June 2005 Entries Links Communication |
Paperwork - June 20 One of the attorneys at the law firm, Associate 1, is on vacation this week. She left with me the task of getting probate paperwork filed with the court for several different estates, then making sure the administrators (who are our clients) get the court-certified copies so that they can do the things they need to do (open bank accounts, for one thing). For the record, once these papers are filed with the court, they are matters of public record and as such are not confidential. So, what the attorney had instructed me to do sounds easy enough, but sometimes there's an odd situation. Today I had the odd situation. A relative of the person who is the administrator for one of the estates called to ask about the copies. He wanted to know when he could pick them up. Well, as far as I was concerned, he couldn't, because he wasn't the person to whom I was supposed to give them. I didn't want to say that directly to him, though, because I had the sense that I might be dealing with an odd situation. Instead, I suggested he call tomorrow. After rereading my instructions from the attorney to make sure the caller was not listed as an alternate contact, I called the administrator to ask whether or not she wanted me to release her copies of the papers to the man who had called. I explained why I was asking was to prevent papers from getting misplaced. The administrator thanked me for being conscientious, then told me it was fine to give the man the paperwork. Turned out she had been in the room when he had called. I'm glad this situation's oddness was so easy to resolve. Text © copyright 2000-2005 Becky
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