Updated | PN tables motion to amend legal notice simplifying power of attorney revocation

The Nationalist Party has filed a motion in parliament to amend a legal notice which, among other things, introduced the electronic revocation of power of attorney.

The legal notice, launched by justice minister Owen Bonnici, was intended to simplify the process by which a power of attorney can be revoke by allowing holders and subjects of a power of attorney to cancel it by filling in an online form against a €50 fee. The forms would then be processed by the Chief Notary within 24 hours and afterwards published on an online registry.

However, in an open letter to the justice minister, the Malta IT Law Association (MITLA) warned that the legal notice could be in breach of Malta’s electronic commerce laws, noting that the electronic revocation of power of attorneys is excluded from the Electronic Commerce Act and that the legal notice did not update it to include any direct legal equivalence for such electronic revocation.

“This might create an anomaly where third parties could attack the legal validity of revocations of power of attorneys filed electronically, irrespective of the provisions introduced by the regulations,” MITLA had said in a statement. “It appears that the procedure being introduced pursuant to the regulation is that of facilitating the electronic submission of the revocation of a power of attorney without entering into any matters relating to security, identification and the underlying technology used.”

In a statement, the PN said that it recognised that the legal notice was well-intended, explaining that this was the reason why it motion called for it to be amended, not revoked. It added that the party tabled this motion after MITLA expressed its concerns.

Government: Process, not application, to be done online

Responding to the motion, the government issued a statement emphasising that the legal notice has revamped the procedure of revoking power of attorney, which it said was previously “bureaucratic, archaic and cost citizens about €2,000.”

“This new procedure was the result of a wide consultation involving several stakeholders. From this discussion, it was made clear that due to the possible impact of abuse of the revocation of power of attorney, revoking power of attorney should be don in person, and not online,” the government’s statement read. “The office of the Chief Notary has already explained that the system will affect the processing of the revocation, and not application,” it added.