Power of attorney, The definition

In United States common Law systems, Power of attorney may be defined as to designate an authorization or mandate, on behalf to someone else in the legal or business case. So it involves two sides/persons: principal and agent. Principal is who have created documents, then give the grant to someone (agents) to act in legal way. Meanwhile, agents, which is also known as the attorney, acts under power of attorney. The principal can be incapacitated due to physical injury or mental illness, it’s called as durable power of attorney.

The term powers is used to make difference to term lawyer, because in other countries, attorney is not same as lawyer, a person who have legally right to practice the law in jurisdiction form. The important things in power of attorney, the attorney must be chosen by principal due to faith, loyal and honest. So it needs written an verbal agreement or dealing for the both side.

The definition of Power of attorney can be an agent, attorney in fact is a fiduciary for the principal, so that the law requires a lawyer is to be completely honest and faithful to the principal in their dealings with each other. If the prosecutor acts for the main contract, as a rule, it must be separated from the power of attorney, unless the contract is written that this is a separate documents.

In some cases, the law requires the agreement must be in writing form. Many institutions such as hospitals, banks, Internal Revenue Service, require a best power of attorney must be in writing to keep the originals of their records. Types of powers of attorney can be categorized as specific act, depending the court scope under the common law situation such as durable power of attorney, springing power of attorney and etc.