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Will you notarize or act as a witness for a will prepared by me in advance?
Typically, no. A will is an important legal document that should be drafted with the assistance of a lawyer.
While it is not a legal requirement to have a will prepared (or for that matter witnessed) by a lawyer, it is a document that has such significance that under almost all circumstances a lawyer should be involved with a will's preparation.
Also, when a lawyer assists in any way with a will, that lawyer runs the risk of being sued by disgruntled beneficiaries at a later date.
It may not be an adequate defence that the lawyer was only witnessing the will and did not assist with the drafting of the will.
For those reasons, if I am to sign as a witness on a will, I must be satisfied that the contents of the will are reasonable.
I must be satisfied that the contents of the will are reasonable. This falls within the realm of providing legal advice, and to do an adequate job, requires that some time be spent considering the draft will.
Almost invariably, when reviewing a proposed will drafted by a client, I come across sections that should be improved upon, and it is in many cases more economically efficient to draft the will from scratch.
