Medical Malpractice Attorneys and Lawyers

How do I make a medical power of attorney contract legal?

Does it need to be notarized? My mother is in Texas and I am in North Carolina. I have the contract. Other than her signature and mine who else needs to sign it and does it need to be notarized? Does it need to be filed and if so where?

Public Comments

1. notarized and filed in proper jurisdiction, (probably where your mother resides)
2. Yes I believe it has to be noterized, and I also think that you may need one or two witnesses to sign as well so that they don't think that you forced your mom to sign.
3. In Texas, The person you appoint as agent should be someone you know and trust. The person must be 18 years of age or older or a person under 18 years of age who has had the disabilities of minority removed. If you appoint your health or residential care provider (e.g. your physician or an employee of a home health agency, hospital, nursing home, or residential care home, other than a relative), that person has to choose between acting as your agent or as your health or residential care provider; the law does not permit a person to do both at the same time. Even after you have signed this document, you have the right to make health care decisions for yourself as long as you are able to do so and treatment cannot be given to you or stopped over your objection. You have the right to revoke the authority granted to your agent by informing your agent or your health or residential care provider orally or in writing, or by your execution of a subsequent medical power of attorney. Unless you state otherwise, your appointment of a spouse dissolves on divorce This document may not be changed or modified. If you want to make changes in the document, you must make an entirely new one. Such a Texas POA is also NOT VALID unless it is signed in the presence of two competent adult witnesses. The following persons may NOT act as one of the witnesses: The person you have designated as your agent; A person related to you by blood or marriage; A person entitled to any part of your estate after your death under a will or codicil executed by you or by operation of law; Your attending physician; an employee of your attending physician; An employee of a health care facility in which you are a patient if the employee is providing direct patient care to you or is an officer, director, partner, or business off ice employee of the health care facility or of any parent organization of the health care facility; or A person who, at the time this power of attorney is executed, has a claim against any part of your estate after your death. THE POA does NOT have to be notarized nor otherwise made official other than the two witnesses as stated above.