Peter A. Smith

My wife and I consulted with attorney Peter A. Smith in Statesville, NC to create wills, living wills and powers of attorney. During the initial meeting, I found him to be respectful and knowledgeable. I explained clearly and specifically what I wanted to declare in the documents. He reiterated my... requests back to me so I was sure he understood what I wanted. We came back the next week to review the documents that he created. Almost immediately, I could tell he seemed annoyed with my questions. He began to interrupt both me and my wife repeatedly. The wills were fine. But the living wills and powers of attorney were not. One section of the power of attorney was the opposite of what I requested and to which he agreed. When I asked about it, he said because of NC statutes, it was better this way. Furthermore, both the living will and powers of attorney did not contain the declarations I had requested. They were standard forms that I had to check boxes to declare what I wanted. It appeared that he put zero effort into these documents and would rely on me to fill them out the way I wanted. Maybe that's the way it's done today. But I still was concerned and asked him about it. When I questioned this, he became became belligerent, interrupted and raised his voice. Ultimately, he took all the documents back and told me to get out. He then ushered us out the back door.