Wills and Estates: Claims on the Rise
Those of you who are familiar with Hull & Hull LLP will be aware that we practice in the area of estate litigation. Part of my own work includes acting as junior counsel for LawPRO, the insurer of lawyers in Ontario.
With that in mind, I found the article by Deborah Petch, “Wills and Estate law: Claims slowly on the increase” in the Winter 2007 edition of LawPRO’s magazine to be very interesting.
Over the past five years, wills and estates related claims accounted for approximately 6% of the claims that LawPRO received and it cost the insurer an average of $34,404 to resolve a claim.
The most common errors to give rise to claims are:
- Lawyer/client communication failures (e.g. failure to follow a client’s instructions);
Inadequate discovery of facts or inadequate investigation (e.g. an inadequate inquiry into the testator’s mental capacity); - Failure to know or properly apply the law (e.g. drafting a complex will when the lawyer doesn’t have the necessary expertise);
- Time and deadline-errors (e.g. missing the deadline for bringing a dependant’s relief claim);
Conflicts of interest (e.g. doing extensive work for many members of a family and attempting to act for one member on an estates matter; and - Clerical/delegation
While claims might be on the rise, concerned lawyers can take comfort in the fact that LawPRO has a very good record of settling them. Approximately 85% of the wills and estates claims received are closed without any indemnity payments.
Have a great day!
Megan Connolly
