Three side-set staples can secure a will, court rules

Austria’s Supreme Court has ruled that three staples placed along the side can securely join two pages of a will, ORF reports. A single staple is not enough, and lawyer Nikola Leitner-Bommer recommends having older wills checked.

The ruling concerns wills that are not handwritten by the person making them, such as documents typed on a computer or written by someone else. When a will has several pages, they must be firmly connected so they cannot be separated without causing damage. The connection must be made when the will is drawn up; stapling a potentially defective document together later is not sufficient.

Leitner-Bommer says her firm staples pages three times, then tapes and stamps them. The stamp straddles the tape and paper, making it easier to see if the connection has been disturbed. She recommends reviewing a will about every five years, both to check its formal validity and to ensure its contents still reflect the person’s circumstances. Children may have grown up, a marriage may have ended or a property named in the will may have been sold.

A will written entirely by hand and signed at the end does not require witnesses. A computer-written document does not become a handwritten will simply because its author signs it; additional formal requirements apply.

The article also recalls a Vorarlberg will scandal that came to light in 2009, when wills had been manipulated for years and heirs deprived of their assets. Ten people were convicted. The article notes that a formal error alone can also make a will invalid.