Monday, February 13, 2012

Avoid Excessive Court Costs - Do Enduring Powers Of Attorney

Losing mental capacity can be an expensive exercise if you do not have your house in order. It can also be a stressful time for family and loved ones already trying to deal with your often sudden loss of mental capacity.

If you have not taken the practical step of completing enduring power of attorney then no-one is going to be in a position to make decisions relating to your personal care and welfare and your real and personal property will be tied up until such time as the court appoints someone to manage your affairs. The process is administered by the Family Court which in New Zealand is a part of the District Court.

Obtaining orders of the court can be very time consuming, particularly if family and loved ones are not in agreement as to who should seek appointment. Furthermore, regardless of whether the process is a relatively smooth one or not it will take several months and cost many thousands of dollars.

To ensure that the best interests of the subject person are met the court appoints 'counsel for the subject person' chosen from a panel of lawyers experienced in these matters. That person is paid out of a consolidated fund. Their role is to interview the subject person as well as those seeking to be appointed as welfare guardian and property manager in order to satisfy the court that the appointments are in the best interests of the subject person.

In time, after a hearing is obtained and all affected parties are given a chance to be heard, in time the court will make the orders. You can expect this to cost anything between $3,000 and $5,000. Although the applicants are technically responsible for the legal fees relating to the application it is customary for an order to be sought that fees be met out of the assets of the subject person.

Probably the worst part is that the initial court order lasts for two years and then the applicants have to do it all over again and again at three yearly intervals, incurring the same cost each time, usually at your expense. It only stops when you regain mental capacity which doesn't happen that often, or when you die.

The true folly of all this is that the whole unnecessary exercise could have been avoided if only you had the foresight to put enduring power of attorney in place while you had the chance. The likely legal fees would have been a fraction of what the court process cost and you would have been making the choice yourself. Those you love would also have been saved a tremendous amount of stress. What makes it even worse is that there are even viable online options available whereby you could have done it yourself and saved even more money than consulting a lawyer.

So if you do not have enduring powers of attorney in place do yourself a favour and do something about it now while you can and before it may be too late.

Ashley Stevenson is a journalist with a background in law who supplements his income with a home based internet marketing business selling information products. For information about the product which is the subject of this article click through the link below.