Welcome to the ShTexaslawyer.com Blog

This is a true story. It is an example of the tiny details that can go wrong when a person does their will without assistance by a competent lawyer.

An adult brother died, leaving a will. The problem was that the brother apparently drafted the will himself. The content of the will was okay, it even included a self-proving affidavit. However, the signing of the will was messed up by a single, simple mistake. The notary did not stamp the self-proving affidavit.

Without the notary stamp the witnesses’ signatures to the self-proving affidavit were invalid. That meant finding and bringing the witnesses to court. The will had been executed twenty years ago and the witnesses could not be found. To prove the will up would therefore require testimony as to the validity of the deceased brother's signature. Unfortunately, not all the heirs were competent, and guardians had not been appointed. If the will were not validated, the estate would pass under the intestate rules for Texas, which meant the surviving mother would receive everything (he had no children or wife).

Add to this complication that there were Medicaid reimbursement issues for the deceased as well as for his surviving mother.

This entire mess could have been avoided if a lawyer had reviewed everything and noticed the notary failed to use their official stamp.