Formal requirements of power of attorney
A party to administrative proceedings may give a power of attorney:
| In writing |
The attorney is obliged to enclose to case files the original or a legally attested copy of the letter of attorney.
A lawyer, a legal counsel, a patent attorney, and a tax advisor may authenticate the copy of the letter of attorney themselves, as well as authenticate other documents proving their authorisation, e.g. a certified copy from the National Court Register which proves that the person who gave them a power of attorney is authorised to represent a legal person.
If a public administrative body doubts the party’s signature, it may demand it to be legally attested.
|
|
In electronic form
|
Such a power of attorney should be authenticated by means of:
a qualified certificate according to the rules provided by the act on electronic signature (ustawa o podpisie elektronicznym), an ePUAP trusted profile, or other information and communication technology used by public authorities for the realisation of public functions unless separate laws anticipate an obligation to undertake actions in a public authority office.
|
| Orally |
By a declaration made by the principal before an administrative body which it records in the minutes.
|
In art. 33 § 4 the CAP anticipates a case in which an administrative authority is authorised to recognise a person as an attorney-in-fact without the necessity to produce the power of attorney. It is the so-called constructive authority which is based on three jointly met prerequisites, listed below. It has to be stressed that each prerequisite is of discretionary character, and whether it has been met depends on the authority’s decision that:
|
1.The case is a „minor matter”;
|
- It can be concluded that a minor matter is an action which does not have important consequences, e.g. looking through case files, receiving a certificate or post, filing documents;
|
|
2. A member of the party’s nearest family or someone residing with the party acts as the attorney-in-fact;;
|
- Nearest family are spouses, parents, children, siblings, relatives of first-degree affinity (in-law) and kinsmen by adoption, care and guardianship.
- Persons residing with the party are the party’s relatives and relatives-in-law living with him in a flat or house. As a rule, persons unknown to the party, e.g. a flatmate who is not a relative or a relative-in-law, are not considered household members unless they were included in and are running the household with the party.
|
|
3. The authority has no doubts as to the power of attorney’s existence and its scope of authorisation.
|