What Damages Can You Recover for Financial Exploitation of an Elderly Person in West Virginia?

An elderly person who has been financially exploited in West Virginia can recover the return of the property, actual damages equal to everything that was taken, and then a multiplier on top: double damages if the exploiter was a stranger, treble damages if the exploiter held a power of attorney or another position of trust. Attorneys’ fees, court costs, post-judgment interest, and a protective order are also available, and the standard of proof is only a preponderance of the evidence.

Those damages are not theoretical. In a recent case, a West Virginia circuit court ordered a woman who had served as an elderly man’s attorney-in-fact to pay $789,852.88, made up of $197,463.22 in actual damages and $592,389.66 in treble damages, after finding she had drained his bank accounts and left him with debts in his name. The court also ordered her to pay the family’s attorneys’ fees. That was a court-ordered judgment after a contested hearing, not a settlement, and Hewitt Law PLLC served as co-counsel for the family. The result is a clear picture of how the statute works when a family decides to act.

What damages does West Virginia law allow for financial exploitation of an elderly person?

A court can order the return of the property, award actual damages equal to the loss, and then add either double damages (for someone not in a position of trust) or treble damages (for someone who was). The court can also award attorneys’ fees and costs, and the judgment earns post-judgment interest until it is paid.

The remedies come from West Virginia Code § 55-7J-3 and § 55-7J-4:

Return of property. Cash, vehicles, real estate, or anything else improperly obtained or controlled.
Actual damages. The value of what was lost, including debts the exploiter caused the victim to take on.
Double damages when the exploiter was not in a position of trust and confidence.
Treble damages when the exploiter was in a position of trust and confidence.
Attorneys’ fees and costs to the person who brought the case and prevailed.
Post-judgment interest. Under West Virginia Code § 56-6-31, a money judgment accrues interest at the rate set for the year it was entered, 6.25% for 2026, and that rate stays fixed for the life of the judgment.
A permanent protective order barring further contact with the victim’s finances.

The statute says the court “may” award the enhanced damages, so the multiplier is not automatic. It is within the court’s discretion once exploitation has been proven. In practice, the facts that establish exploitation by a trusted agent are usually the same facts that persuade a court to apply it.

What are treble damages in a West Virginia financial exploitation case?

Treble damages are an additional award equal to three times the actual loss, available under West Virginia Code § 55-7J-3(b)(2) when the person who committed the exploitation was in a position of trust and confidence. They are added on top of actual damages, so a victim can recover roughly four times what was taken.

“Position of trust and confidence” is the phrase that decides whether the multiplier is two or three. It includes an agent under a power of attorney, a guardian, a conservator, and a trustee. Under West Virginia Code § 55-7J-2, holding one of those roles is no defense to the claim; it is the reason the damages go up.

The recent judgment Hewitt Law helped secure shows the math:

Actual damages: $197,463.22. Funds taken from the man’s accounts, plus a towing and storage debt on a vehicle bought in his name and abandoned.
Treble damages: $592,389.66. Three times the actual loss, awarded because the woman had been acting as his attorney-in-fact and was therefore in a position of trust and confidence.
Total judgment: $789,852.88, with 6.25% interest running on any unpaid balance.
Attorneys’ fees and costs, ordered paid by the exploiter, so the cost of proving the case fell on her rather than the family.

The Legislature drew that line on purpose. A stranger who scams an older adult has done something wrong. An agent who was handed the keys to someone’s finances and used them for herself has broken a duty of loyalty on top of the theft, and the statute prices that breach accordingly.

One practical caution. A judgment is a court order to pay, not a check. Whether the family recovers the full amount depends on what the exploiter owns and earns. That is why the asset-freeze provisions discussed below matter so much early in a case.

What counts as financial exploitation of an elderly person in West Virginia?

Financial exploitation means intentionally misappropriating or misusing the funds or assets of a person who is 65 or older, a protected person under a guardianship or conservatorship, or an incapacitated adult. It also covers draining someone’s assets through undue influence. Good-faith help managing money is excluded, but taking it for yourself is not.

West Virginia Code § 55-7J-1 supplies the definitions. Three groups of people are protected:

Elderly persons, meaning anyone 65 or older, regardless of their mental capacity.
Protected persons, meaning adults who already have a court-appointed guardian or conservator.
Incapacitated adults, meaning adults who cannot manage their own affairs because of a physical or mental condition.

The conduct that qualifies is broad. In practice, it looks like:

Withdrawing cash or writing checks from the older person’s accounts for the taker’s own benefit
Running up charges on their credit or debit cards
Transferring real estate, vehicles, or investment accounts into someone else’s name
Opening new accounts, loans, or vehicle purchases in the older person’s name without their knowledge
Pressuring a confused or dependent person into “gifts,” loans, or changes to a will or deed
Cashing Social Security or pension checks and keeping the proceeds
Refusing to pay the older person’s bills while spending their income elsewhere

The statute carves out one defense. If the accused person made a good-faith effort to help the older adult manage their money, a bad decision made honestly is not exploitation. Paying a parent’s electric bill late is not a lawsuit. Paying your own electric bill from their account is.

Who can be held liable, and why does a power of attorney make it worse?

Anyone who financially exploits an elderly person can be sued, including strangers, scammers, paid caregivers, and family members. The law treats people in a position of trust and confidence more harshly. That group includes agents under a power of attorney, guardians, conservators, and trustees, and it is exactly the group the recent judgment addressed.

A common misconception is that a power of attorney insulates the agent. Families assume that because Mom signed a document giving Uncle Bob authority over her accounts, whatever Uncle Bob did with the money was “legal.” It was not.

West Virginia Code § 55-7J-2 says so directly. Holding a power of attorney, or serving as a guardian, conservator, or trustee, is not, standing alone, a defense to a financial exploitation claim. The document gives the agent access. It does not give the agent permission to spend the principal’s money on themselves.

The Uniform Power of Attorney Act reinforces that. Under West Virginia Code § 39B-1-114, an agent who accepts the role must:

Act in the principal’s best interest and in line with the principal’s reasonable expectations
Act in good faith
Stay within the authority the document actually grants
Act loyally for the principal’s benefit, not the agent’s
Avoid conflicts of interest
Keep a record of every receipt, disbursement, and transaction

The first three of those duties apply no matter what the power of attorney says. The rest apply unless the document specifically changes them, which almost none do.

An agent who breaks those duties has done two things at once: breached a fiduciary duty and committed financial exploitation. The financial exploitation statute is the one with teeth, because of what it lets a court award.

Is financial exploitation of an elderly person a crime in West Virginia?

Yes. Under West Virginia Code § 61-2-29b, financially exploiting an elderly person, protected person, or incapacitated adult is a misdemeanor if the amount is under $1,000 and a felony if it is $1,000 or more. The felony carries a fine of up to $10,000 and two to twenty years in prison, plus mandatory restitution.

The criminal and civil tracks are separate, and families can pursue both. A few differences matter:

Who controls it. The county prosecutor decides whether to bring criminal charges. The family controls the civil case.
Standard of proof. Criminal cases require proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Civil exploitation cases require only a preponderance of the evidence, meaning it is more likely than not.
What the victim gets. Criminal restitution is limited to the actual loss. The civil statute allows double or treble damages plus attorneys’ fees.
Speed. A civil protective order can be in place within days. Criminal investigations take months.

The criminal statute also allows prosecutors to add together amounts taken as part of a common scheme, so a pattern of small withdrawals can still reach the felony threshold. A criminal conviction is powerful evidence in a later civil case, but families in Charleston, Princeton, Welch, and across southern West Virginia should not wait on the prosecutor’s office before protecting what is left.

How do you prove financial exploitation in court?

You prove it with records: bank statements, cancelled checks, card statements, vehicle titles, deeds, and any accounting the agent was required to keep. The court needs to see who had access, what left the account, where it went, and whether the older person had the capacity to consent. The burden is a preponderance of the evidence.

The recent case is a good illustration of how the proof comes together. After the court entered a permanent protective order, it held a separate damages hearing. The witness who established the loss was a conservator account manager who had reviewed the man’s finances, and who summarized the withdrawals and submitted the supporting exhibits. The court found the damages proven and fixed them to the penny.

Evidence that tends to carry these cases:

Account records showing withdrawals, transfers, and card charges during the period the agent had access
Proof of capacity issues, such as medical records, a physician’s statement, or a prior guardianship finding, showing the older person could not have understood or stopped the transactions
The power of attorney itself, which establishes the position of trust and sets the limits of the agent’s authority
Titles and registrations for vehicles or property placed in the older person’s name without their knowledge
Bills and collection notices for debts the exploiter left behind
The agent’s own records, or the lack of them. An agent is required to keep records of every transaction and, under § 39B-1-114(h), must produce an accounting within 30 days when the principal, a guardian, a conservator, or Adult Protective Services asks for one. Refusal is itself telling, and the court can award fees for it.

The hearing is a full adversarial proceeding. The accused person can appear, with or without a lawyer, and contest the evidence. Guardians ad litem are often appointed to speak for the victim, for a spouse, or even for the respondent if there are questions about that person’s capacity.

How long do you have to sue for elder financial exploitation in West Virginia?

Two years. Under West Virginia Code § 55-7J-4(c), a financial exploitation action must be filed within two years of the violation or within two years of the date the exploitation was discovered, whichever is later. The discovery rule matters because exploitation by a trusted agent is often hidden for years.

The “whichever is later” language is generous, and it exists because this kind of theft is usually concealed. A parent with dementia does not review her statements. An agent who controls the mail can hide collection notices for a long time. Families often learn what happened only after a hospitalization, a move to a nursing home, or a death.

Even so, waiting is costly. Money that has been spent is harder to recover than money that can still be frozen. Witnesses move. Bank records older than a few years can take months to retrieve. The two-year deadline is an outer limit, not a target.

What mistakes do families make in these cases?

The most common mistakes are confronting the exploiter before securing records, assuming a power of attorney made the spending legal, waiting for a criminal prosecution instead of filing a civil case, and treating the problem as a family disagreement rather than a legal one. Each of these gives the exploiter time to move or spend the money.

A few others worth naming:

Signing a new power of attorney to “fix” the old one without revoking it. Under § 39B-1-110(f), a later power of attorney does not revoke an earlier one unless it says so. The old agent may still have authority.
Accepting a partial repayment in exchange for dropping the matter. That trades a treble-damages claim for a fraction of the loss.
Letting the older person’s own capacity go undocumented. A current physician’s statement is far easier to obtain now than a retrospective one two years from now.
Ignoring debts the exploiter created. Towing bills, loans, and credit accounts opened in the older person’s name are part of the actual damages and should be included in the claim.

Where are these cases filed in southern West Virginia?

A financial exploitation protective order petition is filed in magistrate court or circuit court in the county where the elderly person lives or where the exploitation happened, so a family in Summers, McDowell, Wyoming, Boone, or Mercer County files at home, not in Charleston. Many of those counties have few or no attorneys who focus on elder law, which is why families there often work with a Charleston-based firm that travels to their local courthouse.

The circuit courts serving the southern counties:

Summers County Circuit Court in Hinton
McDowell County Circuit Court in Welch
Wyoming County Circuit Court in Pineville
Boone County Circuit Court in Madison
Mercer County Circuit Court in Princeton
Kanawha County Circuit Court in Charleston, for families closer to the capital

A few local details that shape how these cases proceed:

Magistrate court is the fast door. A petition filed in magistrate court that results in a temporary order is transferred to circuit court, which must hold a review hearing within 20 days. That hearing is a full evidentiary hearing.
Guardianship petitions go to the circuit clerk in the county where the older person lives. If the older person has been admitted to a nursing home, the petition can be filed in the county where the facility is located.
Distance does not change the deadline. The two-year limitations period runs the same in Welch as it does in Charleston. Families in rural counties sometimes lose time looking for a local lawyer who is not there; the better move is to call a firm that already handles these cases and let it come to you.
Records can be gathered from anywhere. Bank statements, titles, and an accounting demand under the Power of Attorney Act do not require a courthouse visit. A family in Boone or Wyoming County can have most of the evidence assembled before the first hearing is scheduled.

Talk to Hewitt Law about Financial Exploitation in West Virginia

Hewitt Law PLLC concentrates on elder law for families in Charleston and throughout southern West Virginia, including Summers, McDowell, Wyoming, Boone, and Mercer Counties. The firm handles financial exploitation, powers of attorney, guardianship and conservatorship, and Medicaid planning. If you believe someone is misusing an older family member’s money and want to understand what damages you can recover for financial exploitation of an elderly person in West Virginia, or you want a power of attorney drafted with safeguards that make this kind of abuse harder, contact the firm to schedule a consultation.