Elder Law in Massachusetts
Massachusetts elder law draws on both federal and State law for its legal content. The Massachusetts Medicaid program has been renamed MassHealth. Other distinctive features include
- the absence of legislation recognizing living wills substituting reliance upon health care proxies instead
- a well-developed mental health law
- a well-developed case law of trusts based on a traditional "prudent man" standard for investments rather than a list of fixed classes of statutory investment vehicles as required elsewhere.
The Massachusetts law of trusts serves as the paradigm, although certain changes have been made in states which have adopted the Uniform Probate Code (which Massachusetts has not as of 2006). The famous Rogers decision requiring court-appointed monitors for ordered antipsychotic medications by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court was subsequently approved and followed by the United States Supreme Court. Massachusetts is the only state whose judges are permanently appointed as in the federal courts, which has resulted in a bench largely free of political pressure and of greater longevity and experience than in any other state.
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