Three California Bills Would Strengthen Elder Abuse Prevention Law

San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and two local
state senators urged Gov. Jerry Brown to sign three bills aimed at helping to
prevent elder abuse, including financial elder abuse. “The changes to the law
included in these bills will make a real difference as our Elder Abuse Unit
works to hold defendants accountable when they abuse senior citizens in our
community,” Dumanis said. She was joined by Sens. Mark Wyland (R-Carlsbad) and
Joel Anderson (R-San Diego), in encouraging the governor to sign the
legislation. SB 543, which is sponsored by the San Diego County District
Attorney’s Office, would ensure that theft from an elder is a “qualifying prior
offense” when sentencing a person to prison, removing an ambiguity in the law
to treat elder theft with the same seriousness as any other form of theft. The
two other bills specifically target financial elder abuse. AB 140 would
modernize the definition of undue influence for elder financial abuse, a
definition which has not been revised since 1872, and AB 477 would make
notaries public mandatory reporters of suspected elder financial abuse.

Source/more: Fox News San Diego