Seeking out a CELA (Certified Elder Law Attorney)

If you think you have elder law questions, where to start? A good starting place would be to look for an attorney who has been accredited as a Certified Elder Law Attorney.

As a general rule, there are ethical considerations when an attorney claims to be an "expert" in any area of law. The public trust could be abused where the claimed expertise is either false or misleading. New Jersey and New York only allow an attorney to claim to be "specialist" in an area of law if they are certified by a program accredited by the American Bar Association ("ABA").

The National Elder Law Foundation is the only organization accredited by the ABA to certify an attorney as being a specialist in the area of elder law - a designation known as a Certified Elder Law Attorney or "CELA".

So, if you are searching for an elder law attorney, why not start with those attorneys who have taken the time and made the effort to become known as specialists in their field. A searchable database of Certified Elder Law Attorneys can be found at http://www.nelf.org/findcela.asp.