Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Louisiana

Need local counsel to answer re: witnesses, but ...

1) Each state has their own laws which govern the signing and witnessing of wills. I'm surprised to hearthat there must be 5 witnesses since the most Ihave ever heard required to date has been 3, but youmight be right. If that's the law, the reputation ofthe attorney should play no part and the will should beignored as if it didn't exist. Rules on insufficientwitnesses are pretty stringent. You would use as a guidethe law of the state where he resided and signed (if theyare the same) and then YOUR state (if different) would mostlikely honor the rules of the other state and consider thewill valid or not valid accordingly.

2. Deeds may freely be transferred without 'consideration' (that is, without money changing hands). It could have been a gift andthat is perfectly legal. Undoing the transfer is very difficult(read unlikely), but you might be able to waste some time and moneypursuing a legal theory of oral trust, if your state's laws recognizeoral trusts (mine does, but I think it's rare -- and it rarely winsa case like this). There may be other angles, depending upon what'sin that 'counter' letter you mention. See a local lawyer.