Self-Help Book on Wills Fails to Deliver

George didn’t leave a will when he died. He mistakenly assumed that all his assets would automatically be inherited by his wife. He would have been surprised to learn that his two grown children from a previous marriage were entitled to their fair share.

He could have avoided this problem if he had executed a statutory “fill-in-the-blanks” will.

Power of Attorney

In order to have someone take care of her financial affairs when she was ill or out of town, Sheila named her son Bill as a joint tenant on her bank accounts, so he could pay her bills. (Her Social Security checks were deposited automatically.) Sheila’s will provided that her three children would share equally in her estate. But when she died, all the funds in her bank accounts automatically transferred to Bill alone.

Sheila could have used a “Durable Power of Attorney” form to give Bill authority to handle her financial affairs without giving him her money in the process.

These two fictional examples are the creation of a Golden Gate University law professor, Janice E. Kosel, in the new legal self-help book “Just In Case,” published by Conari Press in Berkeley. Billed as “a handbook of all the information and legal forms Californians need to control their lives and property in the event of accident, serious illness or death,” the book does not come close to meeting its own promises.

The handbook, which is a mere 20 pages long, consists largely of perforated legal forms, reprinted directly from the California statute books. A resourceful person in a law library could find the same forms and type them without paying $9.95 for the book.

Although the handbook contains some valuable information in a convenient, easy-to-use package, most of the information is obtainable elsewhere. For example, most of the formal statutory forms for wills and powers of attorney are sold at stationery stores.

The statutory will forms are also available from the State Bar Assn. for $1. Send your request and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Will Forms, P.O. Box 411, San Francisco, Calif. 94101. If you have children under the age of 21 and want to establish a trust for their education and support, ask for the form with the trust provision.

And a form, “Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care”--a legal document used to appoint someone who can act as your agent if you become incapacitated and who can make decisions about medical treatment and the use of life-sustaining equipment--is also already available from the California Medical Assn. Unfortunately, the CMA form does not contain a provision dealing with inspection of medical records or a provision concerning waivers of certain medical treatment, both of which are in the statutory form. Send $1.60 and your request for the CMA form and a companion pamphlet, “Your Health Care: Who Will Decide When You Can’t” to Sutter Publications, P.O. Box 7690, San Francisco, Calif. 94120.

Analysis Not Very Detailed

Admittedly, the forms sold at stationery stores do not include much explanation, but the book’s analysis is also not very detailed. Except for six short hypothetical accounts and alternative instructions about medical life-sustaining treatment, there is not much in-depth discussion of these legal issues. However, there is a concise and effective summary of the Directive to Physicians or so-called “living will,” which is legally binding only if you have been certified by two medical doctors to have a terminal condition at least 14 days prior to signing it. “Living wills” that do not meet this requirement would have “very limited legal import.”

The book fails to adequately discuss certain legal alternatives that might be appropriate in the event of incapacitation or death. For example, a person who wants to leave property to a number of different people and charities will not find the statutory will form satisfactory and may need a lawyer to draft a personalized will.

Anyone interested in avoiding the expense of probate may find a “living trust” an attractive alternative. There are no living trust forms in this handbook, nor is the topic discussed. In fact, in many cases, it is best to have an attorney prepare the trust instrument.

Most of the basic information in the handbook will be familiar to regular readers of this column, and much of it is already available in greater depth in other self-help books on the market. But you’ll have to visit a stationery store or a law library or write to the addresses listed above to find the forms.

If you’re unwilling to do that, this handbook does provide--at a not unaffordable price--some basic information, presented in a simple, easy-to-understand format, to help plan for the legal consequences of accident, illness or death. And the forms are easy to rip out.

Attorney Jeffrey S. Klein, The Times’ senior staff counsel, cannot answer mail personally but will respond in this column to questions of general interest about the law. Do not telephone. Write to Jeffrey S. Klein, Legal View, The Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.