New York elder law attorney

UNIFORMITY OF LAWS

Many laws across the country are the result of non-profit civic minded legal entities. The American Legal Institute is perhaps the most well known of these groups. Not all laws are “laws” in the traditional sense. Some are written by these legal entities and the various states adopt them as compacts, which are in essence legal contracts between states as to how they will handle intra-state legal problems. For example, there is a drivers compact that enables one state to recognize and punish out of state drivers for driver under the influence infractions.

For example, New Jersey driver receives a driving under the influence infraction in New York. The worst thing that New York can do is to revoke that driver’s right to operate a vehicle in New York state. Indeed this does happen. In addition, under the driver’s compact, New York also forwards this conviction to New Jersey and New Jersey then punishes the driver in accordance with New Jersey law, thereby suspending his/her driving privileges. Congress has never weighed in on this issue because there was no need to. Almost every state partakes in the Driver’s compact. States also cooperate with the placement of foster children across state lines to relatives or family friends via a compact. Once again, Congress has not created any statutory framework for the states. At the current moment there is some general agreement between the states when it comes to the laws that deal with Adult Protective Services (“APS”). The key term is that there is “general agreement.”

MANY ISSUES TO ADDRESS – PRIVACY AND LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS

The issue of video cameras in nursing homes has exploded over the last several years. With the large scale saturation of such user friendly technologies as Skype, Facetime and similar video technologies it should not come as a surprise that these issues are cropping up in nursing homes. Video cameras can be a major liability for nursing homes, including even criminal liability. It seems almost weekly that someone is arrested or charged due to evidence gleaned from video cameras located in nursing home residents’ rooms or other areas. While management may decide to utilize video monitoring equipment in public areas, there are many problems with residents using the same or similar video technology even in their own rooms.

Certainly there are common areas that are not public in nature that are a definite problem area for video imaging. The distinction lies in the public versus private designation. You do not have an expectation of privacy in public. There is an expectation of privacy in a residential unit. With a video camera a resident may be able to, unwittingly, record another resident without his or her permission, in a private area of the nursing home. Such a broadcast, depending on the audience, could be grounds for an invasion of privacy lawsuit. In addition, it could be a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, usually known as HIPAA, the federal law that requires the confidentiality of medical records. In addition, if there is an audio recording function, recording a third party’s conversations may also violate state criminal wiretapping laws. New York is in the majority of states that require the consent of at least one of the interlocutors for any interception to be deemed legal.

Articles Tagged with New York elder law attorney

ADULT PROTECTIVE SERVICES VOLUNTARY DRAFT GUIDELINES

CAMERAS IN THE NURSING HOME