'Heroes' get help with wills

Hayes and an Arizona attorney, Jeff Jacobson, created the Wills for Heroes Foundation, then enlisted members of state bar associations to prepare basic legal documents free for emergency medical, fire and law enforcement personnel and spouses. Utah is now one of about a dozen states whose lawyers have adopted the program, according to Stephanie Pugsley, this year's YLD president.

Even talking about the service, which unites occupations that are sometimes at odds with each other, is strangely emotional.

"It's a great program," said Ivins chief of police and public safety director Wade Carpenter, who participated at Utah's inaugural event in St. George last month during the Utah Bar Association meeting. "A lot of times we deal with attorneys on another level. This is something that gives us a unique tie-in to each other.

"I was a little skeptical. No way will they do wills for law enforcement for free. I was amazed. They donate their time and it's a great asset for our officers and others."

The software to generate the documents is provided by LexisNexis, their HotDocs program so simple and intuitive that lawyers who normally have nothing to do with estate planning were preparing them just fine Friday. The volunteer attorneys printed the documents out on the spot (no personal information is kept in the computers) and the responders took them to volunteer notaries such as Sandy Burgess and Carolyn Updike, who both work for Questar.

Several first responders said they'd been putting off the task because of the cost and the amount of time they thought it would take. But a half-hour into the event, they'd gotten it down to less than the time it takes to do a load of laundry.

Young Lawyer co-chairs for the event, Emily Smith and Rachel Terry, said they'd actually had more volunteers than they could use. And they plan to do it again in July and September, most likely in the Provo and Logan areas. More information is available online at willsforheroes.org.

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E-mail: lois@desnews.com