By Barbara Whittle
The National Wills Week will be held from 7 to 11 October this year. The deadline for firms to register their participation was 19 July, but late registrations can be accepted until 8 August 2013.
The LSSA conducted an electronic survey among attorneys who participated in the 2012 Wills Week to gauge their views on the initiative and to get an idea of the number of wills that are being drafted by attorneys for free. The survey showed the following:
Material
Generally attorneys are happy with the material provided. There were requests for more space to fill in contact details on posters and flyers. We have updated the design of the material, which now provides more contact information space. We have also left a blank space on the flyers so that firms can include their contact details on those too.
It appears from the survey results that most of the clients respond to the posters put up by participating attorneys.
The PDF versions of posters and flyers will be available to attorneys who wish to e-mail these or print them for their own use. These will be in addition to those provided to participating firms free of charge in the various language options.
Wills drafted
Most firms that participated reported that they had drafted a number of wills – between 4 and 50 – with some reporting up to 200 wills. If one were to take a conservative average of say 17 wills by the participating practitioners, it could be extrapolated the attorneys’ profession drafted some 12 000 free wills for members of the public during Wills Week.
As the prominence of this initiative grows each year, this service provided by the profession will improve. Already parastatals, municipalities and charities are contacting the LSSA requesting information on attorneys in their areas who can prepare wills for their employees or clients.
Publicity
The National Wills Week initiative generates much needed positive publicity for the profession in the print and broadcast media. Community newspapers and radio stations are targeted specifically. Last year, the free publicity generated amounted to some R 400 000 in value had the profession paid for print space and airtime.
Online registration for the Wills Week can be done on the LSSA website at www.LSSA.org.za or call your provincial law society.
Compiled by Barbara Whittle, communications manager, Law Society of South Africa, barbara@lssa.org.za
This article was first published in De Rebus in 2013 (July) DR 14.