Financial exploitation is  a growing form of abuse of seniors, and frequently involves trusted persons in the life of the vulnerable senior, such as family members, caretakers, neighbors, friends and acquaintances, doctors and even attorneys. There is a great need for legal assistance to elderly people who have trusted someone with their life savings only to find out later that they have been scammed. Using California’s Elder Abuse Act a person 65 years of age or older can bring an action for Financial Elder Abuse which is defined as a situation in which any person, including a caregiver or a trustee for an elder or a dependent adult, takes, secretes, or appropriates their money or property, for any wrongful use, or with the intent to defraud.

If you or an elderly friend or relative have been the victim of financial abuse please contact Thornton Koller at 760-688-0600; we can help you recover your financial loss via the remedies under the Elder Abuse Act, which includes the right to recover your attorney’s fees and costs.

Recent Cases:

In a recent financial abuse case handled by North San Diego County attorney Audrey Powers Thornton, an elderly 83-year old plaintiff discovered that a family friend who was also her financial advisor and trustee, had been secretly stealing her money and her properties over the course of 20 years. Attorney Audrey Thornton represented the elderly plaintiff in a civil lawsuit against the client’s fiduciary, alleging that he had violated the Elder Abuse Act, and recovered her client’s stolen property, as well as punitive damages, at trial.

Attorney Audrey Powers Thornton’s article “ELDER ABUSE ACT – USING THE CALIFORNIA ELDER ABUSE ACT TO OBTAIN COMPENSATION FOR SENIOR CITIZENS WHO HAVE BEEN VICTIMS OF FINANCIAL FRAUD”  was published in the September 2013 issue of the North County Lawyer magazine.