Lawyers Adopt Novel Approach

Chris Vander Doelen
Star Reporter

A University of Windsor law school grad has parlayed a knack for rapid-fire legal advice into a sideline as a sought-after radio guest on stations all over North America.

Listening to Les Kotzer, who graduated on the dean's honour roll from the U of W in 1987, it's easy to understand why radio hosts and reporters looking for a quick story like him.

His delivery of horror stories about missing wills and power of attorney errors are humorous, easy to understand and they unroll seamlessly without a second's pause.

Kotzer's specialties are estate planning and preparing for power of attorney issues due to medical incapacity. He and his law partner, Barry Fish, have written a book about the former and sell do-it-yourself legal kits over the Internet about the latter.

They've sold more than 15,000 copies of the book, The Family Fight: Planning To Avoid It, and Kotzer takes pride in his growing scrapbook of news clippings and his status as a regular guest on radio call-in shows from Canada to California discussing the travails of what he calls "greedy baby boomers.

Family feuds

"You would not believe what I hear in my office about the hating and fighting among families over wills and estates," Kotzer said during a recent interview from his home office on Toronto's Yonge Street.

He immediately launches into a tale about a woman who survives a risky heart operation and throws a dinner party for her relatives to celebrate the fact. Dropping an earring under the table, she discovers all her furniture has the name tags of her nieces and nephews already on it.

"The next day she comes to us and re-does her will, cutting all of them out completely. She leaves everything to the Humane Society." And then, without taking a breath, it's on to the next story, .

So you think your family's assets are protected because you have a solid will and a spouse to look after things in your place? Think again, says Kotzer. Under Ontario law, a car accident, surgically-induced coma or other illness could lead to government control of your family's most important assets.

It's a fate Kotzer says he wouldn't wish on an enemy: Doctors are required under the Mental Health Act to notify the province by letter when patients become incapable of looking after their own affairs, and once the province has control of a person's assets, getting it back can be a bureaucratic nightmare.

"If that letter ever comes . . . you would pay anything at that point to escape. but it's too late. Once the government gets that letter, they're in. Your will cannot help you while you're alive."

Kotzer's simple advice ? and it would be backed by almost anyone in his profession, albeit without radio-quality delivery ? is "do something. Protect yourself somehow. It's probably the most important protection you can ever have."

He recommends that anyone over the age of majority have a power of attorney prepared both for potential medical care and for control over personal assets. Name your spouse, or a sibling, or two siblings.

Couples should each have a set, he says. They start at about $85 each from most lawyers, depending on their fees. Kotzer sells both on his website, familyfight.com ? which is loaded with some of the tales he tells on radio about people who didn't have them.

Kotzer came later to the law than most. He didn't start law school in Windsor until he was in his late 20s, having gone to work in the family's downtown Toronto hardware store after high school.

"I loved the University of Windsor, and I tell everybody about Windsor whenever I'm on radio. Windsor was the most wonderful time of my life." The first of his two daughters was born here, and on a winter's day he fondly recalls suntanning while studying for final exams in April.

He articled at the law firm giant Blake Cassels and Graydon LLP before striking out on his own, vowing to demystify ? although he calls it "debasing" ? the law for people intimidated by legal processes. And he does it by book, via the Internet and radio.

"I can't do wills for people in Kentucky over the radio, I just can't do that. But I can recommend that everybody go to see their lawyer."