As Kaua‘i enters the heart of the hurricane season, the Hawaii State Bar Association is offering tips and reminders to help individuals and businesses be prepared for a disaster, from a legal perspective. “We’re all familiar with the emergency lists
As Kaua‘i enters the heart of the hurricane season, the Hawaii State Bar Association is offering tips and reminders to help individuals and businesses be prepared for a disaster, from a legal perspective.
“We’re all familiar with the emergency lists that include flashlights, extra batteries, portable radios, a manual can opener and other important items,” says Dale Lee, president of the Hawaii State Bar Association. “We’d like to suggest that people take preparedness one step further, to ensure they are prepared for the myriad of legal issues that can arise after a disaster occurs.”
Here are five tips intended to ensure that individuals are equipped to maneuver through post-disaster legal issues:
1. Think of what you would need to replace if suddenly all of your possessions were destroyed. Quickly you realize you’ll need, not just the “legal” documents which come to mind, but also your driver’s license, auto insurance certificates, passports, health insurance cards and other such documents. Even your address/phone book listing of family and professional contacts.
2. Locate your medical, life, auto and property insurance policies. Ever thought, “I should ‘inventory’ and take pictures of our home, furnishings and possessions for insurance purposes?” Do it now.
3. Prepare or update wills, health care directives and powers of attorney.
4. Make and retain for easy access a list of your credit cards, banking and financial institution account numbers, and emergency contacts. Store copies of all these documents in a safe place. A bank safety deposit box or a similar secure area away from your home.
5.Take a moment to think, “If everything we owned, were lost, what would we need to do, where would we start?” It’s a fairly daunting thought, yet it helps put the importance of emergency preparedness into perspective.
According to Lee, Hawai‘i residents should also make a note of the Hawaii State Bar Association’s Legal Line Hotline which is manned by volunteer attorneys who provide free legal information and referrals during times of emergencies. That number is 1-888-609-5463 from Kaua‘i.
“In the weeks that followed Hurricane Iniki in 1992,” Lee recalled, “attorneys manned the hotline and provided information and advice on everything from the rights of tenants who found themselves living in homes or apartments that were completely or severely damaged to worker’s compensation claims for injuries received on the job resulting from the disaster. Imagine the kinds of questions that arise in a disaster. The problem with a natural disaster is that everything comes up, all at once.”
Free legal information and referrals on any area of the law are available through the HSBA’s Legal Line Hotline year around. The service is available every Wednesday evening from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. During a time of emergency or disaster, Legal Line hours would expand to meet the needs of the community.
The Bar Association includes within its membership all of the 4,300 attorneys who practice in the State of Hawai‘i and all of the judges who serve the people of Hawai‘i. Its mission is “to unite and inspire Hawai‘i’s attorneys to promote justice, serve the public, and improve the legal profession.”
On the Web: mailto:www.hsba.org.
