What if you can't find the lawyer who drafted the will?

I received a note last week from a reader whose mother had passed away. He has an unsigned copy of her will, but said he can't find the original will because he can't find the lawyer who drew it up in 1987.

I assume that he has already searched the house thoroughly, and has tried local directories and google to locate the lawyer.  However, chances are good that in the last 25 years the lawyer has retired or possibly even passed away.

This is one of many, many reasons not to rely on a will that is 25 years old, but I'll leave that topic for another day. A lot of you are finding out every day that it's pretty darn hard to find a will this old. I have a couple of suggestions for you.

First of all, ask at the bank whether the deceased person had a safe deposit box. This is a very popular place to hold original wills. Note that if they do have the original will, they won't release it to anyone but the executor named in the will.

If the lawyer who drew the will worked at a firm (as opposed to working solo), call the firm and ask about the will. Normally when a lawyer retires or passes away, the firm will take possession of files and other items such as wills.

If the lawyer worked solo or if the firm can't help, call the Law Society (not the Canadian Bar Association) for the province where the deceased lived. Ask if there is any information about whether the lawyer has retired, and if so, whether anyone was appointed to look after his or her files.

Even if he finds the original will, the problems aren't over. If the will is being probated, there has to be an affidavit or proof of will (the form varies between provinces) attached to it to give evidence of proper following of the formalities of signing the will. The odds are against that document being attached to the will. It's common practice today to attach the document at the time the will was made, but that wasn't the case 25 years ago.

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www.pbla.ca/volunteer or call 403-541-4803 for more information.

Volunteer lawyers are being sought to help the Slave Lake community affected by the recent forest fire.

It is anticipated that information and advice will need to be provided in the following areas of law: insurance, tenancy, debt/credit, employment and family law. Legal assistance may be provided by telephone or videoconferencing. Please do not let distance stop you from volunteering.

Please consider volunteering for this worthwhile initiative through the Volunteer Lawyer Services program operated by Pro Bono Law Alberta. The support of the Alberta legal community is needed to help these individuals affected by the disaster.

The Law Society of Alberta is supporting a collaboration between several legal organizations including Pro Bono Law Alberta, Legal Aid Alberta and the Canadian Bar Association – Alberta Branch to assist the individuals of Slave Lake.

To assist, download the lawyer enrollment form at

Volunteer Lawyers Sought to Assist Slave Lake Community

What happens to wills held in a lawyer's office when that lawyer retires?

This question was asked by one of the readers of this blog, and I'd thought it would be of interest to everyone. When it comes time to look for someone's original Will so that it can be submitted for probate, the lawyer's office is one of the places executors will search.

When a lawyer is winding down to retirement, and is holding original Wills for clients, he or she may write to the clients to ask whether they would like to retreive their Wills. Unfortunately, clients don't always think to notify the lawyer's office when they move, so there are always plenty of Wills for which the owners can't immediately be found.

If a lawyer who has retired was working within a large law firm, any original Wills drafted by that lawyer may well continue to be stored at the firm after the lawyer's retirement. The care and management of the files would have been transferred to another partner in the firm. The contents of safekeeping vaults at law firms are recorded on a database so that if an executor calls looking for a Will, it should be able to determine quickly whether it is there.

If a lawyer was working on his or her own, or within a very small firm, there might not have been another partner available to take on this responsibility. Rest assured that the lawyer did not destroy the Wills. His or her practice may have been taken over by someone outside the firm, or by the Law Society. Your best bet would be to contact the provincial or territorial Law Society to see whether they can direct you. They keep track of which lawyers are actively practicing and would have a record of a lawyer's files being transferred to another lawyer on retirement.

When a lawyer leaves a firm abruptly with no planning in place, such as when he or she has a fatal heart attack or is disbarred, the Law Society sends in a practice custodian to take over the lawyer's practice. Again, they would have records of this that might be able to help you.