EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Statutory Rules 1984 No. 405
Issued by the authority of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory
Amendments of the Rules of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory
These amendments remove the present requirement that every application for probate is to be accompanied by an affidavit of attesting witness and require instead that every application for a grant must be accompanied by an affidavit setting forth the applicant’s means of identifying the will and that the applicant and the person before whom that affidavit is sworn must sign the margin of the will.
An affidavit of attesting witness or other evidence of due execution will be required:-
(a) if the will is not sufficiently attested;
(b) the will appears to have been signed by a blind or illiterate testator;
(c) the will appears to have been signed by another person by direction of the testator;
(d) there is doubt as to the testator’s knowledge and approval of the contents of the will;
(e) the will is undated or there is doubt as to the date of the execution; or
(f) there are unattested interlineations, alterations, obliterations or erasures in the will.
If the Court considers there is doubt as to the due execution of the will or that any of the circumstances surrounding its execution require explanation, further evidence may be required.