| Bar Bulletin |
May,
2003 |
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Monthly Focus Articles |
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Legal Services
Delivery Dilemma Mitigated By 60 +
Seventy-eight-year-old Elizabeth Grundy has few wants in life. Yet she
does have a number of pressing concerns: she wants her son Tom to make
any healthcare decisions on her behalf should she become unable make
them herself, and she wants her other son Larry to handle her finances.
Elizabeth also has
very strong feelings about which of her personal effects should go to
which relatives after she passes – that the family Bible goes to Tom and
that her grandson Walt gets her late husband’s banjo. In fact, she has a
particular relative in mind for a number of items in her house. Elizabeth
has also heard that she can avoid paying estate taxes if she puts her
daughters’ names on the deed to her house.
Unfortunately,
Elizabeth lives from month to month on her Social Security check and a
miniscule pension. She cannot afford the standard legal fees for a will, a
power of attorney, an advance health care directive and, if warranted, a
new deed.
While Elizabeth
doesn’t qualify for free legal services to, as she would say, “get my
affairs in order before I move on,” she’s not out of luck: Maryland has a
long-standing program to help seniors with basic legal services for a
minimal fee. Called the Sixty Plus Legal Program, it’s one of the longest
running public service programs of the Maryland State Bar Association. The
MSBA, in conjunction with the Bar Association of Baltimore City, the
Baltimore County Bar Association, the Montgomery County Bar Association
and the Legal Aid Bureau, ensures that the Sixty Plus Legal Program is
available statewide.
How does it work?
Attorneys who are willing to help people like Elizabeth can participate in
the Program by agreeing to provide simple wills, financial powers of
attorney, advance health care directives and/or simple deed changes for
$25 per document and $35 for a pair of matching documents for a married
couple. Attorneys participating in the Program also agree to provide a
free initial consultation with the client.
The final component of
the Program is assistance with small estate administration, which provides
legal assistance in administering a small estate at $25 per hour with a
total fee limit of $500.
To qualify for the
Sixty Plus Program, a client has to be at least 60 years old, have an
annual income of not more than $19,000 a year for an individual (or not
more than $25,000 a year for a couple) and have less than $20,000 in
assets (or $40,000 for a couple). The asset test, fairly new to the
Program, was added because some clients with relatively low incomes had
significant assets, some of them liquid. In the past, this irritated some
attorneys who had agreed to provide services for a nominal fee. An asset
test was added to the program, although a person’s home and car are not
counted as assets for the purpose of the test.
Obviously, the
$25-per-document fee doesn’t cover the cost of overhead for such matters.
The fees, however, are not designed for the attorneys but are there for
the dignity of the client. When the Program was created in the early
1980s, we learned that many seniors would not participate in a free
program. Their sense of pride prevented them from accepting any free help.
The minimal fee was made a part of the Program to avoid this problem.
Baltimore City’s
Lawyer Referral Service, Baltimore County’s service and Montgomery
County’s service administer the Program in their respective jurisdictions.
While at one time the MSBA administered the Program in-house for the rest
of the state, it arranged to have the Legal Aid Bureau operate the Program
in areas other than Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Montgomery
County. The Legal Aid Bureau received a grant from the Federal
Administration on Aging to run the Maryland Senior Legal Hotline, and
administering the Sixty Plus Legal Program fits naturally into all the
services the Bureau provides in conjunction with the Senior Hotline.
With Maryland’s new
mandatory reporting requirements now in effect, the Sixty Plus Program
offers a great way to document your pro bono service. If Sixty Plus sounds
like a program that you might like to participate in, please call the
appropriate number for the jurisdiction(s) of your interest: Baltimore
City – (410) 539-3112; Baltimore County – (410) 337-9100; Montgomery
County – (301) 279-9100. For all other counties, call (410) 539-5340, ext.
2610. The greatest need for panel attorneys is in Allegany and Garrett
counties.
Working with
low-income seniors to help them arrange their affairs in their twilight
years is a very rewarding endeavor. While they may not be your most
profitable clients, they will be some of your most grateful.
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