Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma is partnering with Oklahoma City’s Episcopal Church of the Resurrection to hold a free will clinic for low-income persons who may be putting off basic estate planning because they don’t have money to pay an attorney.

The first scheduled free will clinic will be 10:30 am to noon, Saturday, Aug. 9, at the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, located at 13112 N. Rockwell. At this clinic organizers will provide information on basic estate planning tools such as wills, trusts, powers of attorney and advance directives (living wills.) No advance registration is needed. Those attending this session will be given questionnaires to complete and return to the church in order to meet with an attorney at a second session when their documents will be prepared. The second session will occur 4-6 weeks from Aug. 9 and will be announced at Aug. 9 meeting. The free clinic is for basic wills and documents only; persons with more complicated estates will be referred to the private bar for help.

In addition to Legal Aid, free assistance at the clinic will be provided by volunteer attorneys from the Oklahoma Bar Association and law students and paralegals from Oklahoma City University.

“We are working to develop more partnerships with churches so that people who cannot afford to have their wills and other documents prepared by a private attorney and who are wary of self-help clinics can have these important documents prepared in a timely manner,” said Rick Goralewicz, who serves as Senior Law Attorney in Legal Aid’s Oklahoma City office. “People have a misconception about estate planning, that it is only about who’ll get my stuff and is for elderly people only. It’s not just for elderly people,” he said, referring to the case of Terri Schiavo, which involved a prolonged struggle over when to terminate life support.

“Through the free will clinics and our other services, we want to try to head off situations like that. We want to be able to help alleviate people’s stress by having a plan in place,” said Goralewicz.  For further information, he can be reached at 405.488.6812, rick.goralewicz@laok.org.

Clinic Agenda:

Session I

DATE:  Saturday, August 9, 2014
TIME:  10:30 a.m. to 12 noon
PLACE:  Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, 13112 N. Rockwell, Oklahoma City, OK 

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

LASO attorneys will discuss various estate planning tools, hand out fact sheets and allow time for questions.  Learn more about what a will is…what probate is…and find out why it is important to have a will.

WHY YOU SHOULD ATTEND

Should you choose to have a will prepared at this free clinic, attorney assistance with preparing your will is set up for the second workshop.  Individuals who plan to attend the second workshop will receive a questionnaire to fill out if they want to receive assistance to get their will done.  Questionnaires must be filled out and returned to the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection at least 2 weeks in advance of the second workshop in order to have the will prepared.  The second workshop will be held within 4-6 weeks following the Aug. 9th session. 

Session II

DATE:  This session will be held approx. 4-6 weeks after the Aug. 9th workshop.  Please check back for the exact date. 
TIME:  To-be-scheduled
PLACE:  Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, 13112 N. Rockwell, Oklahoma City, OK 

WHY YOU SHOULD ATTEND

Persons who attended the first clinic and requested wills, trusts, durable power of attorney or advance directives will then return to the second workshop and meet one-on-one with an attorney to have their documents prepared.