Service offers free help with wills for police, firefighters

Posted to: News Portsmouth

Wills for heroes
For whom active police officers, firefighters and deputies and their spouses. (Eligible unless they have assets over $1 million, own businesses with someone other than their spouse, or have complicated probate matters beyond the scope of the program.)
Educational sessions noon Tuesday; 10 a.m. Thursday; 8:30 p.m. June 16 or 2 p.m. June 18
Execution sessions Between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. June 14 or June 22
Where Portsmouth Department of Social Services, fourth floor, 1701 High St.
For more information Call Christine Piersall at (757) 391-3366 or e-mail cpiersall@williamsmullen.com

By Janie Bryant
The Virginian-Pilot
© June 8, 2008

PORTSMOUTH

In the staggering days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Anthony Hayes was like a lot of Americans.

The South Carolina attorney wished he could help.

Then he heard a survivor on a news show say that people could help by doing something for their own community.

Not long after that, the Wills for Heroes program was born. The program provides wills for free to the firefighters and other public safety workers who are the first to respond to calls for help. Next week, the Portsmouth Bar Association will offer the service to active firefighters, police officers and deputies here.

They have to show up for an educational session to get an overview of wills, powers of attorney and advanced medical directives. Then they can sign up for a one-hour session with an attorney to have their own documents drawn up.

For the first time in Virginia, spouses will also be offered the free service, said Christine Piersall, president of the Portsmouth association. Piersall said the association contacted the city's fire and police chiefs and the sheriff about the program. She hopes there will be a good turnout.

Hayes found that many of the men and women whose careers put them at risk do not have wills. He has come to believe that, to do their jobs well, they can't dwell on the fact that doing it can result in their deaths.

Secondly, many of them probably can't afford the cost of the wills, he said. They are in jobs that often don't pay a lot. I f they were to go to a law firm to have the package of documents drawn up that they can get free through Wills for Heroes, they could pay as much as $1,500, he said.

Since 2001, the program has been spread by bar associations and attorneys in about a dozen states to about 10,000 public safety employees, he said. Hayes and a friend, Arizona attorney Jeffrey H. Jacobson, created the Wills for Heroes Foundation four years ago to help implement the program elsewhere.

Hayes likes the fact that attorneys everywhere are giving their time and talents with the program.

He sees it as a way to remember the heroes of Sept. 11.

Janie Bryant, (757) 446-2453, janie.bryant@pilotonline.com