Justice Willed: Clinic offers all-day document preparation

Helping our clients to prepare advance planning documents has always been an AIDS Law Project priority. As the COVID pandemic raged on, requests grew for medical advance directives and estate planning.We had lengthy phone conversations with clients to document their wishes, but we were unable to finish the documents: Each requires two witnesses, and some require a notary seal. With our staff working remotely, it was a challenge to assemble the personnel needed to complete the documentation. So we decided to offer an all-day event, which we affectionately labeled “Will-o-Rama.” We selected a day when an attorney, a notary, and a paralegal could be present and scheduled as many clients as we could, adding time to clean the surfaces in the conference room. The counseling, review, and drafting were done in advance by email, postal mail, over the phone, and via videoconference. Last week, we completed 17 documents for six back-to-back clients.