In Lipiec v. Lipiec, 2021 ONSC 6292 (CanLII) the court ordered on September 22, 2021, that the original will be produced by the deceased’s second wife to the son of the deceased.
In Szabo Estate v. Adelson, 2007 CanLII 4588 (ON SC) the former solicitor for an estate was allowed to assert a solicitor’s lien over the original of a deceased’s will for payment of legal fees.
In Polten & Associates v Resch, 2015 ONSC 3930 (CanLII) the court ruled on the claim for a solicitor’s lien after the original will had been released, and found against the claim by the lawyer as follows:
“It is the position of Mr. Polten that his law firm has a solicitor’s lien over the Estate assets, “including those assets which appear to have been deliberately excluded from Resch’s calculation of the undistributed Estate proceeds.” And further that, the Polten law firm “did not withhold the Will through the exertion of a solicitor’s lien” and it should now be paid its outstanding fees “for reasons including the lien it could have then claimed, and has now in fact claimed as part of the process leading to this motion….” .
Mr. Justice J.B. Shaughnessy ruled, “I reject Mr. Polten’s argument that he has a solicitor’s lien and that this constitutes a financial interest in the estate.”
In summary, it appears that a lawyer can assert a solicitor’s lien on an original will for unpaid legal fees and can do so by retaining possession of the original will until the matter is dealt with by the court or the claim is otherwise resolved.
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