Attorney duties and disputes

An attorney must ensure that they follow certain rules and that they discuss what they are doing with the donor.  It is important that an attorney understands their duties and know what they can and can’t do.  There are some things that an attorney is not allowed to do unless he or she obtains a court order. 

The attorney duties and rules protect the donor’s money and property and ensure that their attorney only uses it for the donor’s benefit.

If you have been appointed as an attorney with someone else, you need to know if you have been appointed jointly or jointly and severally.

Understanding how you have been appointed will help you understand how to avoid differences of opinion and if you cannot agree with the other attorney, how to resolve your disagreement. 

You need to understand what decisions to discuss with the donor

You should involve the donor in decisions and tell them what you are doing even if they no longer have capacity to make decisions for themselves. 

You need to understand when you will require court approval for a decision

Some decisions are so important that they must be approved by a court, this includes gifts other than small gifts that the donor has made on a regular basis.  Any decision where there is a conflict of interest will need to be approved, for example, anything that benefits the attorney or close friend or relative of the attorney.

• We can advise you how to record spending and decisions that you have made
• We help you to understand what your duties are as an attorney and if you are jointly appointed we can help you to understand how you need to communicate or discuss decisions with your co-attorney. 
• We can help you to resolve disputes with your co-attorney(s) either through mediation or court action 
• If you are not sure if the donor still has capacity or whether you need to take over managing their affairs we can help you to appoint an expert to carry out a capacity assessment. 
• We can advise you if an attorney is not acting in accordance with his/her duties and we can advise you how to challenge an attorney’s decisions. 
• We can help you to obtain court approval for a decision and help you to make the application to the Court of Protection
• If you have concerns about an attorney’s actions we can help you to gather information in order to complain to the office of the public guardian or apply for their removal.      
• We can help you to apply to the court to remove an attorney who is not acting properly or failing to act on behalf of the donor. 
• If you have a concern about an attorney that is not described above we are happy to discuss your specific circumstances in order to advise you about your duties or rights and recommend options to try to resolve your dispute.