Solicitors' will-making duties
Article
Article Title | Solicitors' will-making duties |
---|---|
ERA Journal ID | 33616 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | |
Author | Mortensen, Reid |
Journal Title | Melbourne University Law Review |
Journal Citation | 26 (1), pp. 60-87 |
Number of Pages | 28 |
Year | 2002 |
Publisher | Melbourne University Press |
Place of Publication | Melbourne, Australia |
ISSN | 0025-8938 |
Web Address (URL) | http://mulr.law.unimelb.edu.au/ |
Abstract | Since the recognition that, in will-making practice, solicitors owe duties to beneficiaries as well as to clients, the courts have stated solicitors' will-making duties with some precision. However the law of tort still fails to offer an agreed rationale for them. This article suggests that, tortious principles aside, these duties spring from a clearer articulation of the solicitor's professional role as caretaker of clients' testamentary intentions. This idea explains most adjudication on will-making, while placing reasonably clear limits on solicitors' liabilities. This article's theory of the solicitor's caretaking role is the basis of its criticism of Queensland Art Gallery Board of Trustees v Henderson Trout (a firm) — where duties to one who merely hoped to be a beneficiary were recognised — and its conclusion that the duties stated there are conceptually precarious and practically unsustainable. |
Keywords | wills; will-making; solicitors |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 480605. Tort law |
500306. Ethical theory | |
441005. Social theory | |
Public Notes | File reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher/author. |
Byline Affiliations | University of Queensland |
Book Title | Constititional adn International Law Perspectives |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/9yz4x/solicitors-will-making-duties
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