Project No. 76(I)

Commenced: 1979
Completed: 1985

At the time of the reference the Wills Act 1970 (WA) provided that a will was not valid unless certain formalities were met. Although the requirements were not unduly onerous, a testator could fail to comply due to oversight or misreading the technical requirements. Judges had expressed regret that on such occasions they were forced to make the entire will invalid. Various academic commentators and law reform agencies had urged that the courts be given power to validate wills that had substantially complied with the formalities if they could be certain that the document represented the intention of the testator.