I am less likely to appoint a Canadian lawyer to act on my behalf than a random person from the internet. The fact that someone is a lawyer in Canada suggests that I ought not to trust them.

I don't know that I can adequately express in words how little I trust Canadian lawyers. Understand that while I do think them utterly dishonest my most common irritation with them is that they are incompetent. For example, this week I conducted a real estate transaction which, to my horror, entailed entrusting hundreds of thousands of dollars to a lawyer (Jane Harvey and associates at Square One), the lawyer was supposed to take money from the mortgage company and pay it to the house seller but instead they paid it to a random third party. I then had to drive around to Mr. Third Party and beg it back. Of course, they billed me as if they hadn't ****ed it up.

We used a Canadian lawyer (Rechei Frankel in Toronto) to help with my partners immigration. Mid way through the process they lost interest and we completed it ourselves. This week, years later, we got a bill for the services they promised to perform but didn't. Utter *****. The ordinary man has no redress because you can't take a lawyer to small claims court, you can only hire another one to chase the first one.

Meanwhile, back at the bank, if someone were to walk in saying he was a lawyer with POA, it wouldn't help, the problem is that the bank staff doesn't know what a POA is. It's similar to presenting a draft drawn on say, the RBC, to the TD, the RBC says it's the same as cash, but it's not a negotiable instrument because the person at the TD counter has never seen one before.

we have just left the uk last week and have got our soliciters to APO for us (one each for my wife & me) when they deal with our house sale, they will sign any papers we ask in connection with the sale as long as we have read the papers first (e-mail or hard copy) they are not charging us any extra for this.

it took 2 mins to print and sign the POA, standard letter you just fill in the blanks as required.

You can't generalize like that about lawyers. The lawyer I work for is totally anal in my opinion about following every rule to the exact letter. And he doesn't charge much. But it drives me nuts that he has to follow the rules absolutely exactly. I have worked for other lawyers - lots of them - and we would always do things such as if there was a little spelling mistake in a word on a page without a signature, we would just correct the mistake and change the page after it was signed. I am talking about "becuase" instead of "because" things like that. But he would probably make someone come back and resign the document.

If someone made a mistake such as dbd is talking about - not paying the money to the vendor's solicitor but to some other "random" person then I would be complaining to the Law Society about that. In Saskatchewan, there is a prescribed Law Society trust letter when the vendor's solicitor send the documents to the purchaser's solicitor, and that would include sending the purchase monies to the vendor's solicitor. So, if he or she sent the monies elsewhere they haven't complied with the trust conditions and that is an absolute no no with any lawyer I have worked for.

We just did the POA for me yesterday as hubby going to Vancouver in June, and I will be taking care of everything that he left! :P it cost us £88 (£75 + VAT). and that is a general POA for everything i need to take care on his behalf.

granted, it was a couple of years ago and before the rules changed, but when our house sale didn't complete before we moved, we arranged a limited POA with our conveyancing solicitor who acted on our behalf in the completion of the sale. She didn't charge any additional fees for drawing up and acting under the POA besides the previously agreed conveyancing fee.

I all seems more complicated that we need a POA which will be valid in Canada. I have been having a 3 way conversation with my UK lawyer and my NS lawyer and we are trying to work it out between us at a sensible price.

Thanks for all the advice

Hey there.

My mum and I both had them done together just before the law in the UK changed. The changes to the law, mean that a court hearing is now required in order to set one up (I believe).

I do not know if a UK POA is valid in Canada and vice versa.

I am aware that wills for property / equity in one country, may not be covered if the will was written under the law of another country. It would seem reasonable that the same applies to POA.

They aren't now called POA's either, but can't recall their names now.

For 2 last year, it was £250.00 + vat. My friend did them, as she is a lawyer and I believe this was a reasonable cost. She also mentioned that prices for them were going sky high towards the cut off date for the old ones to be drawn up, as all other legal work had to be put aside in order for them to be completed within the time frame.

Getting back to your query though, that quote does seem on the high side, but they are more expensive now.

Bx