[WSBAPT] attorneys are officers of the court--therefore essential

[Bryce Dille]

Our office has done 5 like that this week. Our clients consider it an essential service and that's good enough for me

From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> On Behalf Of julie at juliefowlerlaw.com
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2020 12:53 PM
To: 'WSBA Probate & Trust Listserv' <wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com>
Subject: Re: [WSBAPT] attorneys are officers of the court--therefore essential

Susan,

I did this in my office yesterday. I exercised appropriate cleaning and distancing to get it done. I believe the service is essential. The only hitch was I didn't have my normal two witnesses and a notary so I had to modify my documents so one was notary signature only (POA) and one was witnessed only without notary (Will) since I had to act as a witness.

I'm keeping a clear record in my files that this was done during the covid- crises so if there's any challenge to the documents we have an explanation.

FWIW, I passed several police officers but no one questioned why I was out.

Julie K. Fowler

Law Office of Julie K. Fowler, P.S.
14205 SE 36th Street, Ste 100
Bellevue, WA 98006
(425) 990-9975
www.juliefowlerlaw.com<http://www.juliefowlerlaw.com>

From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com<mailto:wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com<mailto:wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com>> On Behalf Of Susan Donahue
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2020 12:09 PM
To: 'WSBA Probate & Trust Listserv' <wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com<mailto:wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com>>
Subject: [WSBAPT] attorneys are officers of the court--therefore essential

Hello everyone,

I have someone who wants to execute his will.  So, I'm faced with the actual situation now.  On page 10 of the list of "Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers' issued by Governor Inslee on March 23, 2020, "The Courts, consistent with direction from the Washington State Chief Justice" are listed as part of the "essential workforce".  As an attorney, I am an officer of the court, therefore, I argue, I can conduct a will signing if the participants always stay 6' away from one another by approaching a table outside on my office's porch one at a time to sign, with the table wiped down and the pen wiped down, etc.

Has anyone figured out a way to conduct will signings under these conditions?  Is my argument too novel?  If I did this, could I be in violation of the governor's order?

I know this has been discussed but in previous threads the issue of notarizing was the issue-not the issue of witnessing a will.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Thank you.



Susan Donahue
Law Office of Susan Donahue
125 West 2nd Avenue, Suite "B"
P.O. Box 81
Twisp, WA 98856
(509) 996-5944 (phone)
(509) 362-9692 (fax)
sdonahue at sdonahuelaw.com<mailto:sdonahue at sdonahuelaw.com>
www.sdonahuelaw.com<http://www.sdonahuelaw.com>

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