In the book A Mathematician Plays the Market, Professor John Allen Paulos proclaims that: “Uncertainty is the only certainty there is.” As we are now closing in on nearly nine months of living in a pandemic, there may be no better quote to describe the feeling of these times. As Estate Planning and Probate Attorneys, we have seen how dramatically Covid-19 has affected the legal field. From how we conduct hearings, to how we meet with clients, law firms and courts are having to adapt in ways we were not prepared for, and certainly were never taught in law school!
At this point in time, you may have heard from friends, family members, or even Marquardt Law Firm how important it is to have an Estate Plan. While that is certainly true (now more so than ever), I have noticed that there has not been an emphasis on the importance of getting started sooner, rather than later, on Probates and Guardianships.
These two areas have typically been understood as court proceedings that you could “take your time with,” if necessary (as long as you are within the statute of limitations for your case). The idea is that, in general, barring any unusual or complicating facts in the case, Probates and Guardianships are court procedures that are not thought to take an extraordinary amount of time to complete, as opposed to say, a major medical malpractice lawsuit or a class action lawsuit. There was a comfort in knowing that these procedures had a defined beginning and an end, and there wasn’t a significant amount of time between those two points. Covid-19 has changed things.
I was recently speaking with a Probate Court employee in Bexar County. I was explaining to him how frustrating it was to practice as a lawyer during this pandemic. He then stated to me something that I guess I expected was true but had not been verbalized to me before. He said: “If you think things are bad now, they are going to get a lot worse.” He then went on to explain that Guardianship and Probate proceedings (especially those involving Heirships) are severely backlogged in nearly every County in the State. The simple act of getting a court date for your case can take up to several months, even if you have already provided the court with all of the required documents necessary to initiate court proceedings. Even worse, because of the backlog, this delay in hearings is going to continue for some time after the pandemic ends.
Is this anyone’s fault? Absolutely not. Everyone I know in the legal industry, from lawyers to law firm staff, to judges, to court administrators have all been working their tails off to find some semblance of normalcy during these trying times and to be as efficient as possible at their jobs. The issue is that while being able to perform all of our job functions electronically would seemingly make our lives easier, in a lot of ways it has done the opposite. Documents that may previously be a quick trip to the courthouse or to a records department now have to be ordered electronically, delaying the hearing date for our clients. Judges are having to strictly schedule conferences and hearings, that are often plagued with technical errors and issues with folks using Zoom, delaying the hearing date for our clients. Ad-Litem Attorneys have apparently been having an increasingly difficult time seeing Proposed Wards in their nursing home facilities, due to the pandemic, which, you guessed it…delays the hearing date for our client.
While our office can’t simply end the pandemic, we can give you some advice that we hope you will take. If you have ANY matter that you believe will be in the Probate Court in your County, we highly recommend hiring an attorney now to start initiating proceedings. If you do not, we highly recommend getting your affairs in order, using our many resources to plan for you and your family’s future. Stay safe and stay well, everyone.
Written by attorney for Marquardt Law Firm, P.C., Daniel J. Palmer
