In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, our practice continues to meet the legal and long term care planning needs of our community’s older adults and their families. We have taken careful steps to reduce risk when meeting with our clients as they are more vulnerable to the virus. In addition to meeting remotely with clients for appointments, we also have three choices to enable clients to safely execute their legal documents.
To make an appointment to draft or update your estate planning documents, please contact our office at (865) 588-3700 to book a time convenient for you.
1) Remote Notary–
- The parties must be able to see each other on a designated online notary program with video chat function.
- The remote notary can sign anything except wills.
- If the person has two disinterested witnesses physically with them, we can direct the execution, they can witness, and we can remotely notarize the witnesses’ signatures.
2) Parking lot executions.
- We draft and discuss the documents before the execution.
- Then the client comes to the firm parking lot at a scheduled time.
- We bring a table outside with the client’s documents and disinfectant.
- Our staff goes inside, and the client then exits the vehicle and picks up the documents.
- Once the client is back inside the car with the windows up, our staff returns outside.
- The client signs the document while we observe through the closed car window and listen to the client’s acknowledgement that the document is indeed his or her will and agrees that we witness it.
- Upon completion of the execution we collect the document(s), make copies and return those to the client, along with the executed document.
3) Online Execution
- Governor’s Order 28 authorizes us to witness and notarize documents solely using Zoom.
- We must be able to see and identify the person signing and observe the actual signing.
- The client must then be able to see us sign our names to witness/notarize it.
- All parties must be in Tennessee.
To learn more about our document execution options, view our recent television interview with WVLT here.
Visit this post to learn more about our virtual meeting options. Visit this post to learn about ways to drop off paperwork to our firm.