THE LAW OF THE LAND. IV. LAWYERS AND DECEDENTS' ESTATES. By Wm. Arch. McClean. IT is said, men die that lawyers may live. The saving clause about this saying is the " it is said; " for it is altogether proba ble some one has said it who does not know anything about the subject. The " it is said " and " they say " are twins of no caste, born of anonymous parents. It should rather be said, men die because they cannot help it, and lawyers cannot labor gratuitously in unravelling the knots and snarls of dead men's estates. There is a popular prejudice or predilec tion to connect lawyers with dead men's estates, with an insinuating significance. The dear public, perhaps unconsciously, thus wrongs the legal profession. To give the dear fossil an opportunity to undeceive itself would be charitable. Observations reveal that one half of those who die possessed of an estate leave wills; the other half die intestate. Of those who die testate, by far the greater number either write their own wills or have some friend or confidant write it, regardless of form, law, authorities, or legal effect of the words used. Many mortals are sensitive about this last right, or rite, and make it a matter of secrecy, — leading to its preparation by the maker or a confidant. In country districts a great host of the wills are prepared by justices of the peace, who follow examples given in the form-books; and where the forms fail, a deep sea enticingly yawns. An idea may be gained of the sources from which wills spring, by the interesting fact discovered from an examination of the pro bate records of an agricultural county. The one hundred last wills offered for probate were examined. Nineteen were found drafted by attorneys-at-law. The greater number of
the remaining eighty-one were drafted by justices of the peace or ex-justices, a few by the testators themselves, the attending phy sician, and even the pastor. When the sources are considered from which wills 'emanate, it is hardly a matter of wonder that there is scarcely a will but needs the construction of a legal mind, — more frequently that of the bar, yet quite often of the bench. The wonder is increased by the fact that some of the most difficult wills to be interpreted by courts have been those carefully prepared by attorneys. In addition, no man can write his will, or any woman have hers, so as to please each and every relative. A displeased one may be a willing contestant. An estate is a tempta tion to heirs who have been slighted by preferences, or by charitable bequests or de vises away from them. Many wills being prepared and executed at the eleventh hour, when the makers thereof are sick or aged, the doors are open to questions of suscepti bility, importunities, imposition, fraud, and undue influence. All these considerations are matters for litigation by heirs who are ready and anxious to have them tested. In spite of these facts, it still remains true that the decedent's estate that is in volved in expensive litigation is the exceptional estate, — the one or two in the hundred, of the hundreds of thousands an nually settled by the legal profession of the country. Observations would indicate that the average percentage of litigated dead men's estates does not exceed two per cent in many sections, barely five in any. What we mean by a litigated dece dent estate is one in which the administra tive officers, the creditors, and the heirs are
