Contesting a Will - Forged Wills

Homemade Wills have increased the rates of the volume of fraudulent allegations. Figures have raised 175% in the number of High Court cases involving disputed Wills. If there is a case for claiming that a Will is invalid because it is a forged, then the Will does not belong to the person whom allegedly wrote it and it is not their Will. Was the Will forged or tampered with? Obviously if any of the signatures on the Last Will and Testament are forgeries then this will mean that the Will document is void, therefore if the testator has died without knowing this, the intestacy rules will apply.

In order to prove that the Will has been forged and is invalid, you will have to obtain and collect original samples of the deceased signature. However, a person's signature may naturally change over time and become less clear as you get older, the signature shown to contest the Will, should ideally have been made around the same time as the Will was made. It is then advisable to send a report to a handwriting expert to discover if it is two different people signing the Will. The signature will be examined microscopically, and photocopied documents can also be examined and provide conclusive evidence but it is advised to have originals where possible to provide the claim with the most suitable material evidence for an expert to analyse and base their expert opinions on. It is important to have reasonable evidence to alleged fraud, the Court may penalise you if you come without any. Forgery is a serious allegation an it may result in having to pay your opponents legal costs.

Signs that there may have been a forged Will are; abrupt changes to the Will or unexplained withdrawals from the deceased bank accounts not long before the death, as well as transfers of large sums of money or property or disappearance of specific valuables. Other signs might include the inclusion in the Will of someone else's name on a bank account, a relative who takes over management of the person's finances but leaves bills unpaid or someone who is in debt and anxious about their finances. All beneficiaries are entitled to answer to any reasonable queries but not legally entitled to see the estate's accounts, therefore they have to rely on the executor of the Will to provide them with information, even if the executor is the one that is accused of committing the fraud.

I am a legal writer covering advice on topics of law, including forged Wills, for further text and similar works visit contesting a Will or contact a solicitor today.

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