Frequently clients will call us with what they believe to be a perfectly routine request that we prepare documents for someone they are assisting. The request may come from a spouse, child or trusted friend who recognizes the need for an updated general durable financial power of attorney or for a health care power of attorney or for a will to be prepared for and executed by a person to whom they are lovingly giving care and services. They have discussed the issue with the person whose needs they are trying to serve and report to us that what we are being asked to do is exactly what that person wants done. I very often offer to come by and pick up the documents when ready, deliver them to the person to have them notarized in order to avoid inconvenience for all concerned. Sometimes the person they are assisting is too ill or frail to get out, and they are certainly reluctant to suggest that we make a house call. So they are quite surprised to learn that we cannot accommodate their request, that we simply furnish to them the papers that need to be signed.
Under the North Carolina Code of Professional Responsibility governing the activities of North Carolina licensed attorneys, it would be improper for us to furnish those documents. Our ethics opinions require that when we draft documents for a client we must have direct contact with that person for a number of reasons. First, we need to review the document with the person for whom it has been prepared. Second, we must be satisfied that the person signing has the legal capacity to sign documents; and finally, we make inquiry to satisfy ourselves that the documents have not been procured by undue influence. In other words, we want to be sure that what someone is signing is what they want to do and not what someone else is insisting that they must do. So, when we insist on having contact with the person whose papers we have prepared, it is not because we are trying to make it harder than it seems it should be. Instead, it is because we are following the rules mandated for ethical behavior in our profession.
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