Legal Question in Elder Law in Louisiana

If a Power of Attorney is valid? One of the witnesses that signed the POA stated there was no notary present at the time the principal signed this document. But it was somehow notarized later.

This POA was used to obtain $300K plus. Is this POA valid? If no notary was present?

The principal of the POA was an elderly person, age 66, in hospital, disabled from stroke in brainstem.

Wouldnt these actions taken with the use of the POA, fall under Finanical Exploitation of the Elderly, White collar crimes such as Bank Fraud, Embezzelement, Forgery and Larceny?

I hope you can help me. I feel like there are laws broken, but no one will tell me where to go to for help. Or how do I report this?


Asked on 8/05/09, 5:34 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Adam Lambert The Law Office of Adam S. Lambert

If the Notary notarized the document after the fact without the person there, he violated the law and could lose his license. If that Notary is also an attorney, he could lose his license to practice law. What you are accusing the Notary of is a serious offense.

Additionally, if you have evidence that a POA is being used to steal from someone and that an agent is stealing from someone by way of a POA, you should report that crime. You'd better have ACTUAL evidence of a theft, not conjecture or argument or a bad feeling in your gut. Falsely accusing someone of a crime is defamatory per se and you will be opening yourself up to a lot trouble if you don't have actual evidence to suport your suspicions. Way too often I see people get caught up in situations like these and they tend to go way overboard in their arguments--accusing people of crimes because they did something they didn't like.

That being said, you may have no standing to bring these claims anyway. The POA is not yours.

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Answered on 8/14/09, 2:39 pm


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