Advance Directive Mistakes to Avoid in Tasmania
Mistakes That Invalidate Your Directive Entirely
These errors make your ACD legally unenforceable — as if you never made one at all. Clinicians can (and will) disregard it.
Using the Wrong Form
Tasmania's statutory ACD must be completed on the approved Tasmanian Health Service form. An interstate form (Queensland's Advance Health Directive, Victoria's form, or a generic Australian template downloaded from a national website) does not satisfy the requirements of Part 5A of the Guardianship and Administration Act 1995.
If you used a form that is not the approved THS version, your document may still carry weight as a common law directive — but it cannot be registered with TASCAT, carries weaker legal authority, and is significantly more vulnerable to challenge.
Witness Disqualification
Your ACD requires two independent adult witnesses. If either witness is disqualified, the entire directive is invalid. The disqualification list is specific and catches people more often than you might expect:
- Close relatives (spouse, partner, parent, child, sibling, grandparent, grandchild — including in-laws and step-relatives)
- Your appointed Enduring Guardian
- Your financial attorney under an EPOA
- Paid carers or support workers involved in your daily care
- Any staff member, owner, or administrator of your residential facility
- Anyone who helped you fill out the form
- Beneficiaries of your estate
The most common mistake: asking a spouse or adult child to witness because they are right there. Family members are the most convenient and the most clearly disqualified.
Not Having Decision-Making Capacity
If you lack the capacity to understand, weigh, and communicate decisions about your medical care at the time you sign the ACD, the directive is void. This is not assessed retrospectively — it is a question of whether you had capacity at the moment of signing.
This becomes an issue primarily for people with progressive cognitive conditions. If there is any doubt, get a formal capacity assessment from your GP on the same day you sign. A written medical note confirming capacity at the time of execution is the strongest protection against a later challenge.
Mistakes That Weaken Your Directive Without Technically Invalidating It
These errors leave your ACD legally valid but practically useless — it exists, but it does not do what you intended.
Vague Refusal Language
The single most damaging drafting mistake is using language that no clinician can execute. Phrases that routinely fail:
"No extraordinary measures." This has no medical definition. One doctor might interpret it as "no CPR." Another might interpret it as "no experimental treatments." A third might read it as "no ICU admission." In an emergency, the doctor will default to full active treatment because they cannot determine what you actually meant.
"No life support." Does this include supplemental oxygen? Intravenous fluids? Dialysis? A feeding tube? The term "life support" means different things in different clinical contexts, and an emergency physician cannot pause to philosophise about your intended scope.
"If my quality of life is no longer meaningful." Who defines meaningful? The treating doctor? Your family? A TASCAT tribunal member? This is a values statement, not an executable instruction. It belongs in the values section of your ACD, but it should not be the trigger for a treatment refusal.
Instead, use specific clinical language: "I refuse cardiopulmonary resuscitation, endotracheal intubation, mechanical ventilation, artificial nutrition and hydration, and dialysis." Name each intervention individually.
The CPR-Intubation Contradiction
Requesting CPR while refusing intubation and mechanical ventilation is the most common clinically impossible instruction in self-drafted directives across Australia. CPR and airway management are inseparable — a person in cardiac arrest is not breathing, and chest compressions without an airway are medically futile.
A treating doctor facing this contradiction will override your directive under Section 35U and provide full active treatment, including intubation. If you want to refuse CPR, refuse the complete package. If you want CPR attempted with limits on post-resuscitation care, state that explicitly.
Not Aligning with Hospital GOC Categories
Tasmanian hospitals use a Medical Goals of Care Plan with four clinical phases (A through D). Your treating doctor will translate your ACD into one of these phases. If your ACD language does not map clearly to any phase, the doctor must interpret — and cautious interpretation defaults to Phase A (full active treatment).
Write your refusal clauses so a doctor can immediately identify which GOC phase you are requesting. "I refuse CPR, intubation, and ventilation; prioritise comfort care" maps clearly to Phase C. "No extraordinary measures" maps to nothing.
Only Storing One Copy
A perfectly drafted ACD that nobody can find during an emergency is worthless. People make the directive, file it in a drawer, and never tell anyone where it is. When the ambulance arrives at 2am, paramedics default to full resuscitation.
Store your ACD across multiple locations: register with TASCAT (free), upload to My Health Record, give copies to your GP, your Enduring Guardian, and your family.
Not Registering with TASCAT
Registration is optional but its absence creates a practical vulnerability. An unregistered ACD is valid — but a hospital treating you in an emergency has no way to verify its existence. Registration creates a searchable record that any Tasmanian hospital can check.
Never Updating the Directive
An ACD made five years ago may no longer reflect your current medical circumstances, family situation, or values. Tasmanian law does not allow amendments — you must revoke the old ACD and make a new one. Review annually and after any significant health event or life change.
DIY vs Lawyer: When Do You Actually Need Professional Help?
A solicitor is not required to make a valid ACD in Tasmania. The forms are publicly available, witnessing does not require legal professionals, and TASCAT registration is straightforward. Most standard advance care plans can be self-directed.
A solicitor adds value in specific circumstances:
- Complex family dynamics where a challenge to the ACD is likely (estranged family members, blended families, disputes over care)
- Unusually complex medical conditions where bespoke refusal clauses are needed beyond standard treatment categories
- Concurrent estate planning where the ACD, Enduring Guardian, EPOA, and will need to be coordinated as a single package
Standard solicitor fees for preparing all three instruments (ACD, EG, EPOA) in Tasmania range from $720 to $1,080 or more, depending on complexity. The self-directed route — using publicly available forms and registering directly — costs $265.58 in government fees ($88.20 for the EG, $177.38 for the EPOA, and $0 for the ACD) for FY 2026–2027.
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Avoiding the Mistakes Systematically
The Tasmania Advance Directive & Living Will Kit is built around preventing these specific errors. It includes witness verification sheets (checking every disqualification criterion before signing day), clinically precise refusal language that maps to hospital GOC phases, a signing day checklist for the correct sequence, and split-registry filing guides for TASCAT and the Land Titles Office — so the mistakes that invalidate or weaken most self-drafted directives are caught before they happen.
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