16 May 2025
Electronic wills—inevitable in a digital era, or an abomination liable to wreak fraudulent chaos? In this week’s NLJ, Brendan Udokoro, associate, and Kiera Quinn, associate (New Zealand qualified), Howard Kennedy, examine the pros and cons, risks and rewards of allowing people to tap out their will on their phone or laptop.
It’s a serious issue, and there are advantages to both paper-only and digital-friendly regimes. Udokoro and Quinn note that the ‘courts have admitted to probate unconventional wills in some circumstances, particularly where the testator’s intentions were clear, such as the recent highly publicised case of the will of Malcolm Chenery, which was drafted on the back of a Mr Kipling’s mince pie box and a Young’s Chip Shop packet.
‘The question does, however, remain whether the law should evolve to accommodate electronic wills, or does this open the door to more disputes?’RELATED ARTICLES
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