Legal Matters
Presented by: Bradford & Holliman, Estate Planning 
Face-to-face meetings are required to sign many legal documents, but the legal community has really stepped up its use of technology to minimize face-to-face meetings. Many clients are already comfortable using Facetime and Skype for face-to-face calls with their families. Now is a good time to put that to use as you handle your legal affairs.
Initial consultations can easily be held via phone calls. Briefing forms can be emailed or even completed online. Documents can be mailed or scanned and emailed directly to your attorney’s office. Best of all, with secure video conferencing, family meetings can still read facial expressions that help communications and used for witnessing signatures. Recently, at Bradford & Holliman, we met with a deaf client and used secure video conferencing to add an interpreter to the call. The client could read our lips pretty well, and the interpreter made sure there were no miscommunications.
Even without COVID-19 on the loose, secure video conferencing is very convenient for clients who are not very mobile and for family members who are located far away but need to be involved in your legal matters. Video conferencing saves time and travel expenses for the family members. Now some older folks are almost proud that they don’t use technology, but that is no excuse for not moving forward with your legal needs. Consider it home schooling and impress your kids and grandkids.
Technology can’t fix the need for filing or recording documents in area courts that are closed, but there’s no reason to delay all the preparations that occur before those two events. All lawyers would much prefer to shake your hand in person, but even more importantly, they want to protect your health, whether you are classified as high risk or not. Stay safe and healthy!
-Melanie B. Holliman, JD
Partner at Bradford & Holliman
Estate Planning, Trusts & Special Needs
No representation is made that the quality of the legal service to be performed is greater than the quality of service performed by other lawyers.
