Technology Adrift: In Search of a Role for Electronic Wills

Abstract

This Article addresses the law and public policy of electronic wills. The Article analyzes state statutes that either apply explicitly, or might apply implicitly, to wills of this type and concludes that judicial approval of electronic wills is already within the realm of possibility even in the many states that do not expressly allow them. The Article also examines the case law to date on this issue, both in the United States and in foreign jurisdictions, including several cases that have not previously been noted by American commentators. The Article then addresses the merits and demerits of electronic wills and presents the results of the first large-scale empirical study of popular attitudes toward these wills. In light of this analysis, the Article proposes a new approach: to bar electronic wills in general, but to permit them for estate plans made under emergency conditions.