Christine Montanti has worked for years to free her mother, Karilyn, from her legal guardian's clutches.

Karilyn's Law, a bill proposed to change the state's guardianship law​, would require a judge to hold a hearing within 10 days of an application filed challenging the court-appointed care of a person who is allegedly incapacitated.

"This would require a hearing and it would be a rebuttal presumption of visitation," said bill sponsor Sen. Anthony Palumbo, a Republican from New Suffolk. "Unless you can prove with clear and convincing evidence a person should not see their loved one, they get to see them."​

A court can mandate a guardian assist an allegedly incapacitated people, often elderly or physically or mentally disabled, with decisions about their personal affairs, safety or property. But the approved guardian may be a significant other or person estranged from the incapacitated person's family who chooses to keep them in isolation or abusive situations ⁠—​ especially during end-of-life care.

"We have individuals who cannot visit or even see a loved one because the guardian or conservator will not allow you access for no reason whatsoever," Palumbo said. "We don't have simple procedures to visit someone in the care of a guardian who is otherwise under the control of a guardian."

Christine Montanti recalled abuse her mother endured at two separate assisted-living facilities where she was kept in isolation and denied outside communication at her legal guardian's request.

"My mother was held in a jail-like atmosphere," the concerned daughter said Monday on the Capitol's Million Dollar Staircase. "Guardianship abuse has existed in this country for half-a-century and the cruelties that caregivers inflict on their wards is incomprehensible, and sadly, it's evolved into a real-life modern day tragedy."

After a person files an application to challenge the visitation, the case would progress through the state court system with medical evaluation to determine guardian necessity under the proposed measure.

A lack of legal protocol exists in U.S. states to challenge a legal guardian's visitation decisions.

Montanti hopes New York lawmakers will set a precedent to be adopted by other states.​

Families should not have to wait months or years for due process to see their ailing loved one, sponsor Assemblyman Fred Thiele said.

"When it involves a celebrity it gets national attention ... but how many times does this happen in day-to-day life?" said Thiele, a Democrat from Sag Harbor. "Justice delayed is justice denied."

The bill remains in the Assembly Judiciary Committee and the Mental Health Committee in the Senate.