CAROL McGIFFIN
‘It always makes me a bit sad when I hear of people contesting wills, especially as it’s almost always a futile exercise resulting in big wins only for the lawyers. I don’t know why people do it.
Of course, there are always genuine cases of vulnerable people being manipulated by unscrupulous partners, carers or even family that should be challenged but if that isn’t the case, I also don’t know how people dare do it.
Take the case this week of the five women who weren’t happy with the £50 each they received from their grandfather. They were expecting to get a share of a third of his estate that the grandfather would have left their father if he hadn’t passed away five years earlier. That was what the old man had ‘promised’ before he changed his mind, and the will.
The reasons why he did that aren’t important –they’re not the point. The fact is, he decided they didn’t deserve it and the will was clear and they should have respected that.
But the bitterness and anger got the better of the women so they went to court, the judge ruled completely in the will’s favour, and they lost. Now all they have to show for their efforts is a massive bill for legal fees to pay between them of £220,000.
In a way, it serves them right. People forget that a will is just that, a person’s last will and testament, a legal way of expressing their wishes for their e
