Florida Statute 415.102
“Definitions of terms used in ss. 415.101-415.113”
What it means
Chapter 415 — Florida's Adult Protective Services Act — runs on this definitions section. Its central term, vulnerable adult (subsection (28)), means a person 18 or older whose ability to perform normal activities of daily living, or to provide for their own care or protection, is impaired by mental, emotional, sensory, long-term physical, or developmental disability or dysfunction, brain damage, or the infirmities of aging. Age alone puts nobody inside the chapter; impairment does.
Exploitation (8) means knowingly obtaining or using a vulnerable adult's funds or property — by deception or intimidation from a position of trust and confidence, or by taking from an adult known to lack capacity to consent. The section also defines abuse, neglect, caregiver, and the protective services the department can deliver.
- Vulnerable adult (28): 18 or older, impaired in daily living or self-care by disability, dysfunction, brain damage, or the infirmities of aging.
- Age is not the test — an impaired 30-year-old is covered; an unimpaired 85-year-old is not.
- Exploitation (8): deception or intimidation from a position of trust and confidence, or taking from an adult who lacks capacity to consent.
- Abuse (1): willful acts — or omissions — by a relative, caregiver, or household member likely to cause significant impairment.
- Position of trust and confidence (19) reaches relatives, joint tenants, guardians, trustees, and caregivers.
How it plays out
Whether Chapter 415's machinery applies at all — the hotline, the protective investigation, the civil action — starts with these definitions, so they are where we start too. The question is never 'how old' but 'how impaired': medical notes and bank records showing a person could no longer manage daily life are what bring a late-life transfer inside the chapter. The definitions also fix who stands in trust and confidence — the same relationship element the criminal statute, §825.103, turns on.
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