Health care directive in New Jersey: form, signing and who decides
The form, who can witness, who can be your agent and who decides if you have no directive in New Jersey.
Checked against official sources: October 31, 2026.
Short answer
Advance directive for health care (proxy directive and/or instruction directive)
- Official form
- Proxy Directive (Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care) and Instruction Directive (Living Will)
- How to sign
- Notarized or signed by two adult witnesses
- Who decides without a directive
- No
The document and its form
- Document
- Advance directive for health care (proxy directive and/or instruction directive)
- Official form
- Proxy Directive (Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care) and Instruction Directive (Living Will)Published by New Jersey Department of Health (forms developed by the New Jersey Commission on Legal and Ethical Problems in the Delivery of Health Care)Version: No revision date printed on the forms
You do not have to use it.
- Living will
Instruction directive (living will)
The living will is a separate document.
An instruction directive states your general treatment philosophy and goals and/or your specific wishes about providing, withholding or withdrawing any health care, including life-sustaining treatment. It can be separate from or attached to a proxy directive and is signed under the same rules.
Law: N.J.S.A. 26:2H-56, 26:2H-58; N.J.S.A. 26:2H-58(b)
Signing rules
- How to sign
Sign and date the advance directive either in front of two adult witnesses who also sign, or acknowledge it before a notary public, an attorney at law, or another person authorized to administer oaths. You may add a video or audio recording.
- Who signs
Signed and dated by you, or by someone at your direction.
- Notary
- A notary or witnesses (your choice)
- Witnesses
- 2 (instead of a notary)
- Who cannot witness
Two adult witnesses must sign and attest that you are of sound mind and free of duress and undue influence. The health care representative you name cannot be a witness.
Law: N.J.S.A. 26:2H-56
Who can be your agent and what the agent can do
- Who cannot be your agent
Any adult with mental capacity can be your health care representative. An operator, administrator or employee of a health care institution where you are a patient or resident cannot serve unless related to you by blood, marriage, domestic partnership, civil union or adoption; this does not bar a physician who is not also your attending physician.
Law: N.J.S.A. 26:2H-58(a)
- When the agent starts
The advance directive becomes operative when it is given to your attending physician or health care institution and it is determined that you lack capacity to make a particular decision. The attending physician must put that finding in writing, and another physician must confirm it unless your incapacity is clearly apparent and the physician and representative agree confirmation is unnecessary. If you regain capacity for a decision, you make it yourself.
Law: N.J.S.A. 26:2H-59, 26:2H-60, 26:2H-63(b)
- Decisions an agent cannot make
The health care representative must make the decision you would have made, or, if your wishes cannot be determined, decide in your best interests, giving priority to your instruction directive. If you clearly express a current wish that life-sustaining measures be provided, that wish overrides the representative and your instruction directive. You must state any limits on the representative's authority, including any for pregnancy.
Law: N.J.S.A. 26:2H-58(a)(5), 26:2H-61(f), 26:2H-63
Revoking and conflicting documents
- Revoking your agent
You can revoke a proxy directive by telling your health care representative, physician, nurse, other health care professional or another reliable witness, orally or in writing, or by any other act showing intent to revoke, or by signing a new directive.
- Revoking your instructions
An instruction directive is revoked the same ways. A patient who lacks capacity can suspend (not revoke) a directive by the same means and later reinstate it.
- Telling others
A revocation or suspension takes effect when communicated to anyone who can pass it on, such as your health care representative, attending physician, nurse or other health care professional.
- Divorce ends a spouse's authority
- Yes · Divorce rules in New Jersey (Divorce Law Map)
Law: N.J.S.A. 26:2H-57
If you have no directive
- Who decides without a directive
New Jersey's advance directive law does not set a priority list of family members who may decide for an adult who has no advance directive and no guardian.
Other states, registry and medical orders
- Signed in another state
An advance directive made under another state's law and valid there (or valid under New Jersey law) is valid in New Jersey. One made in a foreign country is valid if it complies with that country's law or New Jersey's and is not contrary to New Jersey public policy.
Law: N.J.S.A. 26:2H-76
- POLST (medical orders)
Practitioner Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST)
- Mental health directive
Under the Advance Directives for Mental Health Care Act you can make a separate advance directive for mental health care, signed and dated in front of at least one adult witness. Your mental health care representative and your treating mental health professional cannot witness. A relative, someone who lives with you, a person who would inherit from you, or a staff member of a boarding house or residential health care facility where you live cannot be the only witness (N.J.S.A. 26:2H-102 to 26:2H-119; 26:2H-105).
Law: N.J.S.A. 26:2H-129 to 26:2H-140 (Practitioner Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment Act)
Free notice: revoke or change a health care directive
Free help in New Jersey
- Legal Services of New Jersey Legal Hotline · 1-888-576-5529
- NJ Department of Health: Advance Directive Forms & FAQs
- LSNJLAW (Legal Services of New Jersey): Advance Directives
- LSNJLAW: Guardianship (seniors)
- New Jersey Courts: Guardianship self-help
- Find free legal aid at LawHelp.org
Report abuse or exploitation
County Adult Protective Services offices (New Jersey Division of Aging Services)
Questions about powers of attorney in New Jersey
How do I sign a health care directive in New Jersey?
Sign and date the advance directive either in front of two adult witnesses who also sign, or acknowledge it before a notary public, an attorney at law, or another person authorized to administer oaths. You may add a video or audio recording.
Who decides my health care if I have no directive in New Jersey?
New Jersey's advance directive law does not set a priority list of family members who may decide for an adult who has no advance directive and no guardian.