Solicitor to contest a will

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emmt

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Hi guys, it's been a long time since I've posted on this site and I have a pretty general question that I hope you can guide me on.

I'm looking for a solicitor to contest a will made by my Mother who passed away in September last. 7 in the family and 6 of us are in agreement that we don't believe this is what her wishes would have been if she was of sound mind. (She was suffering from dementia but officially diagnosed in the November and will made the following March) 7th sibling was the executor, got everything in the will and accompanied my mother to the solicitor to have the will made.

I've read through a lot of posts and realise this may be a long and expensive road but we just want to talk to a solicitor to see what their opinion is. I don't expect anyone to recommend an actual name, but is there a Law Society list i could check out for recommendations? What is the best way to go about finding a solicitor experienced in this? When I google it I just get sites where solicitors are advertising their skills.

A colleague is going through a similar situation and she learned from her mistakes of enlisting a solicitor whose expertise wasnt in the area of wills so I want to avoid that if I can. (although as i write this i realise its a big ask...)
Many thanks
 
Fine tune your Google search to include the words “Probate Litigation Solicitors Dublin”. I include Dublin as it has many medium sized firms with litigation departments and are accordingly more likely to have experienced teams.

That said, the type of action you are looking to launch is not overly complicated (in the way that a medical negligence case would) and there are well established principles and rules for contesting a will for lack of testamentary capacity. The real expert will be the barrister retained by the Solicitor to fight your case, advise on it and draft the pleadings. There are plenty of specialist barristers in will-contesting proceedings.
 
@emmt I posted elsewhere about the probate office querying my mother's will because her death cert mentioned dementia even though she made her will well before any mention of dementia but her GP can't/won't vouch for her being of sound mind at the time. Has the will gone to probate already? I wonder if there's any mechanism by which you can alert the probate office to your concerns and have them query matters?

Edit: this perhaps? But probably no use if it has already gone to/through probate?

Stopping a Probate Application | The Courts Service of Ireland

www.courts.ie www.courts.ie
 
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emmt said:
Hi guys, it's been a long time since I've posted on this site and I have a pretty general question that I hope you can guide me on.

I'm looking for a solicitor to contest a will made by my Mother who passed away in September last. 7 in the family and 6 of us are in agreement that we don't believe this is what her wishes would have been if she was of sound mind. (She was suffering from dementia but officially diagnosed in the November and will made the following March) 7th sibling was the executor, got everything in the will and accompanied my mother to the solicitor to have the will made.

I've read through a lot of posts and realise this may be a long and expensive road but we just want to talk to a solicitor to see what their opinion is. I don't expect anyone to recommend an actual name, but is there a Law Society list i could check out for recommendations? What is the best way to go about finding a solicitor experienced in this? When I google it I just get sites where solicitors are advertising their skills.

A colleague is going through a similar situation and she learned from her mistakes of enlisting a solicitor whose expertise wasnt in the area of wills so I want to avoid that if I can. (although as i write this i realise its a big ask...)
Many thanks
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How do you know what was in the will?
 
How do you know what was in the will?
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A copy of the will was sent out by the solicitor to all the siblings on July21 of this year. My mother had a saying "You can't make fish of one and flesh of the other" This is what she lived by so it appears that the will is totally against her normal wishes. No money left to carers or the church for Masses etc. This would have been important to her

I understand that the fees to fight the case come out of the estate, is this correct?
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That's what I've read and understand that this is the case all right

But what we're hoping for is that if we gather enough evidence for the executor and the solicitor to say that, with hindsight, maybe the will shouldn't stand that it would go to court to have it divided evenly among 7 children. Dont want an argument about it so if it was to get ugly I think we would all agree to walk away and try to learn a lesson from it

Has the will gone to probate already?
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The will hasn't gone to probate yet - I've been checking that online - as I believe we have from 6 months after probate has been granted to voice our concerns.
 
@Up Rovers , thanks a mill for that link. Really helpful info and also a link to Free Legal Advice. That'll be my first step

Some people claim that another relative or person in the deceased’s life unduly influenced them.

This is a “very, very difficult thing to prove”, according to Spierin, who notes: “The person who can give the evidence as to whether this was the case is dead.”
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emmt said:
(She was suffering from dementia but officially diagnosed in the November and will made the following March)
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This is the core of your case I believe.

If you have a confirmed, written diagnosis of Dementia in (say) November 2020 and the will is dated for March 2021; then the will cannot be considered valid as the person was not of 'sound mind' and you have documented medical evidence to that effect.

You can be 100% certain that this will cause a family row; be prepared for that.

I would lodge a caveat now with the probate office and write a letter to the Solicitor holding the 'new' will and put them on notice.
 
Thirsty said:
If you have a confirmed, written diagnosis of Dementia in (say) November 2020 and the will is dated for March 2021; then the will cannot be considered valid as the person was not of 'sound mind' and you have documented medical evidence to that effect.
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I would tend to agree.

However, if one of the witnesses to the will was a qualified medical practitioner who was prepared to state that the testatrix was of sound mind at the time of the execution of the will, this might give validity to the will. Even those of unsound mind can have “lucid intervals” during their disability for legal purposes.
 
Not an easy road to go down.

I had reason in the past (more than 10 years ago) to seek advice regarding a will and possible trust, like you wanted to find someone who was an expert in the field and was recommended the following firm (can't even remember by who at this point)

[broken link removed]

Didn't pursue it in the end, but found the advice I received very thorough and if I ever had issues with a will again they would be who I would go to.
 
emmt said:
7th sibling was the executor, got everything in the will and accompanied my mother to the solicitor to have the will made.
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Looking at the above and it has me wondering why the solicitor sent all the siblings a copy of the will. I believe there was no obligation on him to do that at all.
 
noproblem said:
Looking at the above and it has me wondering why the solicitor sent all the siblings a copy of the will. I believe there was no obligation on him to do that at all.
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You’re right. Unless the executor instructed the solicitor to send it to the siblings.
 
We do have a confirmed, written diagnosis of Dementia from a dementia specialist in a medical clinic. This would also be available in her medical records which I assume a solicitor would have access to.

We were all surprised that a copy of the will was sent out so soon - only 10months after Mum passed away - especially as the same person was executor for other family members and their wills were a lot slower in coming. The witnesses to the will were the solicitor themselves and a colleague of theirs so no medical experience there.

Thirsty said:
I would lodge a caveat now with the probate office and write a letter to the Solicitor holding the 'new' will and put them on notice.
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I thought we would have to wait until probate was granted before we were free to do anything so this is interesting. My biggest fear is that the haste that seems to be here is to put the rest of the family off guard and to be slow in responding. We're all a bit shell shocked to be honest

Thirsty said:
You can be 100% certain that this will cause a family row; be prepared for that.
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That's the unfortunate thing about this but we're hopeful that right is on our side and that we'll be able to prove it and settle it before it goes to court. Fire a shot across the bows in a way and hope that reason will win out.

@Northie , I'll definitely research these solicitors and see where that takes me

Thank you all for your advice so far. Much appreciated
 
emmt said:
I thought we would have to wait until probate was granted before we were free to do anything so this is interesting.
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The link that I posted earlier clearly deals with stopping a probate application by entering a caveat...
 
removed as hadnt fully understood some advice above
 
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emmt said:
So an option is to enter a caveat, stop the probate application and then lodge our concerns via our solicitor...something to definitely get confirmed with a solicitor. Again, I thought, naively, that our hands were tied until post probate,
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Grant of Probate 'proves' the will, in other words establishes the will as being valid and allows the executor to proceed with distribution.

So you want to take action now, based on what you have posted I think you have a good case; particularly when there was no earlier will.
 
ClubMan said:
@emmt I posted elsewhere about the probate office querying my mother's will because her death cert mentioned dementia even though she made her will well before any mention of dementia but her GP can't/won't vouch for her being of sound mind at the time. Has the will gone to probate already? I wonder if there's any mechanism by which you can alert the probate office to your concerns and have them query matters?

Edit: this perhaps? But probably no use if it has already gone to/through probate?

Stopping a Probate Application | The Courts Service of Ireland

www.courts.ie www.courts.ie
Click to expand...

I must try and get a copy of the death cert actually and see if it mentions dementia. By the time she passed no one would be in any doubt to the fact that she was deeply affected by dementia

I'll investigate exactly what the benefit of entering a caveat and stopping probate - is this the proper course to pursue or is it more beneficial to wait until probate has been granted.

I'll post back with any information i get from a solicitor just for other posters information in case anyone else finds themselves in the same position
 
emmt said:
is this the proper course to pursue or is it more beneficial to wait until probate has been granted.
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I am not a lawyer but common sense suggests to me that it'd probably be more difficult and more costly to change things after probate than before. But then common sense and the law aren't always the same thing... If it was be me I'd be entering a caveat as soon as possible.
 
Thirsty said:
Grant of Probate 'proves' the will, in other words establishes the will as being valid and allows the executor to proceed with distribution.

So you want to take action now, based on what you have posted I think you have a good case; particularly when there was no earlier will.
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So we need to act now...I'll get moving on this ASAP.
Thanks guys - you dont know how much help you all have been.
 
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