I’m the administrator of an estate. Lucky me! So I went and had the will admitted to probate. The clerk and I was chatting and she told me about an entertaining barely-legal scam going on in the poorer section of Middlesex County.
Nearby the clerk’s satellite office, a lawyer has a sign offering a $25 simple will. She didn’t go into details as to what constituted simple. But the scam was that wills in nj can be written with what is called a “self-affirming affidavit”.
Basically the lawyer and witness all state under oath at the time the will is made that these are their signatures and that of the person making the will. It’s not required to be a valid will. The catch is that if it’s not there than after the person dies, the witnesses have to affirm that it is their signature on the will.
Back to our 25$ will lawyer. He writes the will for $25 but doesn’t make it “self affirming”. The when the poor family tried to probate the will, for which no lawyer is needed, especially on small estates, with simple wills, they need his affidavit affirming his signature. They gotta have it.
You can guess what happens now … … right.
Yup, that signature costs them $350!
So much for a cheap will!
HE must be politically connected, because if he wasn’t, he’d be disbarred.
Makes me wish I went to law school so that when I retire I could go “compete” with him. I do wills for $25 just to meet people. Oh well! Arghh!!
Reinke Faces Life 