Monthly Archives: March 2017
Practical Tips Regarding Oral Contracts to Make Wills
This blog post is part 2 of the series on oral contracts to make wills, and this post contains several practical tips for how a person can optimize his chances of winning a claim for breach of an oral contract to make a will. In part 1 of the series, I provided an overview of the law in Virginia concerning oral contracts to make wills, whereby a testator (the person making the will) enters into a contract with another person, with the testator agreeing to provide for him in his will, in exchange for the other party doing something for …
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UPDATE: Can an Intended (and Disappointed) Beneficiary Still Sue a Will’s Drafter?: The General Assembly of Virginia Enacts a Statutory Fix to the Thorsen Decision
Back in the summer I wrote a post discussing the impacts of the Thorsen decision by the Supreme Court of Virginia. In Thorsen, a testator wanted to leave her estate to a charity if her daughter did not survive her. The lawyer erred in drafting the will. When the testator died several years later (with her daughter having predeceased her), the testator’s property went to other people, contrary to her intentions. The charity, the intended beneficiary, sued the lawyer, asserting breach of contract for legal services. Thorsen was notable in that it held that Virginia common law permits intended third …
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