Free Louisiana Non-Durable (General) Power of Attorney Form

Louisiana is the one civil law state, and it has no durable or non-durable categories at all. What other states call a power of attorney, the Louisiana Civil Code calls a mandate. A Louisiana Non-Durable (General) Power of Attorney is therefore a mandate that you have deliberately limited, because the Code’s own default carries the authority through your incapacity. Article 2989 defines the mandate as a contract by which a person, the principal, confers authority on another person, the mandatary, to transact one or more affairs for the principal.

Louisiana’s rules are not shaped like other states’ power of attorney statutes, and the form rule is the surprise.

The Form Follows the Job

The contract of mandate is not required to be in any particular form. Article 2993 then adds the part that matters: when the law prescribes a certain form for an act, a mandate authorizing that act must be in that form. So there is no single Louisiana signing ceremony. The formality your document needs is borrowed from whatever you are authorizing your mandatary to do.

Two Words for Nearly the Same Thing

A procuration is a unilateral juridical act by which you confer authority on a representative to represent you in legal relations, addressed either to the representative or to a person the representative is authorized to deal with. That is article 2987, and article 2988 subjects a procuration to the rules governing mandate to the extent those rules are compatible with its nature.

Why You Have to Write the Limit In

In the absence of contrary agreement, neither the contract nor the authority of the mandatary is terminated by your incapacity, disability, or other condition that makes an express revocation impossible or impractical. Article 3026 is the default, and the words in the absence of contrary agreement are your opening. A contrary agreement, written into the document, is what makes a Louisiana mandate non-durable.

Article 3024 lists three causes, on top of the ordinary causes that end any contract. The mandate and the mandatary’s authority terminate upon the death of the principal or of the mandatary, the interdiction of the mandatary, and the qualification of the curator after the interdiction of the principal.

Read that third one carefully, because it is not the same as incapacity. Article 3026 says your incapacity alone does not end the mandate. Article 3024(3) ends it once a court has interdicted you and a curator has qualified. Interdiction is a formal court proceeding, so there is a gap between losing capacity in fact and the document ending in law. Writing your own contrary agreement under article 3026 is what closes that gap and produces a Louisiana Non-Durable (General) Power of Attorney.

Article 3029 handles the other direction, when your mandatary wants out. The mandate and the authority terminate when the mandatary notifies you of their resignation. But where the mandatary has reasonable grounds to believe you lack capacity, the termination is effective only when they notify another mandatary or a designated successor mandatary, and failing that, a person with a sufficient interest in your welfare.

Work out the formality first, because it depends on the job.

1. Identify every act you want your mandatary to be able to perform.
2. Check what form the law prescribes for each of those acts, since article 2993 borrows it.
3. Name yourself as principal and your mandatary, and set out the authority.
4. Write in a contrary agreement under article 3026, stating that the mandate terminates on your incapacity.
5. Add an end date or describe the affair that completes it.
6. Execute the document in the form the underlying acts require.
7. If the mandate is recorded, remember that a later revocation has to be filed too.

A complete Louisiana Non-Durable (General) Power of Attorney carries:

• Your name and address as principal, and your mandatary’s
• The affairs the mandatary is authorized to transact
• The contrary agreement ending the mandate on your incapacity
• An end date or the completed affair that closes it
• Execution in whatever form the authorized acts require