Recognizing & Representing Clients Whose Capacity is Diminishing

Publication Title

The American Law Institute Continuing Legal Education Course Materials: Estate Planning for the Family Business Owner 2023

Authors

Mary F. Radford, Georgia State University College of LawFollow

Document Type

Presentation

Publication Date

2023

Abstract

“There are few subjects about which so little can certainly be known as the operation of the human mind.” Alston v. Boyd, 25 Tenn. 504 (Tenn. 1846)

Deciding what to do when questions of client capacity arise is not for the fainthearted. There are no safe harbors for two primary reasons. First, the notion of capacity is an elusive, amorphous abstraction that, in practice, cannot be divorced from the complexities of the real life situation. Second, none of the rules and authorities give the lawyer adequate guidance for assessing capacity or deciding how to proceed if doubts exist. Some rules are Delphic at best.

Jan Ellen Rein, Ethics and the Questionably Competent Client: What the Model Rules Say and Don't Say, 9 Stanford Law & Policy Review 241 (1998)

Comments

External Links

Westlaw

Recommended Citation

Mary F. Radford, Recognizing & Representing Clients Whose Capacity is Diminishing, in the The American Law Institute Continuing Legal Education Course Materials: Estate Planning for the Family Business Owner 2023 (2023).

Institutional Repository Citation

Mary F. Radford, Recognizing & Representing Clients Whose Capacity is Diminishing, Faculty Publications By Year 3524 (2023)
https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/faculty_pub/3524