An attorney retiring is no different than one that has died (same as a physician) — they must notify clients — past and present of retirement and death. Many documents may be in off-site storage as either hard copy, hard drives, jump sticks, etc. If individuals were not notified about claiming their docs and having difficulty locating attorney, they can call the Bar Association in the state the attorney is/was licensed to locate attorney and find where client files are located. The attorney can’t legally just “trash” client docs/info at the curb or throw in a dumpster. I was once hired to close out a deceased attorney’s office and notifying current and past clients to take possession of their files. The ones I couldn’t locate, I had to arrange for offsite storage and let the Bar know the location. Everything had to be catalogued and a database given to the Bar.
The second option would visit places (banks, doctors, hospitals, etc.) where the POA has been used. No doubt one of these institutions has made copies of the POA. One of them may have inadvertently kept the original. |
