EASTERN ARKANSAS — Legal Aid of Arkansas will host a series of free estate-planning and record-sealing events this week in Eastern Arkansas.
The first event is set for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. today (Tuesday) at the Odell McCallum Community Center, 325 Magnolia Street in Wynne.
Attorney Mason Gates of Legal Aid of Arkansas said the organization serves Arkansas residents in a variety of ways.
“We’re a non-profit law firm so we help folks who cannot afford an attorney with civil legal matters only. We aren’t able to do criminal matters,” Gates said. “We have four substantive work areas – housing, consumer issues, domestic justice, and what we call economic justice, which is mostly government programs. We try and focus the best we can in some of the rural areas where lawyers are just more scarce.”
Gates, who is based in West Memphis, said he and four other attorneys in that office will drive up to 90 minutes away to help Arkansans who may not otherwise have access to an attorney.
Gates said estate planning is important to consider in advance in order to avoid probate.
“That’s only going to cause more problems in a hard situation for somebody,” he said. “When you lose a loved one, no one wants to then say I’m going to have to hire an attorney and pay thousands of dollars to go through that long, arduous process when a little bit of planning ahead of time can save all of that.
“When I sit down with clients, I talk to them about beneficiary deeds. I talk to them about other ways to transfer legal titles or any of their bank accounts,” Gates added. “Those sorts of things can all avoid probate and save that heartache and headache for the family when they’ve passed.”
The Wynne event and stops tomorrow (Wednesday) on the Arkansas State University campus in Marked Tree, and on Thursday at the Augusta Municipal Court in Augusta are part of Legal Aid of Arkansas’ annual “Spring Break on the Road to Justice” tour. The tour allows current law students to work in the field during spring break.
“Law schools often do that,” Gates said. “We just had University of Memphis folks over across the bridge working in Jonesboro. This week, we have the Arkansas schools out here.”
For more information, call Legal Aid of Arkansas at 870-972-9224 or arlegalaid.org.
