Q: My dad fell and hurt his foot. He called an EMPLOYEE. She took him to the hospital a day later, said she was his daughter. The hospital said he was not capable of making good decisions. The next day she came by the house woke him up from sleeping off a hangover. He signed a POA to her for health care. Now this caregiver is buying him a case of liquor a week. Since then she has changed his living trust three times, lied to him about cars, bank accounts. Everything was in trust and 6 weeks before his death she did it again. Now she is beneficiary and has disinherited my sister and me. I am living in his house and I have nowhere to go, she wants me out. We are fighting it. I am not allowed to get his medical records that prove I am right because she is the POA. she is spending all his money and has taken over his company for 4 years now. She has changed lawyers 3 or 4 times. He was severe alcoholic. We have won the autopsy request, but the results won’t be back for 12 weeks. It is a classic elder abuse case- financial, physical, and emotional. He passed 6/6/2018 and we need help. (Fountain Valley, CA)

A: The POA ceased being operational when he passed. You describe a nightmare scenario. You need an attorney. If you find one, he or she will need to file in court for an order for the employee who was his agent under a POA to account for all his money during her time as fiduciary. If no executor or trustee is appointed, you can petition to be one. If the employee is his trustee or executor, you can petition to have her removed and you appointed. This is a tremendous amount of work and is essentially prosecuting a civil fraud case. You will need a seasoned litigation attorney with elder law experience or access to an elder law attorney as an associate or in the same firm.