Detecting Fraud With Financial Armor

Comstock’s Magazine

Authors Don Lipper and Elizabeth Sagehorn

New California laws widen the definition of who is required to report elder financial abuse. State Senate Bill 1018, which took effect on January 1, 2007, requires banks, credit unions and their affiliates to report elder financial abuse. January 1, 2008, Senate Bill 611 expanded the law to include the right to file a writ of attachment to freeze a suspect’s financial accounts and recover the victim’s money. SB 611 also allows the recovery of attorneys’ fees in elder abuse cases and a tripling of the punitive damages.

Shareholder Ed Corey is quoted in this article about the unlikelihood that attorneys would be added to the mandatory reporters list due to the attorney-client privilege.