Advance Care Directive and Enduring Guardian – NSW

About Product

An Advance Health Care Directive (AHCD) is a very important, binding legal document that provides directions to health care professionals and others in circumstances of a health issue.

If you are in a coma do you want to be put on life support?  The answer may be different if you are age 20 or age 90.  Users may also appoint a person as a substitute decision-maker in the event of your incapacity to make decisions for yourself.  The substitute decision-maker needs clear guidelines on what to do as well as what not to do.

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► The master document has been signed off by LY Legal and is congruent with Australian law.

General Information

Each Australian State has its own provisions in relation to the creation of an AHCD and when it applies. The current one is for NSW only. It also provides the maker with the ability to complete an enduring guardianship

Benefits

• Provides a structure for a person not able to manage their health affairs
• Enables a person to act as a substitute decision-maker where the maker of the AHCD is unable to make health decisions on their own
• Provides binding guidelines for medical and other professionals on what to do in various health care situations
• Sits alongside an enduring power of attorney and is effective without one
• Provides cascading substitute decision-makers where one resigns, retires, dies or becomes incapacitated.
• Will need to discuss with a medical professional.

What happens to any existing AHCD?

The new AHCD will take precedence over an existing AHCD and at any time an AHCD can be cancelled.  The pack includes a cancellation form.

What happens if a substitute decision maker dies or becomes incapacitated?

It is crucial in the planning process to determine who is to be a enduring guardian and then the next enduring guardian in case something happens to the first one..

What happens if the AHCD Maker moves interstate?

It is best to complete an AHCD from the state the person currently resides in.

How long does this document take to assemble?

Depending on the complexity of the data, this document should take approximately 30-50 secs to assemble. If you experience timing outside of this please contact Support via the Surge app, alternatively please read this article for troubleshooting tips https://info.lightyeardocs.com.au/supportcentre/troubleshooting-longer-assembly-times-timeouts .

Is this document a legal document?

All master documents have been signed off by LY Legal lawyers. Tony Anamourlis of LY Legal advises that “at no time, due to inbuilt legal protection and security measures can a user change or amend a document on the LYD platform that has been signed off by a practicing solicitor. To do so would result in the user drafting a document of a legal nature and engaging in the provision of legal services. In addition, it would be a breach of copyright. In our opinion when completing the form fields through the LYD platform, users and their employees are merely carrying out an administrative task which is not the provision of legal advice.”

However in some complex areas such as the insertion of a varied range of client instructions into a Will or other such documents the user must be mindful of the extent to which a document is being drafted by the user rather than merely the administrative task of completing a form where the relevant fields are inserted into the reviewed and signed  legal document provided by LY Legal.

The above advice is born out of numerous cases dating back to Re Sanderson, Ex parte Law Institute of Victoria [1927] VLR 394, 397 where the Court held:

“if a person does a thing usually done by a solicitor, and does it in such a way as to lead to the reasonable inference that he is a solicitor – if he combines professing to be a solicitor with action usually taken by a solicitor – I think he then does act as a solicitor.”

Likewise in ACCC v Murray (2002) 121 FCR 428, 448 where Murray was building a franchise business that involved the legal writing and drafting of Wills from scratch based on the client’s personal circumstances.  The Court held that this process was legal work.

Is the document easy to read?

All LYD products are written in plain English and assessed for readability. If at any time you come across any errors, please contact support@lyd.com.au.

What lawyers sign off on the LYD documents?

All LYD documents are prepared and signed off by LY Legal.

Are the LYD documents reviewed regularly?

All LYD documents form part of the LYD internal review process. We review all documents at least annually or when required to do so due to changes in legislation. Further details of this process and a review schedule is include on this website.