How Is Lack of Capacity at the Time of Making a Will Investigated?

Wills and Inheritance Agreements

Prepared by: Constantinople

The main question is whether the deceased had the necessary testamentary capacity when the will was executed. A will requires discernment and attainment of fifteen. Advanced age alone does not establish incapacity. Likewise, a past diagnosis does not automatically determine discernment at execution. The legal conditions are investigated through facts close to the relevant date.

Hospital files, examination and treatment records, medication, reports and accounts of participants may matter. Records far before or after execution must be explained in terms of how they illuminate that moment. The necessary expert examination is not replaced by the parties’ views about an illness. The court assesses all evidence in the particular file.

Execution records and any medical report for a notarised will are also examined. A report’s existence does not automatically end every allegation, nor does its absence invalidate a will in every case. Attribution of handwriting and signature in a handwritten document may require examination separately from capacity.

We first identify the alleged condition and date and the records that could establish it. We distinguish capacity, formal defects and defects of consent. Lawful acquisition and submission of medical data must also be observed; sharing another person’s private records without permission is not a proper evidence-gathering method. The document date, known treatment institutions and existing execution papers are assessed together at the start.