Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 1209, Questioning Mental Competency.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 1209.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com.
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This episode is about people like me, who sometimes can be a little crazy.
We're talking about whether someone is mentally competent, whether they can think and behave rationally and logically.
Let's get started.
What are you doing with all those law books?
I thought you retired 20 years ago.
I'm preparing for my mental competency hearing.
But your mind is as sharp as it has ever been.
They are going to court to prove my diminished capacity.
They are going to argue that I need a conservator for my estate.
Nobody who knows you would question your sound mind.
There must be another reason for this hearing.
You're right.
My children want to get their hands on my money and if they can prove mental incapacitation and impaired judgment, they will get power of attorney.
And if they get power of attorney?
They would get control of my company and my entire estate.
So what are you going to do?
I am going to fight fire with fire.
I'm suing them.
What for? and I can make it stick.
They're both lacking in common sense.
Everybody knows you should never sue an attorney, especially a successful one.
Claire begins our dialogue by asking Ray, what are you doing with all those law books?
I thought you retired 20 years ago.
To retire means to leave your job, usually when you are older, say 65 years or more.
Ray says, I'm preparing for my mental competency hearing.
Mental, M-E-N-T-A-L, refers to your mind, to your ability to use your brain.
Competency, C-O-M-P-E-T-E-N-C-Y, refers to the ability to do something. a hearing h e a r i n g is an opportunity often in front of a judge in a courtroom to make your case to give the judge information so that the judge can make a decision Put it all together and we have mental competency hearing, which is a legal hearing, a legal meeting, if you will, in front of a judge in which the judge is going to decide if a certain person has lost his ability to think rationally or clearly.
If someone is not mentally competent, then different rules apply.
Different laws apply to that person.
For example, if you are not mentally competent, you may not be able to control your own money or even your own medical decisions.
Ray says he's preparing for his mental competency hearing.
Claire is surprised at this.
She says, mental competency hearing, but your mind is as sharp as it has ever been.
If you say someone's mind is sharp S-H-A-R-P, or describe someone as being sharp, you mean the person is able to think clearly and intelligently.
The adjective can also mean to be bright or intelligent or smart.
Ray says, that's not what my children think.
In other words, Ray's children think that he is no longer mentally competent, that he cannot take care of himself.
They are going to court, that is, his children are going to a judge.
To prove my diminished capacity, diminished, D-I-M-I-N-I-S-H-E-D, capacity, C-A-P-A-C-I-T-Y, is when you no longer have the ability to think as clearly as you did. so much so that you probably shouldn't be handling your own affairs, taking care of your business or personal affairs yourself.
Ray says that his children are going to argue.
They're going to tell the judge that he needs a conservator for my estate.
A conservator, C-O-N-S-E-R-V-A-T-O-R, is someone who takes care of another person's legal and financial matters, especially when that person is no longer able to do it himself.
So if you are judged to be mentally incompetent, that is not able to take care of your own affairs, your own financial and legal matters, the judge, the government in effect, will give someone that power, and that person is called a conservator.
Your estate, E-S-T-A-T-E, here refers to all of the money and things that you own.
Claire says nobody who knows you would question, would doubt, your sound mind.
To have a sound, S-O-U-N-D, mind is to be mentally competent.
We have an expression to be of sound mind.
That is, you are logical, rational, you are able to think clearly.
If you are going to sign a contract or enter into a legal agreement, you must be of sound mind.
If you are not, then the agreement is invalid.
That is, you can't enter into a legal contract if you are not mentally competent.
Even though a lot of people enter into legal contracts that are pretty stupid, that isn't quite the same thing.
Claire says there must be another reason for this hearing.
Ray says you're right.
My children want to get their hands on my money.
The expression to get your hands H-A-N-D-S on something means you want to get control of something.
To get your hands on someone's money means to take someone's money or get control of someone's money.
A beautiful young woman who marries a rich old man may be trying to get her hands on his money.
Or it could just be love.
Yes, that's it.
It's love.
The same would be true, of course, of a young man and a rich old woman.
But let's not talk about people here in Hollywood.
Back to our story.
Ray says that his children want to get their hands on his money.
He says if they can prove mental incapacitation and impaired judgment, they will get power of attorney.
There are a couple of legal phrases or expressions here.
The first one is mental incapacitation.
We've already talked about diminished capacity.
Mental incapacitation is when you are judged not to be able to think clearly.
To be incapable of doing something is to be unable to do something.
So if you are incapacitated, you are unable to do a certain thing.
You could be physically incapacitated, that is unable to move your body of your own volition, of your own will, or you could be mentally incapacitated.
If you are mentally incapacitated, it's basically...
The same as being mentally incompetent.
You are unable to do what you need to do.
To have impaired judgment means to be unable to make good logical decisions.
If you drink a lot of alcohol, for example, you may have impaired judgment.
People who go to a bar on Friday night and drink a lot of alcohol by the end of the night often have impaired judgment and tend to believe that other people in the bar are more attractive than they really are.
Ray says that...
His children want to get power of attorney, A-T-T-O-R-N-E-Y.
The word attorney normally refers to a lawyer.
The expression power of attorney however, refers to the legal authority that that one person has to represent another person in some sort of financial or legal decision or contract.
If you have power of attorney for your parents, for example, you are able to do everything your parents would be able to do financially and legally in most cases.
So you could go to a bank and open up a bank account in their name if you have power of attorney.
Sometimes power of attorney gives you the right to make medical decisions for another person if the government decides that that person is mentally incapacitated.
However, you can voluntarily give someone power of attorney.
My accountant has power of attorney before the government to represent me on tax matters.
You may give power of attorney to your husband or wife in case you are unable to do something because you are mentally or physically incapacitated.
Claire says if they, meaning raised children, get power of attorney...
Ray interrupts and says, they would get control of my company and my entire estate.
Claire asks, so what are you going to do?
Ray responds, I am going to fight fire with fire.
The expression to fight fire F-I-R-E with fire means to attack someone using the same methods or techniques that person is using to attack you.
Ray says, I'm suing them.
To sue someone means to bring a legal case against someone in front of a judge.
Claire says, what for?
Meaning, what are you suing them for?
Ray says, fraud, and I can make it stick.
Fraud F-R-A-U-D are lies or actions that are meant to trick another person, to fool another person, in order to get this other person to give you his money.
The expression.
To make it stick S-T-I-C-K means to demonstrate that it is true, to demonstrate that someone else is wrong, especially if they are guilty of some sort of crime or offense against the law.
Ray says they're both lacking in common sense.
Ray is referring to his two children, saying they are lacking, L-A-C-K-I-N-G, in common sense.
To lack means not to have something, to be without something.
Common sense refers to the normal ability of people to understand the world, to make rational decisions about the world around them.
Ray says everybody knows you should never sue an attorney, especially a successful one.
We find out in the last sentence that Ray himself is a lawyer.
He is an attorney.
And he was a successful one.
He's saying that his children aren't very smart.
They lack common sense because they are trying to sue their own father who himself is an attorney.
There is however, another expression in English that we could use here that Ray may not like, which is a person who represents himself in court, that is, a person who tries to be his own attorney, as Ray is doing, has a fool for a lawyer.
That is, it's never a good idea to try to be your own attorney, your own lawyer.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What are you doing with all those law books?
I thought you retired 20 years ago.
I'm preparing for my mental competency hearing.
Mental competency hearing?
But your mind is as sharp as it has ever been.
Nobody who knows you would question your sound mind.
There must be another reason for this hearing.
You're right.
My children want to get their hands on my money.
And if they can prove mental incapacitation and impaired judgment, they will get power of attorney.
And if they get power of attorney?
They would get control of my company and my entire estate.
So what are you going to do?
I am going to fight fire with fire.
I'm suing them.
What for?
Fraud, and I can make it stick.
They're both lacking in common sense.
Everybody knows you should never sue an attorney, especially a successful one.
Thanks to the most competent scriptwriter on the internet, Dr. Lucy Say, for her wonderful script.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
