The Public Administrator is appointed by the Probate Division of the Lincoln County Circuit Court to act as Guardian and/or Conservator for the incapacitated or developmentally disabled persons. The court has determined these persons unable to meet their essential needs for food, shelter, and clothing. In this capacity, the Public Administrator is called upon to consent to the admission of these wards to nursing homes and residential care facilities and to see that they receive proper medical, psychiatric and therapeutic care.
The Public Administrator sometimes acts on behalf of estates as a personal representative of deceased persons. The Public Administrator takes charge of the assets of a person who dies without family, last will and testament, or as deemed necessary by the Probate Court. In this capacity, the Public Administrator begins a Probate proceedings for those assets, pays the claims of any creditor or the deceased, and distributes any remaining assets to surviving relatives, it any. It is the Public Administrators duty to protect these assets against, waste, theft, or loss.