Re: Ways of treating defined terms

I¹m not sure that this response is quite what you are looking for, but hey.

We had an interesting situation recently when developing new Lasting Power
of Attorney forms for the Office of the Public Guardian.

The document starts out as a form ­ with questions and response boxes that
people fill in - but, once completed and registered with the OPG, become a
legal instrument - that has to function within the legal framework of the
Mental Capacity Act.

So the writing and design of these Œforms¹ became an interesting juggling
act between legal conformance to the Act, and our efforts to use effective
language. 

The forms are now downloadable from the OPG web site, along with our new
guidance documents, but here are some issues that may be of interest to you:

* The Act, and previous versions of the forms, refer to the person making an
LPA as the ŒDonor¹. We managed to get the lawyers to agree to the
alternative more descriptive Œperson who is making the LPA¹.
* The term ŒAttorney¹ itself many people confuse with the American usage ­
pretty fundamental!
* Appointing multiple attorneys means that the donor must indicate if they
want them to act jointly, jointly and severally, or jointly for some
decisions and J&S for others. The previous forms tried to tackle this
difficult concept by referring to these options as Œtogether¹, Œtogether and
independently¹, and Œtogether in respect of some matters and together and
independently in respect of others¹. The formal legal ŒJ, J&S, and J+J&S¹
won out in our final versions as being considered, to some extent at least,
understood outside the legal community
* Having tried to remove as much legal jargon as possible, it was felt that
at the point of signature the form needed to say ŒSigned by the person
giving this lasting power of attorney and delivered as a deed¹ in order that
its legal status be secure. In the accompanying guidance document we have a
Œcompletion tip¹ saying ŒThis phrase is a legal phrase that gives legal
formality to your LPA.¹!

I¹d be interested in hearing any views on the improved LPA forms. Inevitably
with complex stakeholder issues in a project of this kind the results are
something of a compromise. But any members who have been aware of the
project may be interested to know that early indications are that our new
forms, since being launched in September, appear to have reduced submission
errors quite significantly. (I have statistics which I can discuss offline
but better not broadcast at this point.)



Andrew Boag
-------------------------
Boag Associates
T +44 (0)20 3008 6491
F +44 (0)20 3008 8601

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