Advance Care Directives Attorneys in Houston

Protecting Your Medical Wishes

Traumatic injuries are responsible for more than five million deaths per year around the world. Life-altering accidents can change a person or a family’s life in an instant, and these moments demand quick thinking and actions. Advance care planning is one way to combat any overwhelm related to unexpected events, and it’s one of the best ways to ensure your wishes are known, your family has a plan to follow, and your loved ones are taken care of when you’re gone.

Safeguard your medical decisions. Contact us at 281-214-6541 to request a free consultation today. 

Understanding Advance Care Directives

None of us know what the future has in store, which includes unexpected medical events that change the course of our family’s lives. Our advance care directives lawyers will leave you with a clear understanding of:

• The benefits of estate planning and legal documents like living wills and powers of attorney
• What an advance care directive, is and if it’s right for you
• The importance of having an advance care directive
• When to use an advance care directives lawyer

Our advance care directives lawyers are proficient in end-of-life planning, including estate planning, wills, trusts, probate, and special legal documents to extend more protection for your and your family’s future.

What is an Advance Care Directive?

An advance care directive is part of advance care planning and provides a general understanding of your health care wishes in the event you cannot voice them or care for yourself. This could be due to a traumatic accident or medical crisis that leaves you in a vegetative state or becomes terminal.

Advance care directives are important tools for anyone to have, especially if you’re 18 or older or if you have a life-threatening illness. There are a few types of advance care directives, which our Advance Care Directives Lawyers can help you formulate based on your current circumstances or future wishes:

• A living will specifies your preferences about specific life-sustaining treatments. You can use your will to highlight any specific interventions, such as cardiac resuscitation, tube-feeding, or mechanical respiration, and whether you desire these measures to be taken for you.
• A medical power of attorney names someone you trust that will carry out specific healthcare wishes on your behalf, which includes treatment, surgery, and end-of-life decisions.
• An advance care directive joins a durable medical power of attorney together with your will. You designate a healthcare agent to make important decisions about anything not covered in your living will, such as a surgical procedure.
• Psychiatric advance directives allow a healthcare agent to make mental health decisions when you’re in crisis.

Learn more about advance care directives when you speak with one of our skilled advance care directives lawyers: 281-214-6541.

Why Should I Have an Advance Care Directive?

Many people believe that a will covers all of your bases, though there’s a reason special legal documents like powers of attorney and advance care directives exist. With so many unknowns and areas of life to consider, like financial, personal, health, spiritual and more, these other legal considerations are meant to offer holistic protection.

An advance care directive is an empowering way to protect yourself so that another person whom you may not like or trust can’t make decisions for you. It connects your living will with a durable medical power of attorney to ensure your health and medical choices are carried out.

Another benefit of an advance care directive is that it gives medical providers, first responders, and other medical professionals instruction if you become incapacitated. So in the event your primary “agent,” who might be your spouse, requests a feeding tube against your wishes, your advance directive overrules any personal feelings.

An advance care directive gives your family a clear plan and instruction for your wishes when the unfortunate happens. If you are considering estate planning or would like more information on which type of power of attorney or directive to use, call our estate planning attorneys at 281-214-6541.

How Can I Protect My Medical Choices Now?

Regardless of your age or health, it’s never too soon to plan your future. Living wills and other advance directives protect your choices in the event you are injured, in a coma, or near the end of life.

Advance care planning isn’t just for older adults, as end-of-life situations can happen at any age. Not only can we help you prepare the right documents through estate planning, but our attorneys can also play a role in working with trusted executors, trustees, or healthcare agents to carry out your wishes.

Other Relevant Medical Decisions

Specific to medical choices, in addition to other estate needs, we will work through:

• Types of power of attorney, including medical or health care power of attorney
• A living will, in tandem with advance care directives
• Medical decisions and how you might want them handled, including life-sustaining treatment such as CPR, mechanical ventilation, tube feeding, dialysis, antibiotics, and comfort care.
• Opportunities to re-evaluate any estate plans, executors, beneficiaries, medical choices, and more as life changes
• Physician orders for certain circumstances

In the end-of-life planning process, we will help you express your final wishes and desires and, as part of it, help you plan and prepare a legally-sound estate plan, communicate with family members, and file all of the necessary paperwork to ensure legality.

Book a Free Consultation with an Advance Care Directives Lawyer

We can make challenging decisions a little easier and a lot less burdensome with proactive planning. When you partner with The Hatchett Law Firm, PLLC we promise our attorneys will treat you with respect, understanding, and compassion.

We’ve helped hundreds of clients through the estate planning process, including helping them with tough decisions related to health and financial situations, among many others. The Hatchett Law Firm, PLLC acts as a helpful resource and partner from start to finish.

If your health is top-of-mind, whether you’re dealing with a terminal illness or you want to better understand your options, advance care directives are a key part of the estate planning process.

In your consultation, we also cover wills, power of attorneys, trusts, and other important legal documents that work in your and your family’s favor.

Our advance care directives lawyers with the Hatchett Law Firm, PLLC will be your legal guide during the estate planning process to align your goals, values, and vision for your family to ensure a better outcome for you and your family when the unexpected happens.

Start planning today and take advantage of our free consultation with one of our experienced estate planning attorneys. Call 281-214-6541.