Any Solicitors or Legal Secretaries that can answer a question for me please

localhero

Pee wrote: »

With a Will I can't see the spelling of a name resulting in a negligence suit... although it would raise questions as to the capacity of the person making the Will if they had not noticed that on the draft, I agree.

If there is any doubt about the identity of a beneficiary, this will cost time and money to resolve. Alternatively, if the testator's name is spelt incorrectly or all the names that they have assets in are not on the Will, then the Grant of Probate would need to be reissued.

In both instances the affected beneficiary(s) would be entitled to hold those that wrote the Will accountable for the costs/time/inconvenience suffered.

Pee

If someone is known by other names it is easy enough to deal with - by way of a declaration rather than the Grant being reissued. You have no option but to rely on the person signing the Will to give you the correct name for themselves and others.

localhero

Pee wrote:

If someone is known by other names it is easy enough to deal with - by way of a declaration rather than the Grant being reissued. You have no option but to rely on the person signing the Will to give you the correct name for themselves and others.

If a declaration has to be obtained, then the effect is the same. There will be costs and delays - and if these were because the Will writer was careless then the buck stops with them.

Pee

A declaration is made rather than obtained...

As I said in my first post, spelling mistakes do not look professional.

Since a witness statement is just a reflection of what a person saw, it is easy to check. If it was another document, such as a Will, you may well have concerns that someone was being careless if there were typing mistakes and spelling errors in a document.

Of course in a witness statement there is a reasonable chance that you wouldn't know how to spell the name of one of the people involved.

monkey_spank

Pee wrote: »

A declaration is made rather than obtained...

As I said in my first post, spelling mistakes do not look professional.

You can't quite bring yourself to admit you were wrong can you, in that it's not clever to have spelling mistakes in a will? Of course it's potentially negligent, just like the Will I have been trying to sort out for the last 6 years written by a solicitor as equally smug as you.

That particular individual can't accept he's wrong either. It seems inherent in the legal profession to wriggle out of making any sort admission - his insurers don't think it's clever though.

Pee

At least he has insurers. Although if you can't prove that he was wrong within 6 years, I don't rate your chances in the next 6 very much.

It certainly is not clever to have spelling mistakes in a Will. It is not clever to have a spelling mistake anywhere, but sometimes it happens.

"sort of admission", do you mean?

monkey_spank

Pee wrote:

At least he has insurers. Although if you can't prove that he was wrong within 6 years, I don't rate your chances in the next 6 very much.

It certainly is not clever to have spelling mistakes in a Will. It is not clever to have a spelling mistake anywhere, but sometimes it happens.

"sort of admission", do you mean?

The solicitor made several blunders with the will that had all sorts of ramifications - and to compound our misery the probate solicitor (an executor) made the problem worse with their handling of the matter trying to cover up the foul ups of his colleague who drew up the will initially. :eek:

Neither of which were fast to put their hands up to accept any blame, and so I have had to suffer more time and expense to resolve this. Fortunately I've received some excellent (and free) advice via this forum to help me. The solicitor's insurers have fortunately accepted that things haven't been dealt with 'appropriately' and we are still negotiating compensation for our losses which include inheritance tax that shouldn't have been paid.

It has been a constant fight, and so one word of advice to anyone dealing with a solicitor - get absolutely everything in writing (and keep it) because they have an unfortunate tendency to be very vague and be 'unable to recollect' things that were previously said. Also never ever appoint a solicitor as an executor in your will. My relative who trusted this outfit throughout his life would be turning in his grave if he knew how this firm that he had put his faith in would behave once he'd gone.

With what I've learnt over the past year or so, I would never get a will drawn up by a solicitor either.