Prof. Joe Rosenberg and clinic students at CUNY School of Law have created a “guided interview” and pdf guide to N.Y. Article 81 Guardianships. The guided interview provides information, including short videos, about alternatives to N.Y. Article 81 Guardianships, and if it is necessary, the interview takes you through the information necessary to create, print, and file the papers required for a court to appoint a Guardian under Article 81.

The NY Article 81 Guardianship guided interview is available by clicking here.

Read & download the Guide to Becoming a New York Article 81 Guardian Without a Lawyer by clicking here.

This guided interview includes information about Article 81 guardianships and less restrictive alternatives that are available to help a person who needs support making decisions about property, finances, health care, and living arrangements. If after going through this information, which includes, short videos, you decide it is necessary to file papers for a guardian to be appointed under Article 81, you can answer questions and create the documents needed to file for guardianship under Article 81. The guided interview also will print out instructions for filing and serving these papers.

The “Guide to Becoming a New York Article 81 Guardian Without a Lawyer” is also designed for individuals who need to learn about adult guardianships under Article 81 of the N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law and cannot afford an attorney.

Because guardianship proceedings are complex and can deprive a person of many rights, we recommend consulting with an attorney if possible! If you cannot hire an attorney and must start a guardianship proceeding, the guide is designed to make that process as easy and understandable as possible.

Guardianship is a legal proceeding in which someone (for example, a family member, hospital, nursing home, adult protective services) asks a court to find that a person is unable to manage their personal needs and/or property because of a disability. A guardian “steps into the shoes” of the person with a disability and helps them make decisions that are necessary to prevent harm.

A guardian can only be appointed by a court and should only be used as a last resort because it is the most restrictive form of substitute decision-making. Guardianship can strip an individual of the right to make important life decisions.

If you are interested in more information about the differences between supported decision-making and guardianship, please refer to the American Bar Association’s Guardianship and Supported Decision-Making webpage or feel free to use our app (How to Make Healthcare Decisions in New York without a Guardian) located on the main menu.

The information in the guided interview and the Guide to Becoming a New York Guardian Without a Lawyer is based on New York Law and should not be used if you or the person you support does not reside in New York.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.