The court may appoint the Director of Developmental Services as guardian or conservator of the person and estate or person or estate of a minor or adult developmentally disabled person. The preferences established in Section 1812 of the Probate Code for appointment of a conservator shall not apply. An appointment of the Director of Developmental Services as conservator shall not of itself constitute a judicial finding that the developmentally disabled person is legally incompetent. The petition for the appointment of the Director of Developmental Services as conservator of an adult developmentally disabled person may include a request that the court adjudge the developmentally disabled person to be legally incompetent or such an adjudication may be made subsequently upon a petition made, noticed, and heard by the court in the same manner as a petition for the appointment of the director as conservator. If the Director of Developmental Services is serving as the guardian of an adult developmentally disabled person on December 31, 1980, after that date such appointment shall be deemed to be the appointment of a conservator and the conservatee shall be deemed to have been adjudged to be legally incompetent.
(Amended by Stats. 1979, Ch. 730.)