Sick of New Year’s Resolutions? Add The ABA Power Of Attorney Health Care Guide To Your 2012

Sick of New Year’s resolutions yet?

This time of year, suggestions for lifestyle changes toward a healthier, happier home compose the majority of individuals’ New Year’s resolutions. Losing weight, getting fit, and joining a gym are among a person’s top ten goals for 2012.

Unfortunately, fewer than half of people stick to these resolutions.

It may explain why obesity is still prevalent in the U.S. And, why one survey, according to the CDC, found that around 30 percent of adults are sleep deprived—getting six or less hours of sleep at night—which can cause a variety of health problems. For lawyers, this is certainly not news.

In the ideal world, 2012 would be filled with joy and good health. Sadly, life and illness can be unpredictable.

That’s why—just in time for the holiday season—the American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Law and Aging released a new publication that provides a simple, durable power of attorney for health care. This free publication meets the legal requirements of all but five U.S States.

The nuances of State laws make it difficult to create an overarching handbook, but the ABA’s guidelines are surprisingly applicable to every State except Indiana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin.

“The ‘bare bones’ approach provides solely for the appointment of a health care agent with broad decision-making authority,” explains the ABA.

The publication, titled, Giving Someone a Power of Attorney for Your Health Care: A Guide with an Easy-to-Use Legal Form for All Adults, is available in English and Spanish.

The new guide gives individuals three, simple directives:

1. Think carefully about whom you want as your health care agent;
2. Provide guidance for the agent to make treatment decisions for you; and
3.Fill out the form and sign in the presence of two witnesses.

So, this year, instead of celebrating with chocolate and champagne, ring in the New Year at your law firm with a more responsible handout. Advise your employees to complete the ABA’s new form, available here online.

The publication may be “bare bones,” but there’s no need to also attach a skull and cross bones. Thinking about your health shouldn’t ruin your holiday spirit. As law firm administrator, give your employees a discount to the neighborhood gym or a gift card to a natural foods grocery store in addition to the ABA guide.

Giving someone a Power of Attorney for health care should be both a chilling reality and cheerful source of positive energy.

Have a happy, healthy New Year!

-WB

Red Hot to Real Cool – Which Arenas Are Trending?

Attorneys, perhaps more than other professionals, have to keep their finger on the pulse of business developments. Once they have garnered a working knowledge of where the trends are in local, regional, national and international arenas, immediate assistance may be offered in matters where legal counsel is sure to be sought.

Along these lines, David J. Bilinsky’s blog recently featured an itemized list of “What’s Hot” in the legal world.  (He based it on the “What’s Hot and What’s Not” by Bob Denney of Robert Denney Associates – June, 2011.)    Among the “Red Hot” entries, we have:   1.  Health Care; 2.  Energy, and 3.  Financial Services.

The practice areas listed are no surprise.  Health care is booming, as are more and more  fields offering alternative providers.

Developments in energy, too– as in greening the environment–continue to surface as nuclear and even coal is being studied, as are the traditional  oil and gas resources.  Finally, money matters will pervade the economy while new regulations are being untangled, and compliance struggles to catch up.

As for geographical locales, China, Dubai and Venezuela–where Caracas is home to several firms of late–are regions to keep an eye on, as per business watchers.. Ditto Brussels.

So what’s hot in business development, marketing and related issues? As you might have guessed, video trumps many other advertising fields as this form of online marketing continues to change the rules of the game.   Contract lawyers, too, are making a big name for themselves. Both BigLaw and MidLaw are hiring a whole bunch.

Cloud computing, despite its setbacks, is grabbing hold of the IT consciousness, and more and more firms are moving their document management data from the office to SaaS (software-as-a-service) content providers.

In civil litigation, electronic discovery or e-discovery, is big.  Why is it seen as head and shoulders about paper discovery? According to Wikipedia, we learn that:

Electronic information is considered different from paper information because of its intangible form, volume, transience and persistence. Electronic information is usually accompanied by metadata that is not found in paper documents and that can play an important part as evidence (for example the date and time a document was written could be useful in a copyright case. The preservation of metadata from electronic documents creates special challenges to prevent spoliation.  

Overall, it’s heartening to know deal-making and its attendant accoutrements are making a come-back. This can only lead to  increased legal staffing, and inroads on many legal fronts–all of which may be dubbed “very cool”, indeed!

Graphic of Caracas courtesy of the site…”dedicated to reuniting the missionaries who served in the Venezuela Mission, the Venezuela Caracas Mission or the Venezuela Caracas East Mission” – http://www.mission.net/venezuela/caracas/

-ERM