with more information on is lawyer accountable?

Question

The principle hired an attorney to do work on freeing an estate, but the POA that was doing the work on it with the attorney had 2 quick claims drawn up so that the POA would own the property, had them noterized without the Principal being present and ended up with the land unknown until recently. The attorney never sent the principal any paper work on the transaction or copies, they were found out by accident by the new POA. Is the attorney accountable for not representing the principal and how about the notery public that didn't witness the principals signature?

Answer 1

You keep using POA as a reference to a person. I assume you mean the agent exercising the power of attorney.

If the attorney was representing the principle, and had information about activities that were against the principle's interest, then it would be a breach of their duty of loyalty not to inform the principle. That is assuming the attorney knew (or suspected) something was wrong.

As far as the quit-claim deeds, if they were executed by an agent who was not authorized to do that, then they can potentially be challenged as outside the scope of authority and thus invalid.

The notary public is a separate issue. If the person notarized a signature without verifying the identify of the signer, then the notary wasn't doing their job. However, if the notary relied on a facially valid power-of-attorney authorization and merely verified the agent's signature, then most states do not require more.

Laws vary by state. Check your local listings. Or better yet, ask the attorney.

Answer 2

File a grievance with the State Bar and file a complaint with the Secetary of State for the notary...

Answer 3

the notary is not allowed to do that. the rest, call the bar association, laws vary by state.