Opinion ID: 1242204
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Drafting of July 31 will

Text: Respondent testified that he visited Ms. Weiss socially at her home on July 20, 2004. Respondent is an insurance agent by trade and previously had business dealings with Ms. Weiss. During this visit, Ms. Weiss asked respondent, Can you help me make a will? Respondent agreed to help her with a simple will. Ms. Weiss told him she wanted somebody objective and she directed respondent as to how she wanted her property divided. Respondent used a Quicken lawyer disk to generate a generic will on his home computer and he filled in the blanks. He brought the will to Ms. Weiss on July 31 when he went to visit her in the hospital and she signed it. The preparation of legal documents constitutes the practice of law when such preparation involves the giving of advice, consultation, explanation, or recommendations on matters of law. State v. Despain, 319 S.C. 317, 319, 460 S.E.2d 576, 578 (1995). Even the preparation of standard forms that require no creative drafting may constitute the practice of law if one acts as more than a mere scrivener. See State v. Buyers Service Co., 292 S.C. 426, 430, 357 S.E.2d 15, 17 (1987). The purpose of prohibiting the unauthorized practice of law is to protect the public from incompetence in the preparation of legal documents and prevent harm resulting from inaccurate legal advice. Housing Auth. of City of Charleston v. Key, 352 S.C. 26, 572 S.E.2d 284 (2002); see also In re Baker, 8 N.J. 321, 85 A.2d 505, 514 (1951) (The amateur at law is as dangerous to the community as an amateur surgeon....). The novel question here is whether respondent's actions in filling in the blanks in a computer-generated generic will constitute the practice of law. Respondent selected the will form, filled in the information given by Ms. Weiss, and arranged the execution of the will at the hospital. Although these facts are not in themselves conclusive, the omission of facts indicating Ms. Weiss's involvement is significant. There is no evidence Ms. Weiss reviewed the will once it was typed. The will was not typed in her presence and although respondent relates the details of what Ms. Weiss told him to do, there is no indication he contemporaneously recorded her instructions and then simply transferred the information to the form. We construe the role of scrivener in this context to mean someone who does nothing more than record verbatim what the decedent says. We conclude respondent's actions in drafting Ms. Weiss's will exceeded those of a mere scrivener and he engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. [5]