Attorney Thomas B. Burton announces that Burton Law LLC will begin offering Drive-Thru Will Signings at his office for people to execute estate planning documents during the coronavirus pandemic in Wiconsin. Attorney Burton discusses how these signings will work and discusses the legal requirements to legally execute a Will in Wisconsin.
Transcript of Video: NEW Drive-Thru Will Signings at Burton Law LLC
Okay. Welcome to today's announcement.
I'm excited to announce
a brand new option for clients during
the Coronavirus, Covid-19
pandemic here in Wisconsin, so
you might be wondering what
this is behind me well on the way
to work this morning, I was
attending a live webinar with lawyers
from all over the country
discussing ways to execute various
legal documents with clients
during the Coronavirus pandemic
and so 50 States have 50
state laws and the laws vary, according
to each state. Now in
most states when you need to execute
a will the statutes state
you need to do it in the presence
of two witnesses in general
and some states say the conscious
presence but basically after
this hour long webinar a lot of
this is interpreted by the
courts and we go look at case law
to see what that means well
there's a discussion amongst the
lawyers whether conscious
presence or presence can include
live video conference and
because we don't have any case law
on that yet we don't know so
unless the Legislature amends their
laws and there was one
Legislature I believe it was Iowa
has done a good job to allow
this and they must have done it
pre-crisis but unless the
Legislature amends their laws we
still don't know what that
means so for will signings a lot
of us are thinking we still
need to do what we're calling a
drive thru will signing and the
great news is you may be wondering
what this is behind me.
Well, this is actually my office
building and up near the
Burton Law LLC Let's see here LLC
logo is my office on the top
floor, but what you may not know is
this is used to be a Bank
building and the Bank is still here,
but they built it with a
drive thru and you can see behind
me. There's three
drive-throughs here that are not
being used 1, 2 in the Middle
and then three over here. So what
we're going to do during the
Coronavirus crisis is if you're
in a situation where you need
your will signed or your estate
plan before April 24th
which right now is the Wisconsin
order the stay-at-home order
we're going to offer you the option
to do a drive thru Will
signing where you come to the office.
You pull into the parking
ramp and then you just continue
through and there's these three
drive-throughs here. So if you see
back here, it's there's a
Wall and it's actually protected
from the wind and such too and
the nice thing is under the drive-thru.
You'll have a roof
over you because one thing I always
worry about is if I
schedule this with you and you come
and it's raining that's a bad
thing with paper documents right
so you can pull through and
I'm going to pull into probably lane
two or three here so either
the middle or the far one and then
if you see back here the
first drive through is not being
used that window but through
the back you can see there. They've
got the the Bank the tube
to come out well, we'll just come
out the back door or this
door, which you see right here
up front with the balcony and
we'll just come out and stay six
feet from your car and we
could witness you sign the document
through the car windshield.
now. If you want to arrange this,
it's going to work great. If you
think you're ill with Coronavirus
or something else or, B you
just not feeling not that you're not
feeling well, but we're taking
all the precautions to keep you
and me and our staff at that
social distancing of six feet so
the lawyers after discussing
all this for an hour a lot of them
are saying this drive thru
will option is the best and I thought Aha!
my building
actually has a drive-thru built
in that isn't being used. so
when if you wanna do this, the point
is there isn't Bank
traffic coming and going here in
fact, hardly anyone drives
through here all day. So when you
come, we would just set your
appointment time for let's say 1
'clock 1:30 You pull into
number two or number three stall
and wait for me and I come
down with the documents. We would
be wearing gloves. You have
your own pens. We pass them in you
sign your part. I would have
them marked, then you pass it out and
I would Me and the witness
would sign him there or we might run
in the office quick witness
them make a copy bring them back
to you. So I think it could be
a great option during this Coronavirus pandemic and after
talking with lawyers all over the
country, it's one that will
work and just a key thing here in
Wisconsin. I've done that
video about the remote notarization, but our law says it
doesn't work for most estate planning
documents and that Law
doesn't go into effect till May
first so unless the legislature
changes some of that that emergency
order is working well for
our financial documents and real
estate, but not for the
financial or I should say the estate
planning documents so I can
also use this to notarize a document
for you during this time.
Now. If you want to arrange this,
I ask you contact the Email or
the office by Email ahead of time
we'll have to set it up and then
the other thing it would help me
is if you could bring the
witness along you could have a witness
in the car because I'm
the only lawyer here. But if you
can't find a witness, contact
me and I can try to get someone
in the building. I've talked to
a few people who would agree to
be the witness. we just would
have to schedule it at the right
time, which would probably be
mid to late afternoon. so it's gonna
be a great option You could
pull in you're out of the wind and
the elements and with spring
coming here in Wisconsin, I think
it'll be a very good option
as we go forward with the pandemic.
so again. If you want to take
advantage of this drive-thru signing
option, contact my office
shoot me a message or by Email and
we can get the process
started because the first step would
be to have our consult by
video like this. Get your documents
drafted and then the
second step would be to set up that
signing one other note. My
new group, Wisconsin Probate, Trusts,
Estates, and Asset Protection
Info Group you'll see a link below
this video. That's my new
Facebook group designed to educate
and inform and post videos
like this and also post question and
answer video topics. And I
plan to be using it more throughout the
crisis with updates and
things like that so again, the new
drive thru Will signing is
available at Burton Law LLC and
I wanted to create this quick
video to show you exactly how it
would work. If you have any
questions, contact the office by
a message or send us an Email.
So thanks for watching, stay safe
be well and we'll see you
next time.
© 2020 Burton Law LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Transcript and captions provided for ease of access for the hearing impaired.
For questions about this topic, or to suggest a topic for a future blog post, please contact my office.
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