Before they go
Most of this period belongs to them, and the companion guide covers it. Your part is narrower and easy to miss.
Get the handoff document
They should be writing you a document that covers accounts, passwords, deadlines, contacts, and what you are authorized to decide without asking them. If they have not started it, make them start it. If they say they will do it later, understand that later means the week before they report, badly.
Read it while they are still here and can answer questions. The gaps you find now are the ones you will otherwise be discovering alone in eight months.
What goes in it, from their side of the table: the waiting-for-designation section of the guide written for them.
What you need in your own hands
- Power of attorney, executed;
- a copy of their
presentence report , because they are not permitted to keep one inside and you may need to quote from it; - their judgment and commitment order;
- account access that actually works, tested by you, not described to you;
- and their full committed name exactly as it appears on the judgment, which is the name you will use on everything.
Do not
Do not liquidate things in a panic. Do not pay a consultant who promises a specific facility — nobody can deliver that. Do not post about the case publicly.
The first two weeks
They reported, and then nothing. This is the part that frightens people most and it is almost always ordinary.
These pages cover the general rules. Your situation has details they don't. Email me a question. Answers are free, and "you don't need to pay anyone for this" is my most common answer.
I answer in the order received, usually within a couple of days. I have a day job. If your situation genuinely needs more than an email, I take a limited number of consults, so say so and we'll work it out.
Someone else is sitting exactly where you are. Pass it on.