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Law to be amended to simplify validation of wills
Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall, SC
Kaieteur News- Proposed amendments to the Wills Act of 1902 have been tabled in the National Assembly and will see changes to Sections 6A and 14 of the existing legislation.
The amendment Bill was read for the first time on Monday.
Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, SC has said that the amendments to the Wills Act will help to simplify the process of probating or validating of wills.
“These are the simple amendments in the law that can have such an important impact on the lives of our people, and this is the type of social law reform that our government engages in,” he said.
The Attorney General explained that the current law requires the presence of the witnesses who signed the will for it to be probated, despite the likelihood of this process occurring years after the will was written.
Probate is the legal process in which a will is reviewed to determine whether it is valid and authentic.
“The law requires an affidavit from one of those witnesses to probate the will in court. That document must be produced when the will is probated but sometimes the witnesses are difficult to find so probates are held up for years…and the properties also deteriorate,” he explained.
To remedy this problem, the proposed amendments will require the witness(es) to complete the Affidavit at the time of signing the will and attach same as part of the will.
The AG pointed out that while this may seem like a simple amendment, it can save substantial sums in court fees and legal expenses while fast-tracking the probate.
According to the explanatory memorandum attached to the Bill, the new section 6A1 provides that one of the attesting witnesses to a will may swear to affidavit as to due execution of the will immediately after the execution of the will or as soon as practicable after the execution of the will.
Section 6A (2) of the new section provides for the affidavit of due execution under sub-section (1) to be stated at the bottom of the will, on a separate page annexed to the will or on a separate document.
Section 6(A) (3) provides that notwithstanding any other law or practice, one affidavit of due execution of a will shall be sufficient evidence as to the due execution of the will unless the Court orders otherwise. Only the Court may decide that circumstances require two affidavits or any other evidence.
Meanwhile, Section 14 provides for the Minister to make regulations for the better execution of the provisions of the Act. Under Section 14, the Minister has power to make offences for breaches of the regulation and the penalties for the breaches shall not exceed a fine of $1,000,000 and imprisonment of five years.
(Law to be amended to simplify validation of wills)
- Amendment, Attorney General, Minister of Legal Affairs, Nandlall, National Assembly, Probate, Wills Act
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