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Vermont Healthcare Power of Attorney

A Vermont Healthcare Power of Attorney is a legal document that gives a person or organization the authority to make healthcare decisions for you, such as refusing or accepting a certain medical treatment or procedure, when you cannot do so.

The individual giving permission is known as the "principal," and the people or entities obtaining authority are called the "agents." Suited for Vermont residents, our Power of Attorney for health care is made for use in Bennington County, Caledonia County, Chittenden County, and in every other part of the state. All Vermont Medical PoA forms from Rocket Lawyer can be modified for your specific situation. Making this essential document will provide confirmation to medical institutions and other parties that your chosen agent is legally allowed to make choices for you when you are not able.

It is fast and simple to give or receive the authority you may need using a free Vermont Healthcare Power of Attorney template from Rocket Lawyer:

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

This route, in many cases, will be much less expensive and less time-consuming than working with the average attorney. If needed, you may start a Medical PoA on behalf of your spouse, an elderly parent, or another relative, and then have them sign it once you've drafted it. Please keep in mind that for this document to be considered legally valid, the principal must be a mentally competent adult when they sign. If the principal is already unable to make their own decisions, a court-appointed conservatorship could be necessary. When facing such a scenario, it would be a good idea to speak to an attorney.

If you are over 18 years old, you should have a Healthcare Power of Attorney. While it's difficult to acknowledge, a day could come when you cannot make medical decisions on your own. Here are a few common occasions in which you may consider PoA forms to be helpful:

• You are getting older or have declining health
• You intend to live in a care facility
• You will be hospitalized for a surgical procedure
• You are managing a terminal illness

Whether this Vermont Healthcare Power of Attorney is being prepared as part of a long-term plan or made in response to an urgent issue, notarization and witnesses are highly encouraged for protecting your agent if their power and authority are challenged.

When discussing the subjects of elder care or estate planning with healthcare or legal professionals, you or a loved one might find that the terms "healthcare proxy" and "healthcare power of attorney" are used interchangeably. In short, they're the same. That being said, please keep in mind that it's absolutely possible to give agency over affairs that aren't related to health care. In that case, "proxy" is not commonly used.

Vermont Medical PoA forms are typically straightforward, but you or your agent may still need legal advice. Getting a lawyer to proofread your Healthcare Power of Attorney could take a long time if you attempt to do it alone. Another approach worth consideration is to request help from the On Call attorney network. Premium members can ask for feedback from an On Call attorney with relevant experience or get answers to additional questions. As always, you can be confident that Rocket Lawyer is here by your side.

The cost of meeting and hiring a law firm to generate a Medical Power of Attorney might add up to anywhere between two hundred and five hundred dollars. Rocket Lawyer is not a run-of-the-mill Power of Attorney template provider. With our service, anyone under a Rocket Lawyer membership has access to up to 40% in savings when hiring an attorney from our network.

As a Rocket Lawyer member, you can make edits, save it in PDF format or as a Word document, and print it. In order to wrap up your Power of Attorney, it must be signed. You will need to give a copy of your fully signed document to your agent(s), care providers, and other impacted parties.

The specifications and restrictions will be different by state; however, in Vermont, your Power of Attorney will require two witnesses. Witnesses to this PoA must not include your spouse, parent, adult sibling, adult child, or adult grandchild. Finally, as a basic rule, your witness(es) must not be under the age of 18, and no witness should also be your Power of Attorney agent.

See Vermont Healthcare Power of Attorney law: Title 18, Ch. 231