March 2022

Courts greatly appreciate when parties settle their disputes by agreement.  Settlements alleviate the courts of the burden of overwhelming caseloads, and further the public policy of encouraging parties to order their affairs by contract rather than relying on statute and common law.  As the Surrogate’s Court recently reiterated in Matter of Eckert, “stipulations of

From April 7, 2020 to June 25, 2021, New York Executive Order 202.14 authorized “the remote execution of wills” in New York State. Recently, in Matter of Holmgren, Queens County Surrogate Peter J. Kelly wrote a decision addressing the information that a self-proving affidavit must contain in order to prove the validity of a remotely executed will. Robert Harper writes about the decision in our latest post.
Continue Reading SURROGATE’S COURT PROVIDES GUIDANCE ON PROVING THE VALIDITY OF A REMOTELY WITNESSED WILL