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Illinois Advance Directive

An Illinois Advance Directive is a legal document that outlines your preferences related to health care, such as your acceptance or refusal of medical treatment, and/or the selection of a chosen healthcare decision maker.

The person making an Advance Directive is called the "principal," and the person or organization receiving authority to carry out the principal's wishes is known as the "agent." Suitable for Illinois residents, this free Advance Directive can be used in DuPage County, Lake County, Cook County, and in every other part of the state. Each Illinois Advance Directive from Rocket Lawyer can be tailored for your unique scenario. Making this essential legal document provides a record of your decisions to healthcare facilities, and it will certify that your selected agents have been authorized to make choices for you.

It is quick and easy to outline your medical wishes using a free Illinois Advance Directive template from Rocket Lawyer:

1. Make the document - Provide a few details, and we will do the rest
2. Send or share - Review the document with your healthcare agent(s) or seek legal advice
3. Sign it - Mandatory or not, witnesses/notarization are recommended

This solution will often be notably less expensive and less time-consuming than hiring and working with a traditional law firm. If necessary, you can prepare an Advance Directive on behalf of an elderly parent, a spouse, or another relative, and then have them sign it once you've drafted it. Please note that for an Advance Directive to be considered legally valid, the principal must be mentally competent when they sign. In the event that the principal is already incapacitated and unable to make their own decisions, a court-appointed conservatorship generally will be required. When managing this situation, it's important to speak with a lawyer.

Every adult ought to have an Advance Healthcare Directive (both a Healthcare Power of Attorney and a Living Will) in place. Though it is tough to acknowledge, a day will likely come when you can no longer make medical decisions on your own. Typical circumstances in which it would be useful to make or update your Advance Directive include:

• You currently live in or are planning to move into an adult care facility
• You are managing a terminal condition
• You are getting older or dealing with ongoing health issues
• You will be undergoing an in-patient procedure that requires anesthesia

Whether this Illinois Advance Directive is being produced as a result of a change in your health or as part of a long-term plan, notarization and/or witnesses will often help to protect your agent if anyone questions their privileges. Please note that in Illinois a Health Care Declaration is not valid during pregnancy.

Making an Advance Directive is normally easy to do, but you or your agent(s) might still have questions. It will vary depending on whom you ask, but often some attorneys will not even agree to review your document if they did not draft it. A more favorable approach worth consideration is to get help via the Rocket Lawyer On Call^® network. With a Premium membership, you will be able to ask for advice from an experienced attorney or send additional legal questions about your Advance Directive. As always, we are here for you.

The fees associated with hiring and working with an attorney to produce an Advance Directive could be between two hundred and one thousand dollars, depending on where you are located. Unlike many other websites that you may stumble upon, Rocket Lawyer offers much more than an Advance Directive template. If you ever require help from a lawyer, your Premium membership provides up to a 40% discount when you hire an attorney.

Alongside your Advance Directive, there will be a series of recommended actions to take after the document is completed. You also can take any or all of these actions with your PoA: making edits, downloading it as a Word document or PDF file, printing it out, and signing it. Finally, your agent(s), care providers, and other impacted parties should get a copy of your fully executed document.

The specific requirements and restrictions will be different in each state; however, in Illinois, your document generally requires two witnesses. If you are only making a Healthcare Power of Attorney and not a Living Will as part of your Advance Directive, then you only need one witness. Witnesses to your Advance Directive form shouldn't be your attending physician, advanced practice nurse, physician assistant, dentist, podiatric physician, optometrist, psychologist, or any relative of the healthcare professionals listed above. Along the same lines, your witness should also not be the owner or operator (or their relatives) at any healthcare facility where you are a patient. Your spouse or any of your other relatives are also prohibited. As a basic standard, your witnesses will need to be at least age 18, and no witness should also be named as your agent.

Legal references for an Advance Directive in Illinois: 755 ILCS 35 and 45