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A power of attorney or letter of attorney in common law systems or mandate in civil law systems is an authorization to act on someone else's behalf in a legal or business matter. The person authorizing the other to act is the "principal" or "grantor (of the power)", and the one authorized to act is the "agent" or "attorney-in-fact" (AIF). The attorney-in-fact acts "in the principal's name"—for example, by signing the principal's name to documents.==UK Law== [1]UK Government Public Guardianship Office - Clear explanation of the process by the office that manages Enduring Power of Attorney This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ...
Civil law or continental law is the predominant system of law in the world, with its origins in Roman law, and sets out a comprehensive system of rules, usually codified, that are applied and interpreted by judges. ...
Agency is an area of Commercial law dealing with a contractual or quasi-contractual tripartite set of relationships when an Agent is authorised to act on behalf of another (called the Principal) to create a legal relationship with a Third Party. ...
Note: Enduring Power of Attorney is to be replaced with Lasting Power of Attorney in October 2007
Attorney-in-fact As one kind of agent, an attorney-in-fact is a fiduciary for the principal, so the law requires an attorney-in-fact to be completely honest with and loyal to the principal in their dealings with each other. If the attorney-in-fact is being paid to act for the principal, the contract is a separate matter from the power of attorney itself, so if that contract is in writing, it is a separate document, kept private between them, whereas the power of attorney is intended to be shown to various other people. The court of chancery, which governed fiduciary relations prior to the Judicature Acts The fiduciary duty is a legal relationship between two or more parties, most commonly a fiduciary or trustee and a principal or beneficiary, that in English common law is arguably the most important concept within the portion...
A contract is a legally binding exchange of promises or agreement between parties that the law will enforce. ...
In the context of the unincorporated reciprocal inter-insurance exchange [URIE] the attorney-in-fact is a stakeholder/trustee who takes custody of the subscriber funds placed on deposit with him, and then uses those funds to pay insurance claims. When all the claims are paid, the attorney-in-fact then returns the leftover funds to the subscribers.
The term "attorney-in-fact" should not be confused with the term "attorney at law." An attorney-at-law in the United States is a lawyer—someone licensed to practice law in a particular jurisdiction. In most other common-law jurisdictions lawyers are not called attorneys, and the term "attorney" generally refers to either attorneys-in-fact or lawyers from the United States. For information on the type of fish called Lawyer, see the article on Burbot. ...
English barrister 16th century painting of a civil law notary, by Flemish painter Quentin Massys. ...
Oral and written powers of attorney The power of attorney (often called "POA" for short) may be verbal—such as asking someone else to sign your name on a cheque because your arm is broken—or may be in writing. Many institutions, such as hospitals, banks and, in the United States, the Internal Revenue Service, require a power of attorney to be in writing before they will honor it, and they usually want to keep an original for their records. Example of a Canadian cheque. ...
A physician visiting the sick in a hospital. ...
Banker redirects here; see wiktionary:banker for more meanings. ...
Seal of the Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the United States government agency that collects taxes and enforces the internal revenue laws. ...
The equal dignity rule The "equal dignity rule" is a principle of law that requires a document authorizing someone representing someone else to have been appointed with the same formality as required for the act the representative is going to perform, and it applies to powers of attorney. This means, for example, that if you give someone your power of attorney to sign the papers to sell your house, and the law requires that signature on the deed to be notarized, then your power of attorney authorizing that attorney in fact to sign the deed must be notarized, too. An Embossed Notary Seal. ...
Kinds of powers of attorney A power of attorney may be "special" or "limited" to one specified act or type of act, or it may be "general," and whatever it defines as its scope is what a court will enforce as being its scope. (It may also be limited as to time.) Under the common law, a power of attorney becomes ineffective if its grantor dies or becomes "incapacitated," meaning unable to grant such a power, because of physical injury or mental illness, for example, unless the grantor (or principal) specifies that the power of attorney will continue to be effective even if the grantor becomes incapacitated (but any such power ends when the grantor dies). This type of power of attorney is called a "durable power of attorney". In some jurisdictions such a durable power of attorney can also function as a "living will", which can be used to appoint someone to make health-care decisions for the grantor, up to and including "pulling the plug" on machines keeping them clinically alive. New York State has enacted a "Health Care Proxy" law that requires a separate document be prepared appointing one as your health care agent. Mental Illness. ...
A living will, also called will to live, advance health directive, or advance health care directive, is a specific type of power of attorney or health care proxy or advance directive. ...
A health care proxy is a legal document used in the United States that allows an agent to make health care decisions in the event that the primary individual is incapable of executing such decisions. ...
People with mental illness may prepare Psychiatric Advance Directives (PADs in the U.S.) or "Ulysses contracts" as they are called in Canada. Ulysses contracts are powers of attorney that enable a patient to dictate preferences for care before becoming incapacitated by recurring mental illness. Although they are not used very often, there is speculation in some of the academic literature as to whether or not these advance directives are empowering for people with mental illness (Journal of Ethics in Mental Health 2006-1).
In some U.S. states and other jurisdictions it is possible to enact a springing power of attorney; i.e., a power that only takes effect after incapacitation of the grantor or some other definite future act or circumstance. After such incapacitation the power is identical to a durable power, but, unlike a durable power, cannot be invoked before the incapacity. This is often used to allow a spouse or family member to manage the grantor's affairs in case illness or injury makes him unable to act, while retaining the power for himself before the incapacity occurs. If a springing power is used, care should be given to specifying exactly how and when the power springs into effect. As the result of privacy legislation in the U.S., medical doctors will often not reveal information relating to capacity of the principal unless the power of attorney specifically authorizes them to do so. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996. ...
Unless the power of attorney has been made "irrevocable" (by its own terms or by some legal principle), the grantor may revoke the power of attorney by telling the attorney in fact it is revoked; however, if the principal does not inform third parties and it is reasonable that the third parties could rely upon the power of attorney being in force, the principal may still be bound by the acts of the agent, though the agent may also be liable for such unauthorized acts.
Many standardized forms are available (usually for free) for various kinds of powers of attorney, and many organizations provide them for their clients, customers, patients, employees, or members. In some states statutory power of attorney forms are available as some individuals have used powers of attorney to unscrupulously waste the assets of vulnerable individuals such as the elderly (see elder abuse). Elder abuse is a single or repeated act or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes harm or distress to an older person. ...
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