LPAs: Bill allowing Chartered Legal Executives to certify copies through latest parliamentary stage
A private members' bill that would see Chartered Legal Executives able to certify copies of powers of attorney made it through its latest stage in Parliament earlier this month.
The Powers of Attorney Bill, promoted by Conservative MP Stephen Metcalfe, has the support of the government and, according to Mr Metcalfe, would “promote consumer choice and generate competition in the legal services market.”
The bill would amend section 3 of the Powers of Attorney Act 1971 to enable Chartered Legal Executives to certify a copy of a power of attorney, a move that CILEX has long campaigned for.
It would also allow lasting powers of attorney (LPAs) to be made and registered electronically, while also facilitating a new paper process. New safeguards include the introduction of identity verification – the Office of the Public Guardian will be able to conduct identity checks on individuals involved in making, or who are named in, the LPA as a condition of its registration – changes to the objection process, and restricting who can apply to register the LPA to just the donor.
The bill also facilitates a future system in which the LPA will be registered as an electronic document, which will be used as evidence of registration, while still allowing physical proof for those who need it.
Speaking at the bill’s committee stage, Mr Metcalfe explained: “The process to certify a copy of a power of attorney does not require specialist legal skills, yet, under the existing legislation, Chartered Legal Executives – lawyers who provide mainstream legal services – are not included among those who are able to do that.
“That does not make any sense and is not in line with the evolution in the legal services sector that has allowed Chartered Legal Executives to carry out many of the same functions as solicitors.
“Indeed, during the pandemic, the Land Registry used its discretionary powers to accept copies of lasting powers of attorney certified by Chartered Legal Executives.”
Justice minister Mike Freer said, “modernisation is no longer just an option, but an absolute necessity”.
He said: “It will help the Public Guardian to respond to changing societal needs and ultimately make the process for making and registering LPAs safer, simpler and more accessible. No doubt the introduction of a digital channel and an improved paper route will help to make an LPA more accessible for more people.
The change in relation to Chartered Legal Executives “will remedy an anomaly in the process that allows Chartered Institute of Legal Executives lawyers to participate in the creation of a power of attorney, but then renders them unable to certify as genuine a copy of the same document”.
Mr Freer went on: “Along with modernising the LPA, that will help to make sharing and using all LPAs, whether old or modernised, easier in the future.”