Excluded from Will

summerday

Is there a particular solicitor she is most likely to have made the will through, eg the closest to her house, or one who she may have used fro other legal things? You could go to them directly and ask if she did make a will with them.

disgruntledpuppy

Nicki wrote: »

Hmm. Maybe the practice I worked in when I was a trainee solicitor doing my six months in the probate department was unique then! We would, if instructed, have contacted other solicitors to check whether they held a will. Why wouldn't we, when we would be paid to do so, and the family member was sure a will had been drafted? And if that hadn't worked, we would have placed an advertisement in the Law Society Gazette. Even today if you pick up the LSG there is a page of these ads, and I well remember that it used to be one of my jobs as a trainee to check the firms index of arvhived files when we got a request to check if we were holding a will in. Why do you think solicitors wouldn't do this? We are a mercenary breed, and we will do most things (provided they are legal) if they are in the best interests of our client and the client pays us to do so!


Checking back on your posts I see you were once a legal secretary about 10 years ago. Maybe this approach would have been less common then if word processors weren't being used in the firms you worked in to the same degree as they are now? Though I do find that hard to believe to be honest, as I'm pretty sure all the law firms I worked in from about 1995 onwards all used word processors rather than type writers and would have found putting a proforma letter of enquiry into the DX to be a straightforward task. (And I was a trainee before word processors were in vogue and it definitely still happened from time to time even then!)

I have to agree, I am a solicitor who specialises in Probate matters (albeit in NI) and I am frequently contacted by other firms of solicitors to enquire whether we are holding a Will and I contact other solicitors to do the same! Nothing unusual in that!

Errata

Are clients - even dead ones whose will is lodged with a solicitor - not covered by the data protection act?

Nicki

Glad you agree disgruntledpuppy. I was a bit taken aback when I read Joolzs's post, which I thought was quite rude!

JoolzS wrote: »

Wow, I find it really amazing when someone says something online that is completely untrue! I can't even being to imagine where Nicki learned this disinformation.

Still, now I can confidently post

Nicki wrote: »

Wow, I find it really amazing when someone says something online that is completely untrue! I can't even being to imagine where JoolzS learned this disinformation.

:rotfl: :rotfl: