Strengthen your Hospital / Hospice Will Against Legal Challenge
To schedule an appointment, contact our law firm at 403-400-4092 or Chris@NeufeldLegal.com
Executing a Will within the confines of a hospital or hospice (in Alberta) introduces unique legal vulnerabilities that require proactive mitigation to strengthen the Will's capacity to survive future scrutiny. While the Wills and Succession Act (Alberta) provides the statutory framework for a valid Will, the environment of a medical facility often raises suspicious circumstances in the eyes of the court. Challenges typically arise from disgruntled relatives who may claim the deceased person (the testator) lacked the necessary mental capacity or was subject to undue influence due to their weakened state. To safeguard against such challenges, it is to your advantage to go beyond the basic legal requirements and build a robust evidentiary record of the signing process.
The most critical defense against a legal challenge is establishing testamentary capacity, which is the legal standard used to determine if a person is of sound mind. In a hospital or a hospice setting, this is frequently called into question due to the potential effects of heavy pain medication, cognitive decline, or the sheer physical exhaustion associated with terminal illness. To strengthen the Will, it is highly recommended to obtain a contemporaneous medical assessment or a letter from the attending physician confirming that the patient is lucid and understands the nature of the document. This medical evidence serves as a powerful shield, as Alberta courts rely heavily on the Banks v. Goodfellow criteria to assess whether the testator truly understood their assets and the claims of their potential beneficiaries.
Another common pitfall in hospital-signed Wills is the allegation of undue influence, where a beneficiary is accused of pressuring a vulnerable patient into changing their estate plan. In a hospice environment, the testator is often dependent on family members for daily care, which can create a perception of coercion. To counter this, the signing ceremony should be handled with extreme care; any person who stands to benefit from the Will should be asked to leave the room while the document is being reviewed and signed. This separation demonstrates that the testator’s decisions were made independently and helps prevent the presumption of undue influence that can arise when a primary caregiver is also the primary beneficiary.
Adherence to strict formal requirements is equally vital, as technical errors can provide an easy opening for a Will to be set aside. Under Alberta law, a formal Will must be signed in the presence of two adult witnesses who are not beneficiaries or the spouses of beneficiaries. In a hospital, there may be a temptation to ask a nurse or staff member to witness, but many healthcare facilities have internal policies preventing employees from doing so. Having a lawyer attending to such matters, including bringing in their own team member to take care of properly witnessing and attending to the other technical nuances that confirm the legal validity of the will is particularly important for Wills completed in a hospital or a hospice environment.
Finally, where the lawyer creates a memo of execution or a detailed log of the signing event, this can provide a further strong layer of protection for an Alberta Will. By documenting that the testator properly reviewed the Will and confirmed it reflected their true wishes, this creates a trail of evidence that is difficult for challengers to overcome. Taking these extra steps ensures that the testator's final wishes are respected and that their loved ones are spared the emotional and financial toll of a lengthy estate dispute.
For more information about attending to legal matters at the hospital, hospice or seniors home, and the associated costs involved as a result of the added time that must be expended in furtherance thereof, whether its Calgary’s Foothills Medical Centre, Peter Lougheed Centre, Rockyview General Hospital, South Health Campus, Tom Baker Cancer Centre, Cochrane Community Health Centre, Airdrie Community Health Centre or other medical facility, hospice or seniors home in metropolitan Calgary, Alberta, contact our law firm today at 403-400-4092 or via email at Chris@NeufeldLegal.com to schedule a confidential initial consultation.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This website is designed for general informational purposes. The site is not designed to answer specific questions about your individual situation or entitlement. Do not rely upon the information provided on this website as legal advice in respect of your individual situation nor use it as substitute for individual legal advice. If you want specific legal advice, you need to engage a lawyer under established legal engagement procedures that have been specifically agreed to by that lawyer.
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