Guardianship Data

How many guardianships are there in the United States?  To date, we do not have an accurate assessment of the number of open adult guardianship and conservatorship cases.  The collection of reliable data is besieged by a number of problems.
The “official” court data at the state level is plagued with problems.  In a 2006 exploratory study of state guardianship data, the ABA Commission on Law and Aging found that many state court administrative offices did not receive information on guardianship from trial courts and noted that the majority of  reporting states could not provide state-level data.  The problem is compounded by the lack of statewide case management systems that can identify case events for guardianships and conservatorships.  The lack of state-level data requires researchers to focus on local courts, the only source of accurate and reliable guardianship data.

In 2009, the National Center for State Courts, on behalf of the Conference of Chief Justices/Conference of State Court Administrators Joint Task Force on Elders and the Courts, surveyed judges and court managers on guardianship issues, including the collection of data.  The results, compiled in a report , confirmed that quality data on adult guardianships continues to be problematic.  In particular, courts may have some information on filings, but have more difficulties tracking caseloads, as these cases can remain open for years and sometimes decades.

“Official” court data is collected through the Court Statistics Project (CSP), which is a joint effort by the National Center for State Courts, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and the Conference of State Court Administrators.  A review of the guardianship data indicates:

Deficiencies in the statewide collection of data on the number of active cases are compounded by the lack of statewide case management systems that can identify key case events for guardianships and conservatorships.  Further, some states cannot distinguish between guardianships granted to children, incapacitated young adults, and elders.  Finally, the inconsistent use of terminology across states makes the collection of systematic national data challenging.
In 2007, Senators Gordon Smith and Herb Kohl, chairs of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, issued a report on Guardianship for the Elderly that encouraged the collection and review of electronic case data.
In 2009, CCJ and COSCA passed Resolution 14, “Encouraging Collection of Data on Adult Guardianship,
Adult Conservatorship, and Elder Abuse Cases by All States.”

Resources

Caseload Highlights: The Need for Improved Guardianship Data
Judicature article
Guardianship of the Elderly:  Past Performance and Future Promises
State-Level Adult Guardianship Data: An Exploratory Study
Adult Guardianship Caseload Data and Issues: Results from an Online Survey