45: Appointed Guardian of FTD Patient; for Frank's Sake

"Plaintiff's request to be granted 'guardian ad litem' denied. I suggest you take it up in Orphan's Court."
That was the ruling by the first judge that let Nicholas Zinc out of Frank's case which was the first time Matt asked to be made guardian for Frank, just for the divorce case. Guardian ad litem is not a full guardian, it's just a guardian appointment to be able to negotiate on behalf of someone for a particular area, but not everything. We really didn't want to be fully responsible for Frank at that point mostly because I didn't really know how liable we would be for him. Say he gets into an accident and gets sued, or does something negligent; would we be legally responsible for any hot water he found himself into? Matt had gotten turned down three times by two different judges in Delaware County Courthouse to be appointed guardian ad litem. There was no reason given, but all three times they told us we had to go to Orphan's Court. Orphan's Court is for full guardianship which would give Matt the power to conduct any and all business on Frank's behalf. After we did some research we found that a guardian cannot be sued or held financially responsible for any debts or liabilities so we decided that since Frank was found incompetent and Matt was going to have to go to court for him, that he would have to go to Orphan's Court after all.

Fargo was using Frank's incompetence against him. She had our hearing for spousal support cancelled because she told the docket clerk that we couldn't proceed without a guardian. The woman who works in Domestic Relations that seemed to be working for Kat's attorney, rescheduled it for three months later, now a total of eight months to wait for an emergency hearing. Still, two Delaware County Judges refused to appoint Matt guardian. We decided to go around them and go to our own courthouse where a person can still be treated fairly.  Orphan's Court in Montgomery County appointed Matt legal guardian of Frank after reviewing all the medical evaluations we had. Normally, the incapacitated person would be there also, but since Kat had Frank jailed, that was going to be difficult. Someone from the courthouse took the hour long drive up to the prison and interviewed Frank. It was a slam dunk after that. Matt was appointed legal guardian by the court of Montgomery County and had papers to prove that he was legally able, and required, to look out for Frank's best interests. There was no one better suited to do this because Matt took his responsibility for Frank very seriously. He took Kat's and Fargo's victimization of Frank very hard. There was no one but him to try to get justice for his brother. He could see that Kat paid Frank what he was owed financially, but he could never right the wrongs she committed to him and the children emotionally; all for Frank's sake.