ARTICLES — The Chambers Firm, LLC

Every day in the U.S., a person slips into an unconscious state, leaving their end-of-life health care and property decisions in the hands of health care providers, judges, legislators, and family members. Take the case of Jane Doe, whose father, 85, always discussed having an Advance Directive and Last Will and Testament, but never actually got around to preparing either document. Jane raced to the hospital after getting a call that her father had slipped into an unconscious state. Because of the various ailments from which he suffered, Jane’s father’s prognosis was grim. Without the benefit of having his wishes written down, Jane and her brothers were forced to speculate and debate what medical care their father would have wanted in this situation, essentially becoming a family “Death Panel.” After their father passed away, the family faced the unenviable task of distributing his property without the benefit of knowing how he wanted his property distributed.

This is a story repeated countless times every year. One way to take the initiative and to prepare your family in the event something unexpected should occur is to have an Advance Directive, a Living Will, and a Last Will and Testament.

Advance Directives and Living Wills

An Advance Directive is a written statement of a person's wishes regarding medical treatment made to ensure those wishes are carried out should the person be unable to communicate them to a doctor.

A Living Will, often included in an advance directive, is a written statement detailing a person's desires regarding their medical treatment in circumstances in which they are no longer able to express informed consent.

Everyone has the right to make personal decisions about their health care preferences and anyone can wind incapacitated, unable to communicate these decisions themselves. It is important to complete these documents to ensure your wishes are followed precisely in the event an emergency should occur, leaving you unable to express your health care preferences.

To ensure your wishes are carried out, you can name a Health Care Agent, also referred to as a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, within your Advance Directive. A Health Care Agent is someone you trust, a friend, family member, or other individual, who will make decisions about your health care and ensure doctors and other health care providers give you the type of medical treatment you want. The Health Care Agent will also make sure medical providers do not give you treatment against the wishes you have expressed in the Advance Directive and/or Living Will.

Last Will and Testament

A Last Will and Testament is a legal document that communicates a person's final wishes pertaining to possessions and dependents.

An Executor is someone named in your Last Will and Testament who is given the legal responsibility to take care of your financial obligations in the event of your passing. This includes taking care of everything from disposing of property to paying bills and taxes.

You should have a Will in order to make it easier for your family and friends to resolve your property and expenses when you pass. Without a Will the process can be more time consuming and stressful. A Will also ensures everything you own will be distributed in the way you choose to distribute it, not according to the standard distribution found in the laws of your state. Preparing a Will can help reduce any inheritance tax your estate might be required to pay, thereby increasing the amounts your family and friends will receive from your estate. Finally, a Will can be used to provide instructions for your burial or cremation.

While these topics are difficult to discuss, it is important to consider and resolve these issues before the unexpected occurs. Having these issues taken care of will undoubtedly ease the mind and, ultimately, lead to a less stressful transition for your friends and family.

Darrell Chambers is the Founder of The Chambers Firm, LLC, handling wills & estates, small business consultation, employment law, criminal defense, and contract matters in DC and Maryland. This blog is for information purposes only, is not intended as full and complete legal advice on any topic, and does not create an attorney-client relationship between the reader or any other person or entity and The Chambers Firm, LLC.

In our ever-growing world of social media and email, attorneys must be vigilant in advising clients on the appropriate use, and preservation, of electronic correspondence and social media posts. Because the rules of evidence apply to social media as equally as to other types of documentary evidence, it is important to know how social media can be used to bolster your case, some of the most effective ways to use social media in litigation, and some of the pitfalls to using social media.

How Social Media Can Bolster Your Case

During the jury selection process: A simple “Google” search can yield information on potential jurors that might be helpful to your case.

During trial, after selecting your jury: While many courts still ban live internet research during jury selection, post-selection internet research on jurors who were accepted onto the panel could help inform and refine trial strategy.

During mediation in civil cases or plea negotiations in criminal cases: As you can imagine, effective social media research on the opposing party in a civil case or a complaining witness in a criminal case is an advantage to the party conducting such research.

Effective Ways To Use Social Media

Just Do It (Search!): Over a billion people worldwide now use some form of social media and over a hundred million people in the U.S. use social media. Millions of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram users have no privacy settings on their page. As a result, social media searches often yield fruitful results. Conducting basic social media searches in most cases is now the rule for attorneys, not the exception.

Think outside the box: Even where an adversary’s social media posts are private, discovering public posts on a page belonging to an associate of the adversary that shows the adversary may be exaggerating or outright lying about their version of the facts of their injury can yield helpful results. Such a post could support a motion to force the adversary to unlock their social media posts and produce them in discovery.

Live Streaming: Many social media sites now allow you to stream live content. Live streaming can capture the immediate aftermath of events and the demeanor of parties and witnesses to an event. Live video of the aftermath of an event is especially effective as it puts the judge and jury at the scene of the incident while the events are playing out.

Pitfalls To Avoid In Using Social Media Evidence

Only Authorized User Permitted: Are you authorized to access the social media evidence you seek to use to bolster your case? Use of an employer’s computer system to access and publish an adversary’s social media posts is fraught with its own problems, more specifically outlined in each employer’s information technology policy. More importantly, the unauthorized access of a social media account likely violates both Federal and Local harassment laws.

Beware of Deep Throat: If you have to tell your attorney “I can’t tell you where or how I got this information…” that’s a pretty good indication that you are in possession of unauthorized social media content. Your attorney is not likely to move forward with the social media evidence where she or he does not know the origin.

Don’t Get Caught In Your Own Snare: You should assume the opposing party in your case has access to all of your social media posts. This is true even if your account settings are set to ‘Private.’ Avoid discussing your case on social media at all costs as this could have adverse effects on your case.

Recently, social media evidence has had a significant impact on litigation and how litigants and attorneys approach cases. Its impact is only likely to increase in the years to come. The attorney you hire should be on the cutting edge of these new and exciting litigation tools in order to further, and protect, your interests.