Law Commons^™

Voice, Strength, And No-Contest Clauses, Karen J. Sneddon

Articles

The will is a unilateral written disposition of probate property to be effective upon the will-maker's death. To have any legal effect, however, the will-maker's family, beneficiaries, and personal representatives, along with the probate court, need to implement the will provisions. To buttress the strength of the will, the language of the will is definitive, certain, and strong. But when the will relies upon standardized language, the voice of the will-maker is flattened or even non-existent. The absence of the willmaker's voice may jeopardize the legal effect of the will.

This Article argues that the over-reliance on "time-tested" formulaic language …