If you need someone to act on your behalf in legal matters then you will probably need to issue a power of attorney. This formal document provides another person with the authority to act on your behalf for a specific purpose or may be issued for general use in many matters. This can save you the time and expense of travelling abroad to deal with legal issues. In most cases you will be supplied with the POA by the person overseas who will act on your behalf.
Your document will need to be signed in the presence of a UK solicitor or notary public who will witness you sign the document and then add their own signature and stamp. The solicitor should add the comment ‘witnessed by’ or ‘signed before me’ or a similar statement to confirm they saw you sign the document. Once the document has been correctly signed, the apostille can be issued to you. The apostille will confirm the signatory on the document is a recognised solicitor or notary.
