Some Good Things To Know About Power Of Attorney

"Power of attorney" is a legal term with a specific definition

. The power of attorney is granted to one person by another person so that the important decisions in life can be made if the person granting the power of attorney is no longer able to do so. Like many legal terms, power of attorney can be more difficult to explain than it needs to be, but law is a realm where things are handled very precisely in great detail. The concept of power of attorney is not difficult to grasp, and an example will make it quite clear.

The most common use of power of attorney is to give someone the power to handle your affairs if you should lose the mental capacity to do so. This is generally seen in a health care crisis, where a person may slip into a coma and not be able to make decisions. If the person is married, the spouse generally has the power of attorney to make decisions for the person, but having a power of attorney document to clarify this can ensure that all critical decisions have full legal status. This is especially important for non-married persons or married persons whose spouse may not have their full mental capacity either.

People in a health care crisis may have a lot of decisions that need to be made while they do not have the mental capacity to do so. Even if they are conscious and relatively alert, they may be in so much pain or in a haze due to medication that they are not able to make sound decisions on their own. The agent who is granted the power of attorney will be able to make all manner of decisions for this person, including ones about the health care that is given to them. Health care treatment at this point can make a substantial difference in the person's future life, so it is vital that these decisions be made by someone with full mental capacity.

Of course the agent with power of attorney should also know the person extremely well, so that their wishes are followed as closely as possible when making all decisions. Health care decisions will be the most immediate decisions that need to be made, but if the period of reduced mental capacity is extensive, there will also be decisions about financial affairs that need to be made.

If the power of attorney is granted for the rest of a person's life, it is called durable power of attorney. This is the most common way to grant power of attorney at the end of someone's life. It is possible that specific restrictions be put on the power of attorney, so that it can be used in other situations as well. For example, if a parent is going to be on an extensive trip and not be able to be reached for several weeks, a power of attorney may be granted to the caregive who is taking care of the children. This use of the power of attorney is less common in these days where world wide communication is so available, but it is a possible use of the power of attorney and it illustrates what can be done with it.

by: Maxwell Verry

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