Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Texas
Witness to a Will
I work in an inpatient hospice facility and almost 2 years ago I signed as a witness on a patient's will. (I now refuse to be a witness to any legal documents for patients) A few days ago I received an email from a supervisor stating that I had to go to court on Monday regarding this Will. As you can imagine a hospice has a high ''patient turnover.'' Since the time I signed the will I have seen over several hundred patients. I have no recollection of the person this case is regarding, I have no memory of his/her mental status or the location/time/date this occured or anybody else who was present at the time. All I can say is yes, if I signed the will then I watched the patient sign the will. My question is do I have any choice in my involvement with the proceedings? Understandably I do not want to have to spend all day in court to talk about something I have no recollection of on my one day off. Is there any way I can get out of doing this? Can the attorney take a written deposition or something? This is a really huge hassle for me especially considering that I have no real input for this trial.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Witness to a Will
Why is your supervisor telling you to go to court? If you were a witness to a Will you can be subpoenaed to appear and give testimony, even if it is just "Yes that is my signature and I don't remember any details." I would expect the attorney for one side or the other to have contacted you personally. You need more details on why your supervisor thinks you need to go, but if there is a subpoena you need to go or risk being arrested.
Re: Witness to a Will
witnesses are generally required to be in court "live" but just tell the truth..you probably knew the patient was competent or you would not have witnessed the will...
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