I have previously mentioned the importance of creating various legal documents, including wills, trusts, health care directives, and power of attorney.
Creating these documents, however, serves little use if you cannot find them. Recently, my parents gave me copies of their health care directives. Although I will keep the paper copies in a secure location at my house, I have also scanned them and maintain digital versions as well.
My law practice is a paperless office, meaning we do not keep paper files for our clients. Everything is scanned and kept on multiple drives, to protect against data loss. We use relatively inexpensive scanners that work fast and extremely well.
The advantages to keeping digital versions are numerous. One, if you cannot find, or happen to lose your paper copies, you will always have another copy. Many of these legal documents are signed by notaries and/or attorneys, meaning many of the documents are “self-authenticating” documents; there should be little doubt they are authentic.
Two, if you need to quickly transmit a copy of the document somewhere, it is as easy as sending an email. Three, if you carry a PDA, like a BlackBerry, or iPhone, you can store copies on your phone. If you are out of town, or have to rush to the hospital, you will have it with you. Most PDA’s also have programs that allow them to access cloud hard drives, meaning you can access files remotely. Ideally, you can have the documents with you at all time via a PDA. This is important, because many health situations are emergency health situations. You may not have time to run home and review someone’s health care directive before making a difficult decision.
Depending on your use of technology, digital copies could involve an invest of time of money. But it is investment that will ease your mind, and can make a difficult situation easier to handle.
(photo: bobbigmac)
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Randall Ryder is consumer rights attorney in Minnesota, where he suesabusive debt collectors and is a publisher of Elder Parent Help.