Previous Post: Women in Law Summit: February 12, 2020
Click here or on top Blog logo to return to Blog front page.
Menu
45 St. Clair Ave. West, Suite 600
Toronto, Ontario, M4V 1K9
Tel: (416) 925-7400 Fax: (416) 925-7464
Will, Estate, Trust Disputes
Advising Fiduciaries
Dependant Support Claims
Passing of Fiduciary Accounts
End-of-Life & Treatment Decisions
© 2021 WEL Partners, practicing as WEL Professional Corporation. All rights reserved.
WEL Partners is committed to providing accessible customer service. If you require communication supports, please contact us by email at admin@welpartners.com or by telephone at 416-355-3253 or 416-925-7400.
Please note: Our Firm does not accept retainers via e-mail; and sending an e-mail to our Firm does not constitute a retainer. You will not be considered a client of the Firm unless and until we have agreed to act for you according to our usual procedures for accepting clients which includes a signed written retainer agreement. Do not include any confidential information in your e-mail. Any confidential information will be deleted immediately by our Firm.
Written by: Michael Marra
Posted on: March 2, 2020
Categories: Commentary
The importance of the letter of engagement provided by counsel to an expert retained to assess testamentary capacity retroactively cannot be overstated.
In a decision following a five day will challenge trial (Leonard v. Zychowicz, 2020 ONSC 662), Justice Sweeny found that the summary of facts provided to the expert by engaging counsel “was acknowledged to be created with advocacy in mind” and that “the summary of facts could be seen to taint the evidence” of the expert.
This in part led to the Court’s preference of the evidence of the other party’s expert and a dismissal of the will challenge.