I have created a Medical DPOA and assigned two joint agents/patient advocates who are supposed to act together in agreement. There is a provision in there that addresses how disputes will be handled. The document was created by modifying an existing DPOA that assigns power to a single agent/patient advocate. Thus, references to the agent/patient advocate had to be changed to agents/patient advocates. However, one sentence that adresses the use and dissemination of medical information was missed and not modified: "It is understood that the agent to whom this authorization is given has my permission to use and disseminate this information in my agent's sole discretion."
My question is... if the rest of the document is grammatically correct and are consistent with the assignment of power to two joint agents, how will this one sentence be legally interpreted? Is "agent" still understood as being both agents and "sole discretion" still applies to both agents needing to acting together, or does this one sentence becomes an exception and give each individual agent the power to act on his/her own concerning medical information without needing agreement from the other agent?
If it can legally be interpreted either way, will the agents be allowed to decide on their own how to interpret it (which is acceptable since it applies to only to medical information and not actual life/death decisions), or does the intent need be clarified upfront on the document? If it needs clarification, is it sufficient to just handwrite in the corrections/clarifying words and initial the margin even though the document has already been notarized, or does a brand new document needs to be created and notarized?
Sorry for all the questions. I'm just trying to figure out the best course of action that requires the least amount of redo. Thanks for your advice!
My question is... if the rest of the document is grammatically correct and are consistent with the assignment of power to two joint agents, how will this one sentence be legally interpreted? Is "agent" still understood as being both agents and "sole discretion" still applies to both agents needing to acting together, or does this one sentence becomes an exception and give each individual agent the power to act on his/her own concerning medical information without needing agreement from the other agent?
If it can legally be interpreted either way, will the agents be allowed to decide on their own how to interpret it (which is acceptable since it applies to only to medical information and not actual life/death decisions), or does the intent need be clarified upfront on the document? If it needs clarification, is it sufficient to just handwrite in the corrections/clarifying words and initial the margin even though the document has already been notarized, or does a brand new document needs to be created and notarized?
Sorry for all the questions. I'm just trying to figure out the best course of action that requires the least amount of redo. Thanks for your advice!