Anneta Sguigna, an 86-year-old immigrant to Canada, spoke very little English. She hired an Italian-speaking lawyer and told him to make a Will giving all her assets to her son Fred. The Will was signed, but no one translated it for Anneta before execution. The court accepted that the Will was drafted in accordance with her instructions. Arguably, since Fred was the only surviving son, the Will made logical sense. The court accepted that Anneta knew and approved of the main provision of the Will: that all her money was to go to her son Fred.

Seventy nine year old Bruce Bennett was on his deathbed and Mark Frederick was the lawyer called to the hospital to prepare a new will. Bennett wanted to leave money to Peter Hall. Bennett was quite lucid when conscious and capable of giving simple directions, but he could not deal with issues like his net assets, debts or the exact value of his property or bank accounts. During the interview with the lawyer, Bennett could only stay awake for a few minutes at a time. He could not remember the full extent of his estate and was not alert enough to review or sign the will. The lawyer did not believe Bennett had the capacity to make a will and accordingly never agreed to open up a file and would not take a retainer. That night Bennett died and Peter Hall received no money from the estate. He sued the lawyer.

Have you ever wanted to disinherit your spouse? In Makan v. McCawley [1998] O.J. No. 1206 a Mother had enough of her husband. She called her lawyer and instructed him to make sure that all her assets would be inherited only by her children and grandchildren. Mother and her husband owned certain property together as Joint-Tenants. In this type of ownership the one who lives longer automatically becomes the owner of the whole of the property. For the testator's children and grandchildren to inherit this property, the lawyer had to change the type of ownership to Tenants in Common so that each spouse's interest could be left to anyone the testator wishes in his or her Will. Since the estranged Husband was the executor and sole beneficiary under the old Will, the Lawyer had to draft a new Will which excluded the spouse and named the new beneficiaries.