Digital Wills Concept Tested in Australia
May 5, 2004
From an article by Angus Kidman, ZDNet Australia
People have been known to hide their wills in some pretty unusual locations,
but concealing one in digital form inside a watch may take some beating.
Australian technology lawyer and open source advocate Jeremy Malcolm is testing
the validity of digital wills in Australia by placing his last will and testament,
complete with digital signatures from himself and two witnesses, on a DUGI watch
which includes a 128MB USB memory key.
While government agencies have made increasing efforts to promote digital signatures
as a valid means of transacting business, those efforts haven't yet extended to
divvying up your worldly goods amongst the squabbling relatives. "There is no explicit
recognition of digital signatures as a way of signing your will," Malcolm told ZDNet
Australia.
So will the will be valid? "It relies on section 34 of the Western Australian
Wills Act -- other states have similar provisions -- which says: 'A document purporting
to embody the testamentary intentions of a deceased person is a will of that person,
notwithstanding that it has not been executed in accordance with section 8, if the
Supreme Court is satisfied that the deceased intended the document to constitute
his will'," explains Malcolm. "Basically, it means that you can get by with a will
that isn't executed properly if you can prove that you did intend it as your will."
Tim Hewson, CEO of PartingWishes Inc welcomed this move and explained "it is
only a matter of time before digital signatures becomes the officially recognized
means of signing one's last will and testament. It is ridiculous that the only accepted
practice in law is to rely on a signature, and to hope that the document is stored
in a safe place that people will not find while a person is alive, but find instantly
once a person dies. Digital signatures ensure that the testator really is the person
'signing', instead of an easily forged scribble of a name, and equally importantly
it ensures that the document can be held securely in an electronic format until
the moment it is needed."
PartingWishes.com and it's subsidiaries at
LegalWills.ca,
LegalWills.co.uk and
USLegalWills.com will
be ready to implement a digital signature strategy as soon as the legislation is
officially recognized in Canada, the US and the UK.
Create your Will, Power of Attorney and Living Will online at
https://www.legalwills.ca/.
For More Information Contact:
LegalWills.ca
Email:
[email protected]
Internet:
https://www.legalwills.ca/