Everyone loves bloopers--and the higher they are, the harder they fall.

I shouldn’t put myself on a pedestal but surely a lawyer wouldn’t make dumb mistakes when applying for an estate grant, right?

Some folks harbour the misconception lawyers know how to do all things legal. Law school doesn’t teach us how to practice law. We learn as we go. My 25 years of litigation experience didn’t prepare me for applying for estate grants.

I did have a leg up, though. My first estate came with an extra challenge because it required a court application. My years of litigation and experience making court applications came in handy.

The challenge was an invalid will. The deceased hand-wrote the following on a piece of paper (I have changed the names): “I, John Smith, being of sound mind, give all my belongings to Jane Doe”. The “will” wasn’t properly witnessed.

Fortunately, British Columbia law allows the court to “cure” an invalid will if the court finds the document contains the will-maker’s testamentary intentions. Making that application to the court was right up my alley. Easy peasy!

But there were all sorts of deficiencies with the materials I submitted for the estate grant, most of which could not have been........

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