Our Fort St John Estate litigation and Unfair Wills Variation Office is conveniently located in Fort St John at 9503-100 Ave. Call us at 250-262-5052. Nick Davies, senior estate litigation lawyer and founding partner Lorne MacLean, QC head our BC wills variation, unfair wills disputes and Fort St John and Dawson Creek estate litigation dispute department. Both are skilled at mediating, settling and if required, taking these emotion laden BC wills variation cases to court.
Our BC Wills variation and estate litigation lawyer working from our offices in Fort St John and Dawson Creek BC handle these disputed estate claims routinely and local estate litigation associates work with us on ensuring our wills variation clients get the fairest estate settlement possible.
HOW ARE UNFAIR WILLS CHANGED TO FAIRLY PROVIDE FOR BENEFICIARIES?
British Columbia’s Wills Variation Act was the statute that allowed surviving spouses and children to dispute wills that have failed to make adequate provision for them. A deceased will maker can have their will challenged by a disgruntled family member on the basis they received too little or worse still they were excluded entirely from any estate share. Certain classes of persons are able to sue including the surviving spouse, common-law spouse, same-sex spouse and both the natural and adopted children of the dead will maker. Will makers’ wishes are entitled to great respect but failing to make adequate provision without justification can lead to a successful court challenge. BC has a new Act Called the Wills, Estates and Succession Act.
(“WESA”) You need a Fort St John Dawson Creek Unfair BC Will Variation Lawyer to navigate this tricky area and to help you obtain a fair settlement. After much discussion on whether the Wills Variation Act test should be changed and whether adult self-sufficient children should be removed from people entitled to sue for a variation of a will, the old rules were retained in their entirely and incorporated into our new Act called the Wills, Estates and Succession Act. The new section is called “Division 6 – Variation of Wills” and this new section provides that Wills can be varied under specific circumstances:
- Division 6 of Part 4 carries forward provisions that are currently found in the Wills Variation Act.
- Division 6 allows “equity” to be done where a deceased has not adequately provided for his spouse or children.
- Unlike other areas of reform, there was no consensus on the British Columbia Law Institute’s recommendations to substantially change the Wills Variation Act to exclude self-sufficient adult children. Therefore, the provisions in Division 6 are relatively unchanged; although there are some minor amendments to improve the process for wills variation proceedings.
Strict time limits apply to unfair wills and wills variation claims so please call us right away at 250-262-5052. You will be happy you did.
