I am afraid that Justice Minister Bridget Prentice MP is just plain wrong about lasting powers of attorney (LPAs) (see [2007] Gazette, 25 October, 13). She has obviously never had to explain the workings of the form to an elderly client on a limited income.


The fact of the matter is that if you make something more complicated and costly, people are just not going to bother.



My firm used to prepare a large number of enduring powers of attorney for clients who agreed that to have one could potentially save a lot of problems and expense for their families in the future. Clients are now actually saying to us, when presented with the LPA forms and the alternative courses of action, that they would prefer to leave it to their families to apply for receivership if they became unable to deal with their own affairs, because the sheer complication and inconvenience of the new forms is just not worth the time and expense involved.



To say that clients can read and complete these forms on their own, without legal advice, demonstrates a lack of understanding of what is involved. If clients attempt to do this through the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) website, they are presented with no fewer than eight PDF files to download and read, just for the property and affairs LPA. The notes for the preparation of the LPA are 12 pages long, the form itself is 28 pages, the 'guide for people who want to make an LPA' is 60 pages (yes, 60), the 'guide for people taking on the role of an attorney' is 52 pages, the 'guide for certificate providers and witnesses' and the OPG service standards leaflet are 16 pages each, and the fees, exemptions and remissions guide is 21 pages plus two more pages to apply for a fee remission. I make that 207 pages, just for the property and affairs LPA.



The 'extensive public consultation' that the Minister mentions obviously never involved asking a member of the public: 'If you wanted to fill in your own LPA, would you be prepared to read 207 pages of notes and forms?' Even if clients just read the bare minimum necessary to understand the form (the first three documents), that would still be 100 pages.



This is madness. At a stroke, this ill-conceived legislation has removed the ability of clients to make easy, cheap and sensible arrangements to protect their families from some of the devastating problems caused by mental illness. I would urge the government to simplify the forms so that clients of limited means can afford to put some kind of arrangement in place to cover the possibility of mental problems meaning that they cannot deal with their own affairs.



Either the government did not realise that solicitors would have to spend longer with their clients to explain and complete these forms or they did realise and did not care.



Stephen Walker, Gosschalks, Hull