How do you find and hire attorneys for conservatorship?

A short note before you start

This guide is general information for the United States, not legal, tax, financial or medical advice. Whether a case needs one attorney or two, who must have one, and who pays, are set by the state and county where the petition is filed. Confirm current rules with your state court's self-help site or a local attorney.

What does "attorneys for conservatorship" mean?

People search this phrase two ways: looking for a list of attorneys to compare, or trying to understand who the lawyers in a case actually are. Both have the same starting answer. A single conservatorship or guardianship case can involve more than one attorney at once, and they are not interchangeable:

• The petitioner's attorney works for the family member asking the court to open the case.
• The attorney for the proposed conservatee works for the adult the case is about, representing that person's own wishes, not what the family or the court thinks is best for them.

For a full breakdown of these two roles and general hiring costs, see Conservatorship attorney and Lawyer for conservatorship, which this page builds on. What this page adds is the process: the order attorneys get involved in a case, how to compare more than one before hiring, and state rules on court-appointed counsel not covered in depth on those pages. For the underlying legal concept, see Meaning of conservatorship.

Step by step: how to find and hire an attorney for a conservatorship case

1. Identify which role you need filled. A petitioning family member needs different help than the adult the case is about; one attorney cannot represent both in a contested case.
2. Ask whether a lawyer is required at all. Some courts let an uncontested petitioner file without one. The proposed conservatee is treated differently; several states, described below, appoint one automatically.
3. Check free options first. Try a Legal Services Corporation-funded legal aid group via its "I Need Legal Help" tool by ZIP code¹⁰, and the Eldercare Locator, for people 60 and older, at 1-800-677-1116 or eldercare.acl.gov¹¹.
4. Build a short list of two or three attorneys, not just one. Search the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys directory by ZIP code⁹, and ask your state bar's certified referral service for names¹².
5. Interview each one with the same questions (see the list below), including their experience in the exact court and county where the petition will be filed.
6. Get a written fee agreement stating the hourly rate or flat fee, what the retainer covers, and how ongoing accounting work is billed.
7. Confirm how the proposed conservatee's own attorney, if any, is chosen and paid, since that decision belongs to the court or to that person, not the family hiring the petitioner's attorney.
8. Keep every attorney's contact information and the case number where the rest of the family can find them, not only in one inbox.

What do attorneys for conservatorship cost, and who pays?

There is no national fee schedule. Filing fees are set by the state and county court, rates vary by whether the case is contested, and courts, not a fixed formula, usually decide what a court-appointed or petitioner's attorney is paid. Texas illustrates this: state law sets no dollar rate for attorneys or guardians ad litem, leaving the court to set "an amount the court considers equitable and just"⁷.

Where a state requires an attorney for the proposed conservatee, that cost is typically paid from that person's own estate if they have resources, or by the court or county if they cannot pay. New Jersey's statute lets the court fix the appointed attorney's compensation to be paid from the estate "or in such other manner as the court shall direct"³. Missouri appoints the attorney regardless of the respondent's ability to pay, then decides later how the fee is covered².

Get a written fee agreement before hiring any private attorney, and ask how ongoing accounting work is billed, since that cost often exceeds the initial filing.

How do you compare more than one attorney before hiring?

Since a family often needs to choose among several attorneys, ask each candidate the same questions before deciding:

• How many cases have you handled in this specific court and county in the last two years?
• Do you represent petitioning families, proposed conservatees, or both, and how do you avoid a conflict if the case becomes contested?
• What is included in your retainer, and what is billed separately?
• How do you bill for the accounting and reporting work required after the hearing?
• Do you hold a Certified Elder Law Attorney credential, granted only after five years in practice, a heavy recent elder law caseload, 36 hours of continuing education, and a full-day exam⁸?
• What happens if the proposed conservatee or another family member contests the petition?
• Can you give a written estimate for an uncontested case, and what would make it contested?

Comparing answers side by side, rather than hiring the first attorney found, is what most often surfaces a conflict of interest or a fee structure that does not fit the case.

Does the person the case is about automatically get an attorney? How this varies by state

Whether the proposed conservatee gets an attorney automatically, on request, or at the court's discretion is one of the most consequential state-by-state differences, because it decides whether that person's voice is represented in court at all.

These six states are a sample, not a complete list, and legislatures are actively changing this rule; Washington's requirement did not exist before mid-2026. Search "[your state] courts self-help guardianship conservatorship attorney" to confirm the current rule, and see Conservatorship attorney and Lawyer for conservatorship for more states, including California, Texas, Florida, New York, Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Kansas and Idaho.

Timeline: when does each attorney's role start and end?

Attorneys for conservatorship do not all appear at the same moment. The table below shows roughly when each is typically involved, though exact timing depends on the court's calendar and whether the case is contested.

What to record in a family guide

Whether a conservatorship is already open, or a family has only retained an attorney in case one becomes necessary, this is the kind of information a family guide keeps in one place so it is not lost or repeated to every institution that asks for it:

• Each attorney's name, firm, phone, email, and exactly which role they fill
• Whether either attorney holds a Certified Elder Law Attorney credential
• The case number, court name and county
• Where the signed fee agreement and any court order approving fees are kept
• The date the next accounting or fee petition is due
• Whether a durable power of attorney or advance health care directive exists from before incapacity

Common mistakes

• Hiring the first attorney found instead of comparing two or three with the same questions.
• Assuming one attorney can represent both the petitioning family member and the proposed conservatee once the case is contested.
• Not asking whether the proposed conservatee already qualifies for a court-appointed attorney at no cost.
• Treating one state's rule on appointed counsel as universal, when it is mandatory in some states, discretionary in others, and changing, as the table above shows.
• Skipping a written fee agreement, then being surprised by billing for accounting work that continues for years.
• Losing track of which attorney represents which side once the initial hearing is over.

When to get professional help

Talk to an attorney before filing any petition, since notice requirements and local practice differ even within a state. Get a litigation-experienced attorney the moment anyone objects to the petition or to who should serve as conservator. If the proposed conservatee cannot afford counsel, ask the court clerk whether the state requires one to be appointed. If cost is the only barrier for the petitioning family, contact legal aid or a certified referral service before paying a large retainer.