Goodbye to 2024. Hello to New Year 2025
As the year 2024 comes to an end it seems very much to be a turning point for many aspects of what we do, not the least of which for me and my
daughter and brother is a series of changes in our own practices. So now, as we all wave goodbye to 2024 as we have known it, we turn and face the still unknown and yet unknowable 2025.
Almost five years ago in March, 2020 the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic. I remember leaving the office in a hurry,
not sure what that meant. My daughter and brother and I returned not long after when Pennsylvania indicated that workers whose practice included health related fields, such as ours with its focus on long term care, would be exempted from some of the day to day restrictions although not from the necessary health care restrictions. Like many small businesses we needed to change. Colliton Law also handles estates and we continued and actually extended our estate administration practice.
One major change I made with my brother, Jeff Jones, the principal of Life Transition Services, LLC, like many smaller offices in our position, was to shed some of our office space since it was no longer feasible to continue. We did lose some special clients especially some in nursing homes to COVID 19. We continued to work and to look for ways to help however we could. I remember participating in care plan meetings with nursing home employees that were conducted at a distance through zoom and telephone meetings, a practice that we still make available to clients. Much of the work we did and still do includes the use of technology.
As just one example, in 2024 Colliton Elder Law handled 20 separate estates in seven different Pennsylvania counties, Chester County, Delaware
County, Lancaster, Berks, Montgomery, Schuylkill, and Washington, all of which have their own software since there is no statewide software system for these cases at this time. Sometimes this has been easier than past practice, sometimes more difficult. Through no fault of anyone, each county needed to develop its own systems since, with COVID, in many cases and for some time, access to remote probate was necessary. Most counties allow in person probate now but often with different rules. Some clients believe it is necessary to have an attorney in the county in which probate is brought. Although this might be convenient, Colliton Law and other attorneys are able to handle estates throughout Pennsylvania. This is especially true now with remote access and we also have contacts both throughout Pennsylvania and contact attorneys in other states where we do not practice. Contacts with the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) and National Elder Law Foundation (NELF) help.
Technology drastically changed the way we handled our work over the past few years as we found, as other businesses have, that we needed remote means to conduct our regular business. Zoom and other extended conference call access, Docusign, remote payment systems, portals and software became necessary. Some of the changes have been helpful. Some were complicated and/or expensive as clients have differing levels of participation in technology. We found that technology depends on the users at both ends to have and be able to use effectively both hardware and software effectively or, in the alternative, to make accommodations for those who do not. By later in 2023 and in 2024 we were coming back but in different ways than we expected. Then the unexpected happened which was actually a good thing.
So, the next stage of our business, as in so many things, required not one but several leaps of faith. First we needed to continue while growing and
changing – not necessarily in staff since that was not feasible. However, we found that the office space across the hall that we previously rented continued to remain vacant and was now available. Colliton Law is going “back to the future.” As of January 1, 2025, we are “expanding” back to include the area across the hall from our main office that we gave up in 2022. This seems like a startling additional responsibility for two years at least. The room has been painted. We are waiting for the carpeting now.
About the Author Janet Colliton
Esquire, Colliton Law Associates, P.C. Janet Colliton has practiced law for over 38 years, 37 of them in Chester County, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Her practice, Colliton Law Associates, PC, is limited to elder law, Medicaid, including advice, applications and appeals, and other benefits planning including Veterans benefits, life care and special needs planning, guardianships, retirement, and estate planning and administration.