The role of a lawyer in inheritance cases is sometimes to help verify that the will submitted in the course of inheritance proceedings is valid. This is important because the will is crucial to the rules of inheritance.

According to Article 945 of the Civil Code, a will is invalid if it was made:

in a state that precludes conscious or free decision-making and expression of will,
under the influence of a threat.
Courts of inheritance emphasize in their judgments the so-called will to testify, i.e. the will and consciousness to perform a legal act in the event of death, such as writing a will. The absence of the will to testify makes the will not exist at all. The testator-testator must include in his consciousness the fact of regulating the fate of his property for the time after his death.

The testator-testator’s drawing up of a will only to free himself from the intrusive requests of some person is, as a rule, judged to be an action without the will to testify. Thus, the act performed – the written will – will not be valid.

The testator-testator’s statement of intent is conscious if there was no disturbance of consciousness at the time of making the will, and the testator clearly and distinctly realizes that he is making a will with a certain content. The statement is free if the testator is not guided by intellectual motives or emotional motives of a morbid nature, is not under the dominant influence of anyone’s suggestion and retains an inner sense of freedom of action.

Therefore, if the will was written under duress, it should be considered invalid, and the person – who forced the testator to write such a will – will be excludable from the inheritance by declaring him unworthy of inheritance (Article 928 of the Civil Code).

The law firm KJS Legal represents clients in inheritance matters, starting with the proceedings for the declaration of inheritance, ending with the division of the inheritance and reporting the acquisition to the Tax Office. Given the complexity of inheritance cases, and especially when another participant is acting in the case with a lawyer, it is worth considering assistance from a professional.

We encourage you to contact directly our laywers specialized in inheritance cases:

Inheritance Lawyer Joanna Susło

KJS Legal Law Firm in Wrocław

https://inheritanceinpoland.com

Tel. 668-841-990

[email protected]

Advocate – Wrocław – KJS Legal – Lawyer