Was He Or She Capable? Disputing Or Defending The Validity Of Power Of Attorneys

Faith is a fine invention
For gentlemen who see;
But microscopes are prudent
In an emergency
-Emily Dickinson-

With an aging population, it has become increasingly common for people to put continuing powers of attorney (POAs) in place to ensure their affairs are managed by trusted ones if they lose capacity before death. It's a smart – and often necessary – step. But not without risk of abuse.

What's also on the rise are legal disputes on the validity of a POA. Did the "grantor", the person who signed the POA, have capacity to appoint such attorney(s) in the first place? When did conditions like dementia or Alzheimer's disease begin to impair the grantor's capacity? The evidentiary challenges around these issues are often compounded by the fact that a POA might only have surfaced years after it was executed by the grantor.