Calgary & Edmonton Personal Directives & Living Wills Lawyers
Personal directives and living wills help make sure people follow your wishes.
Personal directives are often referred to as living wills, advanced care planning or advanced medical directives. They are a legal document that allows you to appoint an agent (personal representative) to make decisions for you if you lose capacity to make decisions for yourself about yourself. Personal directives can be very specific as to the exact wishes that you want followed or you can put your trust generally that the person you pick knows you well enough to make these decisions. In Calgary, Alberta and surrounding areas, Kahane Law Office is able to help by calling 403-225-8810. Alternatively, our office in Edmonton, Alberta please call 780-571-8463.
Decisions Made In Personal Directives & Living Wills
When drafting this type of document, many aspects of life require addressing in the event that you lose capacity to make those decisions on your own. We custom draft each document to meet individual wishes and needs. For example, the types of decision making powers that we draft into a living wills and personal directives include:
Medical Care Decisions
Due to the board nature of medical treatment available in today’s world, the person you pick face many potential decisions. For example, these decisions include what medical treatment you do or do not get, what types of medicine is administered, whether special lifesaving procedures are used to prolong life, experimental treatments, etc.. Some people decide to draft in their specific decision wishes. Other people leave a general guideline for their selected person. The decision is yours to make and often turns on your existing relationship with your decision maker.
Where You Live
If the time comes where you cannot live at home, your agent can decide for you as to what type of facility or residence you will live in. If financing is an issue, this person will work with your power of attorney who will administer your assets. Often the personal directive and enduring power of attorney will appoint the same individual but this is not required if you think that your wishes will be better followed separating out the roles.
Personal Life Decisions
If you lose the ability to decide things for yourself, someone must make day to day decisions for you. Of course this is a hard concept to think about for most of our clients. Above all, these include many and broad decisions. For example, these include things like:
- people with whom you associate;
- specific individuals with whom you live;
- the types of activities that you take part in;
- any sport or exercise you enjoy; and lastly
- religious services you attend.
Why A Personal Directive Is Important
A personal directive lets you legalize your wishes for your medical and personal care. You decide what happens to you if you lose the ability to make choices for yourself. Without a personal directive, there is a chance that someone will have to apply to the court to get the legal right to make these decisions. A lawyer attends in court to secure decision making powers. This is called a guardianship order. At times, the Office of the Public Guardian of Alberta will make decisions for you. Other times, if a dispute comes up as between different people in your life with conflicting ideas of your treatment, the Alberta courts ultimately make that determination. In these circumstances, Kahane Law Office is able to represent an individual claiming the responsibility of making decisions for you.
What If You Do Not Have A Personal Directive
If you do not have a personal directive, then a family member or friend may have to apply for a guardianship order. This is where the court appoints someone that they think is best able to make choices for you. Above all, this process is often expensive, emotional and time consuming. However, it usually also happens at a time that is emotionally difficult for family members. This process also usually takes months. The Alberta government sets the laws with respect to when there is no personal directive (or living will) and guardianship. Lastly, click and read more here for information if you need ideas and pointers on how to talk to and encourage your parents to put a will & estate plan in place.
Kahane Law Video On Personal Directives
We find many clients prefer to learn the basics with a video. With this link you learn more about personal directives. Our video is short and informative.
Your Personal Directive Lawyers & Living Will Lawyers
Planning for the future helps makes things easier for you and loved ones. Our lawyers in both Edmonton and Calgary help you understand the complexities of the different personal directive options and can help draft one to fit your needs. Kahane Law Office assists you in all matters relating to powers of attorney. Most important, we work with you to ensure the final document meets your wishes. You can reach us toll-free at 1-877-225-8817, 780-571-8463 in Edmonton and 403-225-8810 in Calgary or contact us online for a personal directive to learn more today.