Hutchinson brings legal services to WC

DIRLETON – There are not a lot of legal services in West Carleton, but Dirleton-based lawyer Anna Hutchinson is looking to change that offering Real Estate, wills, estate and notary services in West Carleton and the Ottawa Valley through her new firm Hutchinson Law.

Hutchinson was born in Poland but has spent most of her life in Canada, and a lot of that time right here in West Carleton.

“I was born in Poland and came to Canada when I was seven,” Hutchinson told West Carleton Online last week (March 4) from her office built separately at her home on Stonecrest Road. “I Lived in Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa for university, and moved here to West Carleton in 2004.”

Hutchinson has been licenced to practice law in Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley since 2002. Her family has lived in the Ottawa Valley since 2004. She recently decided to open her own law firm in the heart of the Ottawa Valley in order to provide local legal services to members of the West Carleton community and beyond.

“I became a lawyer and started practicing law in Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley starting in 2002,” she said. “My husband is in the military, so we lived on the base in Uplands, and then we wanted to find some land and property, so we ended up out here, and we’ve been here ever since. The kids love it, we’ve got some acreage in the back there, so dirt-biking, snowmobiling, and lots of hockey and ice-fishing.”

Hutchinson has long been active in the community as well. A member of the MacLaren’s Beach Association and is, “pretty heavily involved in the Fitzroy Harbour community, sports, volunteering, you name it, I love West Carleton, it’s great.”

Hutchinson is a longtime co-organizer of the Fitzroy Harbour Community Association Hallowe’en Party.

“My friend Kim Heidt, who lives just a couple houses down from here, and I have been organizing and executing that party for I don’t even remember, many, many years, as long as I can remember,” she said. “I think for both of us, it gets our kids involved in the community, it gets us involved in the community. We like being able to give local high school kids local volunteer hours. Selfishly, my kids love the party. They always help out. They get very excited every year and so do Kim’s, so that’s a big draw. It’s nice to see the community come together. It is usually a very good turnout, and we like to see that.”

Hutchinson launched her practice last October (2024) and has been doing outreach since then. A couple months ago, Hutchinson was the guest speaker at the Bethel-St. Andrew’s United Church’s Men’s Ministry monthly breakfast.

“I did speak there as well as a senior’s group in Constance Bay,” she said. “Both groups asked me to come in and speak to them about wills and Real Estate. That was a really great day. That’s a really good group of people at Bethel-St. Andrew’s. Walter Veenstra is who organizes that. They had some really good questions. They just wanted to get some more information on tips for wills and power of attorney.”

Hutchinson feels there are not a lot of legal services in West Carleton, and her practice focuses on the needs of a senior community such as the one found in this community.

“I don’t think so, which is one of the reasons I wanted to start something up,” she said. “My goal was to start something up here locally for the West Carleton community and provide an affordable way for people to have their wills and power of attorney drawn up. Kind of make people aware of the importance of wills and power of attorney, because I think sometimes it escapes people how important those documents are. Not only for seniors, but as soon as you buy a house and have children, ideally you should take care of having a will and power of attorney. They are very important documents and it’s very important they are drawn up correctly.”

Hutchinson’ firm offers a few other services as well.

“We also do Real Estate transactions here, so October was kind of a tough time to start, especially in this market,” she said. “But we are doing Real Estate transactions, and we’ve had some success with that since October. We’re doing Real Estate, wills and power of attorney and estate planning here and we’re doing some notary services. It’s a very, very new practice, but it’s going well.”

Each of her services have a busy time of the year.

“Winter is definitely a quiet time, especially with Real Estate, which we were expecting,” Hutchinson said. “We have had some success there. None the less we have had a lot of will preparations. The trend seems to be, the Real Estate market picks up in spring in to the fall, ideally. I’m not sure what’s going to happen with the market as it stands right now with interest rates and so on. Things seem to be getting better. When people start to travel in the fall and in to the winter, they want to have their wills and power of attorney done before they travel. So, then that seems to be the busy time for that area of the practice.”

Hutchinson, who says her rates are as competitive as it gets when it comes to getting your will done in-person by a professional lawyer, says these documents are things everyone needs and sooner than you may think.

“I think as soon as you have children and own assets, it’s important to have those documents in case something happens to you,” she said. “It’s important for your children to have appointed guardians, in case something happens, and they are left behind without parents or whatever the case may be. It’s important if something were to happen and you are no longer here, it’s spelled out clearly where everything you own is supposed to go, whether it’s a home, or life insurance, investments, any assets you may have, its very important that any children or beneficiaries are clearly identified. To me power of attorney is even more important because it’s kind of your living will. So, you’re still alive, but unable to make decisions for yourself. It’s important that power of attorney is designated, appointed and properly laid out in a document, so if something happens to you and you’re still alive, you are taken care of in a manner you wish. I’m looking forward to this taking off, and I’m looking forward to serving the people of West Carleton.”

For more information on Hutchinson Law including contact information, visit its website here.