The material was collected from members of the society's Probate Section. Members submitted tales of shoddy wills that leave the deceased's estates wholly or partially intestate, or which include poor tax planning. One submission described a will-writing company being wound up and disappearing with all their clients' will documents. Some firms advertised low-cost wills but later presented a much larger bill, typically padded by storage fees.

Law Society president Robert Heslett warned of a "widespread trend" of "nightmare wills by will writers, many of which are not worth the paper they are written on." He noted that some will writers have no indemnity insurance, so the client has no redress for an improper or invalid will.

The society wants will-writing to be restricted to qualified law professionals. Earlier this month it welcomed a report by Lord Hunt of Wirral recommending that the next Legal Services Bill should bring will-writing into the regulatory net.

The report outlining the society's case study research is due to be released shortly.

Sources: Law Society, Law Gazette