Hillsborough 36               1,279,190                        .0281*

Palm Beach  39                1,355,000                        .0287*

Brevard         20                    547,161                       .0365*

Broward        30                1,814,000                       .0165

Lee                24                     644,763                       .0372*

 

Asterisk= higher than  expected rate (<.0285) within 1 Standard deviation

Population size size alone is not the only determinate.

Also, we have numerous cases of an individually problematic nature in Counties like Broward and of course, Dade.

This supports the idea that the FLorida Statutes laws are not at fault, they are the same throughout the state but are being misused and exploited.  It is the court insiders, especially the Judges that aid and abet the creation of excessive numbers of including many fraudulent guardianships and then complain they are overworked and underpaid.

Your comments welcomed