Is solicitor-client privilege displaced on public policy grounds under the wills exception?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Armstrong v Kotanko, 2019 BCSC 1519 (CanLII):

The wills exception provides that solicitor-client privilege is displaced on public policy grounds in three possible circumstances: i) to determine whether the testator was subject to undue influence in the making of her will; ii) to determine a testator’s true intentions; or iii) to determine whether the testator possessed testamentary capacity at the execution of her will: Geffen v. Goodman Estate, 1991 CanLII 69 (SCC), [1991] 2 S.C.R. 353.

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