A Capacity Declaration in California is a court-required medical assessment, filed on Judicial Council Form GC-335, that gives a probate judge clinical evidence about whether a person can still manage their own daily needs and make their own decisions. A licensed physician or psychologist examines the individual, documents specific mental function deficits, and ties each deficit to the person’s real-world ability to handle personal care, finances, or medical choices. The court relies on it as the clinical backbone of a conservatorship case because it converts a subjective worry into structured, evidence-based findings governed by Probate Code Sections 811 through 813.
When a Capacity Declaration Is Required
California requires one for every probate conservatorship petition, whether the petitioner is asking for a General Conservatorship (typically for an elderly or incapacitated adult) or a Limited Conservatorship (for an adult with a developmental disability). The form’s full name is “Confidential Capacity Assessment and Declaration—Probate Conservatorship,” and the current version took effect January 1, 2025.1Judicial Council of California. Confidential Capacity Assessment and Declaration – Probate Conservatorship (GC-335) Without it, the court has no clinical basis to decide whether the proposed conservatee actually lacks legal capacity, and the hearing will not move forward.
The declaration is not a formality. Under Probate Code Section 811, a court can only find someone lacks capacity if there is evidence of a deficit in at least one specific mental function and a proven connection between that deficit and the decisions or actions at issue.2California Legislative Information. California Code Probate Code 811 A diagnosis alone is never enough. Someone with Alzheimer’s is not automatically treated as incapacitated. The examiner has to show how the disease actually impairs functioning in the areas the petition reaches.
Who Can Complete It
The GC-335 can be completed by a California-licensed physician, a California-licensed psychologist, or an accredited religious healing practitioner.3California Courts | Self Help Guide. Confidential Capacity Assessment and Declaration—Probate Conservatorship (GC-335) In practice, physicians and psychologists complete almost all of them. The form asks for specific credentials: license number, years in practice, and, for a psychologist, whether they have at least two years of experience diagnosing major neurocognitive disorders.1Judicial Council of California. Confidential Capacity Assessment and Declaration – Probate Conservatorship (GC-335)
The examiner must record the date of the examination the assessment is based on, and the date of the most recent one if there were several. Courts look closely at that date; a stale evaluation undermines the reliability of the findings. The entire declaration is signed under penalty of perjury, so the professional is personally attesting to the clinical judgments on the form.
What the Examiner Evaluates
The GC-335 walks the examiner through a structured assessment that mirrors Probate Code Section 811. It is not a yes-or-no checklist. The professional rates the severity of deficits in specific mental functions on a scale from no deficit to major deficit or no function, and then connects those deficits to the person’s everyday abilities.
Mental Function Deficits
Probate Code Section 811 identifies four broad categories the court can consider:2California Legislative Information. California Code Probate Code 811
- Alertness and attention: level of consciousness, orientation to time and place, and ability to concentrate.
- Information processing: short- and long-term memory, immediate recall, communication, recognition of familiar people and objects, understanding of quantities, abstract and logical reasoning, and the ability to plan and carry out actions in one’s own interest.
- Thought processes: severely disorganized thinking, hallucinations, delusions, or uncontrollable repetitive thoughts.
- Mood and affect: a persistent or recurring emotional state (such as euphoria, anger, anxiety, depression, or apathy) out of proportion to the person’s circumstances.
The examiner rates each applicable area and explains the clinical basis for the rating. A blanket statement like “patient has dementia” will not satisfy the court. The professional needs to explain, for example, that the person scored poorly on immediate recall testing and cannot remember instructions given five minutes earlier, making an independent medication schedule impossible.
Functional Abilities
After documenting mental function deficits, the form turns to how those deficits affect real life. The examiner assesses whether the person can manage personal needs like food, clothing, and shelter, and probes financial capacity: Can they resist fraud or undue influence? Can they pay bills? Do they understand what it means to enter into a contract?1Judicial Council of California. Confidential Capacity Assessment and Declaration – Probate Conservatorship (GC-335)
The link between a deficit and a functional limitation has to be explicit. If the examiner finds major memory deficits but the petition only asks for a conservatorship of the estate, the declaration has to show how those memory problems actually impair financial decision-making. A deficit that doesn’t connect to the powers being requested will not support the petition.
Capacity for Medical Consent
The GC-335 also addresses whether the person can give or withhold informed consent to medical treatment. Probate Code Section 813 describes what that capacity looks like: responding knowingly to questions about proposed treatment, participating in the decision through rational thought, and understanding the nature and seriousness of the condition, the recommended treatment, the risks and benefits, and the alternatives.4California Legislative Information. California Code PROB 813
Medical consent capacity sits on a spectrum. Someone might lack the ability to manage finances but still understand a doctor’s recommendation about a knee replacement. The court uses this section to decide whether a conservator should have authority over medical decisions, and how broad that authority should be. Any limit on the person’s right to make their own medical choices has to be supported by the deficits documented here.
When a Dementia Attachment Is Also Required
If the proposed conservatee has a major neurocognitive disorder (the clinical term that replaced “dementia” in the DSM-5), the examiner must also complete Form GC-335A, the “Everyday Activities Attachment to Confidential Capacity Assessment and Declaration,” and attach it to the GC-335.5Judicial Branch of California. Everyday Activities Attachment to Confidential Capacity Assessment and Declaration—Probate Conservatorship (GC-335A) The attachment adds clinical detail about day-to-day functioning that the court needs before it can grant two special powers under Probate Code Section 2356.5: placement in a locked residential care facility for the elderly, and authorization to administer medications appropriate for treating the neurocognitive disorder.
Neither power is granted automatically. The court has to find, by clear and convincing evidence, that the conservatee has a major neurocognitive disorder, lacks capacity to consent to the proposed placement or treatment, and either needs or would benefit from it. For locked placement, it also has to be the least restrictive option appropriate to the person’s needs.6California Legislative Information. California Code PROB 2356.5 That high standard exists specifically because of concerns about psychotropic medication and involuntary placement, and the GC-335A is how the examiner builds the record to meet it.
The Legal Standard the Declaration Feeds Into
Probate Code Section 812 defines capacity as the ability to communicate a decision and to understand the rights and responsibilities it creates, the probable consequences for the person and others, and the significant risks, benefits, and alternatives.7California Legislative Information. California Code Probate Code 812 The capacity declaration is what gives the court evidence to apply that standard.
California treats capacity as decision-specific rather than all-or-nothing. A person might lack capacity to manage a stock portfolio and still have capacity to decide where they want to live. The GC-335 reflects this by asking the examiner to assess each functional area on its own instead of making a single global judgment. That framework is what lets courts build limited conservatorships that restrict only the specific powers the person genuinely cannot exercise.
What the Proposed Conservatee Can Do
The declaration is a powerful document, and California law builds in real safeguards for the person whose capacity is being questioned.
Court-Appointed Counsel
If the proposed conservatee does not already have an attorney and does not plan to hire one, the court must appoint the public defender or a private attorney before the hearing. The appointment is mandatory. The attorney’s role is defined by statute as that of a “zealous, independent advocate” who represents the conservatee’s wishes, not what the family believes is best.8California Legislative Information. California Code Probate Code 1471 If the proposed conservatee prefers a specific attorney, the court must allow that attorney to represent them, even if they are not on the court’s appointment list. For a Limited Conservatorship, counsel must be appointed immediately, and the proposed limited conservatee pays only if financially able.
Independent Court Investigation
A court investigator independently evaluates the situation before the hearing, personally interviews the proposed conservatee, and informs them of their rights, including the right to oppose the petition, attend the hearing, request a jury trial, and be represented by counsel.9California Legislative Information. California Code PROB 1826 The investigator also independently assesses whether the proposed conservatee appears to have the Section 811 deficits and whether those deficits actually impair functioning. If what the investigator observes conflicts with what the GC-335 says, the court will want to know why.
The Right to Contest
The proposed conservatee can oppose the petition entirely, object to the proposed conservator and ask for a different one, or challenge the scope of the powers being requested. Court-appointed counsel can arrange an independent medical evaluation to counter the findings in the petitioner’s declaration, and the court weighs all of the evidence rather than relying on the GC-335 alone.
Filing, Service, and Confidentiality
Once the examining professional completes, signs, and dates the form, the petitioner files it with the court. The declaration has to be submitted before the initial conservatorship hearing so the probate examiner has time to review it. Missing that deadline usually means the court continues the hearing to a later date.
A copy must also be served on the proposed conservatee and their attorney, even though the document is stamped “Confidential.”3California Courts | Self Help Guide. Confidential Capacity Assessment and Declaration—Probate Conservatorship (GC-335) The confidential designation means it’s filed in a sealed portion of the court file that the general public cannot access. That protects the person’s medical information while making sure the parties who need the evidence, especially the conservatee’s attorney, can review it.
Is It Permanent?
No. After a conservatorship is established, a court investigator periodically revisits the conservatee without prior notice to the conservator and determines whether the conservatee still meets the criteria, whether the conservatorship remains the least restrictive alternative, and whether the conservator is acting in the conservatee’s best interests. That review covers the living situation, quality of care, physical and mental health treatment, and finances.10California Legislative Information. California Code Probate Code 1851
If the conservatee’s condition improves, the investigator can recommend that the court modify or terminate the conservatorship, and the conservatee can also request termination directly. A conservatorship is meant to be the minimum intervention necessary, and the periodic review is what keeps it from becoming permanent by inertia.