Solicitors' will-making duties

Article

Mortensen, Reid. 2002. "Solicitors' will-making duties." Melbourne University Law Review. 26 (1), pp. 60-87.
Article Title

Solicitors' will-making duties

ERA Journal ID33616
Article CategoryArticle
Authors
AuthorMortensen, Reid
Journal TitleMelbourne University Law Review
Journal Citation26 (1), pp. 60-87
Number of Pages28
Year2002
PublisherMelbourne University Press
Place of PublicationMelbourne, Australia
ISSN0025-8938
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.

Keywordswills; will-making; solicitors
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020480605. Tort law
500306. Ethical theory
441005. Social theory
Public Notes

File reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher/author.

Byline AffiliationsUniversity of Queensland
Book TitleConstititional adn International Law Perspectives
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