Law n.º 49/2018, of August 14th – Creates the legal regime of the Accompanied Adult, and thus terminating the legal institutes of Interdiction and Non-qualification, in order to considerably reduce the stigmatization related to them.
The present law proceeds on creating the legal regime of the Accompanied Adult, terminating the institutes of Interdiction and Non-qualification. The new law, apart from introducing and entirely new regime, it also introduces changes in matters related to this, particularly in the mental health area, non-marital partnership, medically assisted procreation.
With the approval of the new regime comes new realities, consequently new legal figures are born, such as the accompanied and the accompanion.
Concerning the accompanied, the accompaniment must exist whenever is in question an unable, adult, wheter due to deficiency, health or by their behaviour, to exercise their rights, in a full, personal and conscious way or to fulfil their duties. The accompaniment is decided by the court, it may be requested whitin the year before the adulthood, or at all times, in the adulthood by himself (accompanied), or upon his authorization, by the spouse, non-marital partners, by any successor relative, or even by the public prossecutor who does not require authorization.
Regarding the companion, it must be an adult and in the full exercise of its rights, it its chosen by the accompanied or its legal representative, by means of a judical designation. In the absence of choice it is assigned as a companion the person who best protects the beneficiary’s interest. being determined according a (non-exhaustive) preference order, from the spouse not judicially separated to the agent with representative powers. The new regime also provides the possibility of being assigned two accompanying persons at the same time, as long as they perform different functions.
The accompaniment must be limited to the minimum necessary, so that within each specific case self-determination and the capabilities of the beneficiary can be ensured. Therefore, it is accepted that the accompanied person can freely exercise the exercise of his personal rights and the conclusion of business of his current life, except in cases in which there is a legal provision or a judicial decision to the contrary.
Lastly, the accompaniment is free of charge despite the allocation of possible expenses, depending on the condition of both the companied and the companion, since the latter must be accountable to the companied, and ceases or is changed, by means of a judicial decision recognizing such termination or alteration of the reasons for such request.