The last will and testament is a clause which is normally used in the beginning of a will to indicate the nature of the document. There are a number of legal requirements for a will to be valid such as the mental capacity of the person giving the deposition, that the document is signed by the deponent, that it revokes all previous wills and that the person understands the nature of the act of making a will, the general extent of the property that they own and the status of any moral claims to the will. In addition to this, the will must appear to be rational and the testator must have general legal capacity. When a person is giving a will and there is some doubt as to their legal capacity to make the will, confirmation of their capacity can be obtained by getting a written medical opinion on the person’s capacity and then getting the doctor who gives this opinion to witness the making of the will. It is also helpful in these kinds of circumstances to the make detailed notes about the circumstances surrounding the formation of the will. Normally, the intention to create a will is presumed unless the person happens to be blind or illiterate or there are suspicious circumstances involved.

Wills are also obviously open to disputation. Particularly in the context of a society with increasingly complicated family structures, there is a growing potential for the contesting of wills that their disputation. When a person has had multiple permanent partners, defactos and spouses and there may be children from each of these partners, the level of complication which can arise from the giving of a last will and testament can be enormous. It also tends to occur when there is a substantial amount of money involved in the estate. If you have a query about the law of wills, we would be more than happy to hear from you. Our specialist wills and estates lawyers are available now to answer any questions about a last will and testament that you may have.