Legal

Delay in preparing Will

The starting point is the House of Lords’ decision in White v Jones [1995] 2 AC 207 in which it was confirmed that that a solicitor or will draftsman may be liable to disappointed beneficiaries under a Will where the solicitor is guilty of undue delay in drawing up a Will for execution by the testator before the testator’s death.

In White v Jones the testator quarrelled with his two daughters, and executed a Will cutting them out of his estate. He was then reconciled with his daughters. On 17 July 1986 the defendant firm of solicitors received a letter from the testator asking them to prepare a new Will to

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Smith v Stanley [2019] 2 WLUK 174 has several points of interest. Reported mainly because the court intervened to correct the mistakes made, it is the mistakes themselves that are worth attention as they were easily made but carried serious consequences.

A testator died in 2015 leaving a pecuniary legacy of £4.2m to be held on trust for the benefit of his second wife for life, remainder to his children;

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Solicitors allowed to work for unauthorised businesses, that is, businesses not authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, (SRA), from the end of next month.
Solicitors considering taking advantage of more liberal practising rules have been urged to beware of the potential pitfalls.

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