#might as well just submit the draft notes as a personal statement at this point

[navree]

saying that you want an "in depth personal statement" while also making the limit 750-1000 words is a fucking oxymoron

[sevenfactorial]

Info about applying to PhD programs in pure math

This is... basically what it sounds like. I’m sure a lot of this is applicable to other PhD applications but I’m only very familiar with pure math. This is aimed at current seniors about to apply, but there is a section about prepping for applications in advance.

The highlights:

Recommendation letters are the most important thing. Most schools ask for 3ish. Try to get people who know you well, not just a student in the class. Someone you've conducted research with and one from a different institution are ideal if possible

Ask for rec letters at least a month before the due date is a good rule of thumb.

Research experience is probably the second most important.

Get the opinion of multiple professors who know you in order to build a list of potential schools. Then widdle it down to your will-actually-apply list (probably 8-14 ish). 

My opinion but please apply to at least 3-4 safety/match schools. Even when you're fully qualified, acceptance rates are simply low enough that a bit of bad luck means getting rejected or waitlisted from a few of them.

Most pure math due dates are in early-mid Dec but a few schools are in Nov and some are as late as mid-Jan. 

Schools will generally have their own graduate application portals. Some are better organized than others. Some require you to submit all your material before you can send a request for submitting rec letters so plan accordingly.

Acceptance letters will very slowly start going out in mid-Feb but the vast majority of programs won't send out anything until like, March and not be done until later than that. Accordingly, wait until at least mid-March to begin freaking out if you haven't been accepted anywhere.

You should 100% be expecting a tuition waiver and stipend from a program if you're applying for a PhD.

The rest of the posts is.... ridiculously long so I’m putting it under a cut. I mention things to do in advance to help you decide if grad school is right for you and things that make your application look good, give a full time line of the process, a list of things applications commonly ask for, and some miscellaneous notes. (The points above are repeated in more detail).

In addition, some links to other resources math students may appreciate:

an old post of mine about grad school apps (overlaps a lot and features some ranting from during the application process)

about REUs including my addition specifically about math ones

summer programs for undergrads that aren’t REUs by @counter-example and @jungleuniversity

Tips for prospective grad student visits 

Also about prospective grad student visits by @thisurlhasbeenleftasanexercise

Also for context, I went to a large state school in the US for undergrad. I started as a CS major and added on math as a secondary major after my first year and dropped CS during third year. I’m primarily interested in discrete and algebra, though I have a significant topology background from undergrad too. I got most of my advice from people around the department, as I became pretty involved during my third year. Now, I’m a first year grad student at another large state school in the US, generally considered pretty decent though not a “top math program” at all. Not that much else has happened so far.

Things in advance (aka things to help you decide if grad school is for you and things that look good on an application)

Take the standard classes. For pure math, this is at least one semester of linear alg, abstract alg, and analysis each. Linear and analysis are also good for applied math but I'm not sure what else if anything is considered standard.

Take some grad classes if you have the option. Most people are not ready for this until senior year, but some do manage as juniors. Talk to people who know you well and the prof teaching the class before you do this though.

Try to get involved with research whether this is through independent studies at your home institution, REUs, internships, or other stuff.

Be involved in your department. This helps with getting you more personalized advice for applying.

The rough suggested timeline (assuming junior yr is your second to last year and senior is your last of undergrad)

Junior April: Take the math subject GRE so you can take it again in Sep or Oct if desired (perhaps not applicable atm). The general can be taken kinda whenever; I suggest fall of senior year.

Junior April/May: Start talking to professors/post docs/mentors/etc. about programs you may be interested in. Write/type it down. Don't worry if it gets long, you will shorten again later.

Summer: Do some research if possible; an REU or research at your institution (if an REU, also get your mentor's opinion on potential schools towards the end as well)

Senior Sep: Start whittling down your list. 8-14 seems to be the "normal" range of schools to apply to but some people panic and do more. Remember that asking for waivers is completely acceptable but applying is still just generally expensive (I spent around $800 for 10 schools)

Senior Sep: Apply for the NSF GRFP. You can apply as an undergrad senior and once during your first or second year of grad school if you didn't already get it. The due date is in mid-late OC but ideally you'll have a draft of your essays and ask for rec letters by the end of Sep, if not earlier.

Senior early Nov: Ask for rec letters if you haven't already. The rule of thumb is a month before the due date. Provide them a list of schools you want to apply to including due date and where/how to submit as soon as possible (as well as anything else they request of course; many ask for a resume and a draft of your personal statement).

Senior Dec-Jan: Submit stuff! Pure math programs typically have deadlines in Dec or early Jan. I think the big days are Dec 10th, Dec 15th, and Jan 15th but some are earlier or later. (applied math masters tend to be earlier I think; in Nov). I suggest putting them all into a list or calendar. In addition, some schools won't let letter writers submit until all of your stuff is submitted so start applications early, even if you don't finish them immediately.

Senior Feb: Programs will slowly start sending out offers in early Feb and pick up in mid Feb, but don't fret until AT LEAST the beginning of March! Grad programs are just way too slow at getting out offers for it to be worth worrying until then (and even then, it's definitely not time to panic but mathematicians are frequently anxious people so I get it). Waitlists are slower to come out; usually starting in early March. Also note, there are many programs that don't actually send out replies to everyone unfortunately.

Senior late Feb-early April: prospective student days! They might be online in 2021 unfortunately but try to attend whatever form they're in if you can (only one of my visits during spring 2020 was online since the others happen to be very early and safely beat covid in the US). Be warned, it's very possible to get offers of admissions and to visit very last minute. I do not have advice for how to make that less stressful.

Senior April 15th: Common reply deadline. If you got your offer in the first round or two, this is probably your deadline to accept. In addition, this means more offers will likely come out shortly after once more people have declined. 

Senior summer: graduate. Send a completed, official transcript to your new institution. Check your new email account for stuff you're suppose to do. Some programs have some sort of program during the summer for in-coming students. Most places have graduate student training of some sort for a week or two before semester starts. 

Some common things to be asked for in applications

Not actually a thing asked for but many graduate schools have their own portal for which you will have to make an account to submit an application. A few use a common system that kinda sort shares a database of accounts? Some are fine and some massively suck.

Personal Statement/Statement of Purpose: Occasionally called something else and once in a while actually separate things; will usually have a prompt of wildly differing specificity. Sometimes, the prompts come from the department itself and sometimes from the university's graduate school. I suggest having one or two "base" essays then tweaking them for each school. Sometimes a word/page limit is specified but if it's not, around 2 pages/1000 words is pretty reasonable.

Transcript. Some accept unofficial but some require official but generally not an unsealed one. I ordered myself one official transcript and sent it to multiple schools instead of paying for them to be sent to each school during the application process.

Resume or CV: Most ask for either a CV or is fine with either, in which case I give them my CV. I sent more or less the same one everywhere.

Some other notes

Yes, ask for application waivers. Just be polite about it.

Your goals for your essays are primarily to show that you're interested in math and math research and are capable of like…. writing things that make sense

Do not start out an essay with either "I loved math since I was little" or "I actually didn't like math when I was young" or any variations of those. (I had one essay that started with a mildly humourous anecdote from undergrad combinatorics and another that talked about how my undergrad department has greatly affected me).

You should 100% expect to get a tuition waiver and living stipend as part of a TA fellowship (or more rarely, an research fellowship) as part of your offer of acceptance for a math PhD program (pure or applied). Health insurance is also frequently part of the package. This is not true of masters programs unfortunately.

How schools do waitlists depend wildly though most don't have super long ones like prestigious undergrads do. If you're still interested in a place you're waitlisted at, follow their instructions to confirm your placement on the waitlist then wait until April before following up again, expressing your continued interest and asking for an update. You might even want to wait until around the common deadline, April 15th. The number of people who declined before April is just really really low so nothing really happens until then.

[english-ext-2]

Critique of the Creative Process

Please note exact requirements will vary across schools, and all analysis here is based on the sample assessment/support material from the NESA website.

The Critique of the Creative Process, newcomer assessment #2, is a sleeker, condensed version of the Reflection on Draft in Progress (see my post on that here). NESA suggests it be due in Term 2, with a 30% weighting - so not as heavy as the literature review but still a hefty part of your internal mark. It clocks in at a maximum of 1000 words, which isn’t a lot.

What am I meant to discuss?

The main idea is to reflect on how the revising and editing stages have contributed to your development as a composer, as well as the quality of your major work. To break it down, this consists of:

How revising and editing has contributed to your development as a composer

How revising and editing has contributed to the quality of your MW

Evaluating the efficacy of the processes of revision and editing you employed

How your understanding of your form has evolved and why

Reflecting on and justifying your creative choices

How revising and editing has contributed to your development as a composer

This comes down to you and how you think you’ve grown or matured in the revising and editing stages. This could include any number of things, like: 

Becoming better at refining your research;

Becoming more discerning in your proofreading and editing skills;

Improving your ability to take on constructive criticism and feedback;

Letting your style mature;

Opening yourself up to experimentation;

Gaining appreciation for the creative process as a weird, marauding and itinerant beast. 

The list is endless and limited only by your reflective ability. If you’re hitting a brick wall (or even if you’re not), return to the composition process as laid out by NESA, and allow each dot point under the revising and editing stages to guide your reflection.    

How revising and editing has contributed to the quality of the MW

As you’ve probably heard me yell a thousand times over, specificity is your friend. Link your revisions to a concrete outcome, something that’s not just “I rewrote the introduction of my speech many times”. It’s more, “I changed the introduction of my speech to more succinctly set up my central image, which my peers and teachers found to vastly improve their understanding and engagement with it.” Basically, qualify your outcome - not “this decision made my MW better” but how it made your MW better.

Keep in mind that “quality” is a neutral term, and you may describe changes that impacted your MW negatively as well as positively. While it’s understandable that you’d prefer to focus on the good things, you won’t have reached this stage without some hiccups along the way. And that’s fine! That’s normal. It’s also normal to honestly reflect on what went wrong or didn’t go as expected, and how you (hopefully) overcame these obstacles to ultimately improve the quality of your MW.  

Evaluating the efficacy of your revision and editing

This ties in with the above two points -- describing and explaining the changes you’ve made in the revising and editing stages, and their impact on your major, necessitates making an evaluation of said changes. To say that changing the introduction of your speech improved your audience’s understanding of the central image is a positive evaluation of your revision.

You could also compare different approaches to revision and editing, and comment on how one was more successful than another in relation to the quality of your MW, e.g. line by line proofreading of your speech might not have been as effective in refining your language as presenting it before an audience.

How your skills and knowledge of your chosen form have evolved and why  

Skills meaning techniques and knowledge being, well, knowledge. You should be able to identify a skill or piece of knowledge and show how your understanding of it has changed from the beginning of the course to the present moment, e.g. “After extensive experimentation, I now understand how a non-linear narrative can be used to great effect in a short story”. Consider the following questions:

Did you learn something completely new, or add to your pre-existing knowledge?

Have your skills and knowledge deepened and/or widened?

Were there specific sources that helped to evolve your skills and knowledge?  

If yes, what prompted you to consult those sources?

It might be helpful to think of each evolution in skills and/or knowledge as levelling up. Your job is to then articulate the evolution at each stage and tell the reader why you levelled up - was it something spurred by a gap in your research, in response to feedback, inspired by something you watched, read or listened to? Again, a lot comes down to your personal experiences of the course and what you believe you’ve learned.

Reflecting on and justifying your creative choices

This is probably the part that most closely mirrors the old reflection on draft in progress, as it requires you to effectively draw from and quote your own major, and explain why you did a thing. The challenge here lies ironically in choosing your examples (your creative choices) wisely. It’s a bit pointless to pick a sentence like “she sat down” in an expository part of your short story and dedicate five sentences to explaining its significance. You should be thinking of bigger decisions or changes, or very deliberate creative choices, say, the construction of an extended metaphor, the decision to blend forms (as you would in a fictocritical essay), the use of images in a non-textual form, the use of a particular song or piece of music (or even silence) in your film, and so on.

You should already have a sense of the major decisions you made, and have the knowledge to discuss them in-depth. Remember to quote and describe discerningly; you only have 1000 words. 

(Btw I recommend reading exemplar reflection statements on the State Library website to help you.)

Major Work Journal

You are also required to submit your MW journal, which by this stage should include:

Extracts of revisions of the MW and the RS with reasons for changes

Examples of final edits

Reflection on how the editing process has contributed to the quality of the published MW

A reference list for the RS

These are all pretty self-explanatory. Just a quick note on the reference list though: the style of referencing doesn’t matter as much as the consistency. If you’ve chosen APA formatting, then keep all your references in APA; don’t start with APA, switch to Harvard, then go back to APA. 

In any case, the CCP still functions as a rough draft or prototype of your Reflection Statement, so the same rules apply: don’t leave it to the last minute, and make an effort to write something you can build on. 

[gontagokuhara]

“hey connor, what the hell is happening with jump?

+aka, for those of you looking for answers.

fair warning this is a very long story, and it isn't a very nice one. for the sake of not being a huge asshole, i'll refrain from mentioning the other party by name/url/ao3 handle/whatever, because i'd rather not send the dogs after this person like they were for me.

and to those of you who have been following me since mid-to-late august (around when this whole thing started) (and, coincidentally, when jump became the most popular fic in the dear evan hansen tag on ao3, but we'll ignore that little detail), you might know who the other person is in this whole situation. i know most of my friends do, and for my friends and otherwise please don't go after this person. don't reblog with their name or fic title or whatever, because the point of this post is to serve as an explanation for why jump is going down, not start a manhunt for this other person.

i digress.

around mid-august, i began receiving comments and a few asks regarding a chapter of jump (28, to be specific). in essence, they were saying that i had "ripped off" a certain plot point of a certain fic, which. to be honest i didn't think a whole lot of? because the messages i received didn't say anything about what i had ripped off, just that i had done it.

it came to a point where i messaged the author of this other fic and briefly explained the situation, and made my case. i got a response sometime the next day and it wasn't one i was hoping for.

which, of course, i've accepted that at this point - people think i did plagiarize. the author of the other work thinks that i did. i know that i didn't, but i need to acknowledge and accept that a lot of people think i did.

what i didn't accept was the "term" i was given - to put a note on the chapter in question crediting this author for the "original idea."

which, you know, was offensive to me - because jump had always been my idea. despite what was being said, i knew that i hadn't read the sections of the other fic that i was accused of stealing, before i had published my own chapter. so i couldn't have taken the idea, if that makes sense?

i didn't respond to the other author's message, and that was wrong of me. i know that that was shitty of me to not offer a response, and there isn't really an excuse for that? but it happened, and it was shitty, but.

for the most part, things quieted down for a bit when i posted chapter 29, and i rather naively assumed that things had permanently gone quiet. i'd made an incredibly long statement in the end notes of the chapter, and i said that if anyone wanted to say anything further they could feel free to pm me, because it was counterproductive to yell arguments at each other through my inbox. funnily enough, no one took that offer and messaged me, but i can't say i'm surprised. without the shield of anon, people tend to not disagree so violently.

after 30 got posted, however, things sort of exploded.

immediately people took it upon themselves to leave nasty comments and asks in my inbox, which hurt but at this point i had come to expect it from the whole situation.

sometime after that, the callout was posted.

which, of course, made me freak the fuck out.

what was worse was that i found it on accident; someone reblogged a post of mine with something nasty and i was confused so i checked their blog, and. well.

it had the title of my fic all over it, it was in the main tags, and i knew immediately when asks started piling up that none of them were going to be good. and they weren't. i haven't gotten death threats a whole lot, but that day was definitely a peak in me receiving them.

there was.....a lot in the callout, and it took me a good few hours to get myself to a state where i could read it without freaking out again.

this was early on in the post, where i was accused of shot for shot rewriting sections of a certain chapter of this other fic, when, again, i hadn't read it until chapter 28 was posted and chapter 30 was long since drafted and in the process of being written, but. (the bit of the sentence that is cut off reads "however, as the author of [fic], chapters 28 and 30 read like-")

note how no proof of this is provided, or anything beyond the chapter numbers.

this next bit is from the pm i received from them, and it's interesting in how it reflects the author's...i dont know how to describe it. i suppose arrogance is the best word i can find? for them to insinuate that their work is so well known enough that even if people haven't read it, they'd know about it.

(cut off sentence: “at the very least, the final chapters of [fic] are pretty-”)

the same sentiment is reflected here, in the callout.

the callout also points out that there's no indication of where i got the plot for jump, and that's because i made up the plot. the idea to kickstart the story i got from a prompt blog (here, if you're interested) and it states very explicitly in its terms of submission (here) that anyone submitting an idea for a prompt gives full permission to anyone to use it, credit unnecessary.

so that isn't exactly a 'gotcha!' point.

the last bits of the callout talk about me being rude to fans and making vague posts on tumblr, which. no proof provided so i, again, have no idea what they constitute as rude or vague.

it was.....a lot. and i had no idea what to do. i was scared, and i didn't know how to deal with having the fans of some 26 year old coming after me like that. i shut off anon, and i took a break of a day or so from tumblr, and that was pretty much that?

until two weeks ago, when i received this email from archive of our own:

so, things had obviously escalated. things had moved from calling me out publicly, to moving to get my work deleted. it messed me up pretty bad, and for a while i was freaking out.

after a day or so, a few of my close friends (one of which who has had prolonged access to both the jump writing document and the planning document) and i emailed ao3 with our appeals. i don't currently have copies of my friends' appeals, and all that is in mine was essentially what i've said publicly, with a few mentions of previous incidents. after a two week wait period as they reviewed my appeal, i received this email last night:

it strikes me how again, it's said that i shot for shot (or rather, replaced synonyms and the like) took this fic, but then again i'm not given specific instances, and then in the same paragraph it mentions that "whether you intentionally plagiarized or did it subconsciously after reading their fic, you are still responsible for the content." i don't understand how i could have taken scenes one by one and replaced synonyms, but also "subconsciously" plagiarize?

and, better yet, how can i plagiarize something i hadn't read until after the accused chapter was posted?

let me just say that i don't know for certain it was the author that made the complaint, but i would bet a whole lot on that possibility. even if it wasn't them who made the claim, they have to be notified because it involves their work. so.

and that's essentially where we're at now. jump is being deleted on november 10th, one way or another. and i am so, so angry.

i understand wanting to protect one's work. it's the reason i've maintained my innocence, and appealed to ao3. i want to protect my work from accusations i know aren't true.

but to have something i've worked so hard on for nearly seven months ripped from my hands? it's not fair. it's quite honestly bullshit.

this isn't meant to convince any of you one way or another of what happened, because you can all think for yourselves. whether you believe me or not, at this point it doesn't matter, because jump has already been sentenced to its fate.

but i know what i did and didn't do. i wouldn't still be fighting this if i wasn't sure of my innocence.

i'm angry. i'm going to be angry for a long time. this whole situation has made me fucking hate even looking at my writing anymore. what would possess someone to go so far as to get my work deleted, i don't really know.

as the author has stated, no one really "owns" fanfiction. so what gives them the right to take my work away from me? my accomplishments?

i hold no ill will towards the other author, but i hate this situation and i hate what they've done. i hate that there is someone in their mid twenties out there who has taken it upon themselves to take away a 17 year old's passion project.

am i bitter? yes. and i'm not apologetic for it. i didn't plagiarize anyone in regards to jump, plain and simple. no matter what anyone else says, i know the truth, and the people i care about know the truth, and i can't do a thing about anyone else, so it doesn't really matter.

a few friends have asked for me to make jump available by other means, and i'm considering it. because even though the hits and comments will be deleted, as its always been, jump has been for my own enjoyment. for me to tell a story i think needed to be told. and just because it's being cut short doesn't mean it still isn't worth telling.

if i do make it available elsewhere, i'll let people know. but this is where i leave you for now.

like i said in the beginning of this stupidly long post, please don't go off and attack this author. i'm angry, but taking it out on them will do nothing. it will only make things worse. jump is being deleted, and no amount of nastiness will change that. so we may as all just be nice.

if any of you have anymore questions, feel free to message me or send me an ask. anything general or non-specific i'll answer in asks, but if you have anything you'd like clarification on in regards to specifics, please message me privately.

and. um. i guess that's it?

thanks for reading. i’m sorry. i wish they hadn’t taken it this far.

[inbonobo]

#informthyself Why #ShoutingFireInACrowdedTheatre can never be an #argument against #FreeSpeech but it is proof that the proponent is uninformed. #education #edumacation #censorship

To me, this argument (abridged OxfordLearner version) is so obviously flawed that it doesn’t need a rebuttal. That free-speech is paramount is so self-evident that it’s difficult for me to understand how others are (or allow themselves to be) fooled by flawed arguments to the contrary. So when a friend brought it up recently, I suggested that she googles it, (since she did not want to hear me “mansplain” it), but apparently could not find counterarguments. 

I don’t want to see my friend suffer. Whenever we argue about something, she gets emotional and hyper and she seems afraid of being proven wrong. She would interrupt me before I even make an argument, sometimes after the first three words in a sentence, comes out with a (usually wrong) idea about what I’m trying to say, then proceeds to fight the strawman thus created ‘til death do us part. OTOH I cannot sit idly while violently absurd arguments are passed as axioms. Since I’m quite sure I’m not the only one seeing the problems with that argument, I could let others explain it to her.

Apart from the video above, here’s what else I could find.

Firstly, just to contextualize, both the US Supreme Court as well as its Canadian counterpart (perhaps the latter more so) have repeatedly ruled that there are limits to free speech. “Shouting fire in a crowded theater” is actually a quote from a unanimous decision of the USSC (”SCOTUS”).

Let’s now look at what we could find about this case. From Wikipedia:

"Shouting fire in a crowded theater" is a popular metaphor for speech or actions made for the principal purpose of creating unnecessary panic. The phrase is a paraphrasing of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.'s opinion in the United States Supreme Court case Schenck v. United States in 1919, which held that the defendant's speech in opposition to the draftduring World War I was not protected free speech under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The paraphrasing does not generally include (but does usually imply) the word falsely, i.e., "falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater", which was the original wording used in Holmes's opinion and highlights that speech that is dangerous and false is not protected, as opposed to speech that is dangerous but also true.

Holmes, writing for a unanimous Court, ruled that it was a violation of the Espionage Act of 1917 (amended by the Sedition Act of 1918), to distribute flyers opposing the draft during World War I. Holmes argued this abridgment of free speech was permissible because it presented a "clear and present danger" to the government's recruitment efforts for the war. Holmes wrote:

<<The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic. [...] The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.>>

The First Amendment holding in Schenck was later partially overturned by Brandenburg v. Ohio in 1969, which limited the scope of banned speech to that which would be directed to and likely to incite imminent lawless action (e.g. a riot). The test in Brandenburg is the current Supreme Court jurisprudence on the ability of government to proscribe speech after that fact. Despite Schenck being limited, the phrase "shouting fire in a crowded theater" has since come to be known as synonymous with an action that the speaker believes goes beyond the rights guaranteed by free speech, reckless or malicious speech, or an action whose outcomes are obvious.

To summarize, this came about against a few Jewish socialists who were distributing pamphlets in Yiddish against the draft in the First World War in the USA, and the very judge writing this decision came to a change of heart in a later case.

And there’s more.

Without fail, whenever a free speech controversy hits, someone will cite this phrase as proof of limits on the First Amendment. And whatever that controversy may be, "the law"--as some have curiously called it--can be interpreted to suggest that we should err on the side of censorship. Holmes' quote has become a crutch for every censor in America, yet the quote is wildly misunderstood.

The latest example comes from New York City councilmen Peter Vallone, who declared yesterday "Everyone knows the example of yelling fire in a crowded movie theater," as he called for charges against pseudonymous Twitter @ComfortablySmug for spreading false information during Hurricane Sandy. Other commentators have endorsed Vallone's suggestions, citing the same quote as established precedent.

In the last few years, the quote has reared its head on countless occasions. In September, commentators pointed to it when questioning whether the controversial anti-Muslim video should be censored. Before that, it was invoked when a crazy pastor threatened to burn Qurans. Before that, the analogy was twisted to call for charges against WikiLeaks for publishing classified information. The list goes on.

But those who quote Holmes might want to actually read the case where the phrase originated before using it as their main defense. If they did, they'd realize it was never binding law, and the underlying case, U.S. v. Schenck, is not only one of the most odious free speech decisions in the Court's history, but was overturned over 40 years ago.

First, it's important to note U.S. v. Schenck had nothing to do with fires or theaters or false statements. Instead, the Court was deciding whether Charles Schenck, the Secretary of the Socialist Party of America, could be convicted under the Espionage Act for writing and distributing a pamphlet that expressed his opposition to the draft during World War I. As the ACLU's Gabe Rottman explains, "It did not call for violence. It did not even call for civil disobedience."

The Court's description of the pamphlet proves it to be milder than any of the dozens of protests currently going on around this country every day:

It said, "Do not submit to intimidation," but in form, at least, confined itself to peaceful measures such as a petition for the repeal of the act. The other and later printed side of the sheet was headed "Assert Your Rights."

The crowded theater remark that everyone remembers was an analogy Holmes made before issuing the court's holding. He was explaining that the First Amendment is not absolute. It is what lawyers call dictum, a justice's ancillary opinion that doesn't directly involve the facts of the case and has no binding authority. The actual ruling, that the pamphlet posed a "clear and present danger" to a nation at war, landed Schenk in prison and continued to haunt the court for years to come.

Two similar Supreme Court cases decided later the same year--Debs v. U.S. and Frohwerk v. U.S.--also sent peaceful anti-war activists to jail under the Espionage Act for the mildest of government criticism. (Read Ken White's excellent, in-depth dissection of these cases.) Together, the trio of rulings did more damage to First Amendment as any other case in the 20th century.

In 1969, the Supreme Court's decision in Brandenburg v. Ohio effectively overturned Schenck and any authority the case still carried. There, the Court held that inflammatory speech--and even speech advocating violence by members of the Ku Klux Klan--is protected under the First Amendment, unless the speech "is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action" (emphasis mine).

Today, despite the "crowded theater" quote's legal irrelevance, advocates of censorship have not stopped trotting it out as thefinal word on the lawful limits of the First Amendment. As Rottman wrote, for this reason, it's "worse than useless in defining the boundaries of constitutional speech. When used metaphorically, it can be deployed against any unpopular speech." Worse, its advocates are tacitly endorsing one of the broadest censorship decisions ever brought down by the Court. It is quite simply, as Ken White calls it, "the most famous and pervasive lazy cheat in American dialogue about free speech."

Even Justice Holmes may have quickly realized the gravity of his opinions in Schneck and its companion cases. Later in the same term, Holmes suddenly dissented in a similar case, Abrams vs. United States, which sent Russian immigrants to jail under the Espionage Act. It would become the first in a long string of dissents Holmes and fellow Justice Louis Brandies would write in defense of free speech that collectively laid the groundwork for Court decisions in the 1960s and 1970s that shaped the First Amendment jurisprudence of today.

In what would become his second most famous phrase, Holmes wrote in Abramsthat the marketplace of ideas offered the best solution for tamping down offensive speech: "The ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas -- that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out."

In @ComfortablySmug's case during Hurricane Sandy, that is exactly what happened. Within minutes of sending out his false tweets, journalists discovered he was spreading rumors and quickly corrected the record, sounding the alarm not to trust his information. Regardless, no one was hurt because of his misinformation. The next day, @ComfortablySmug (whose real name is Shashank Tripathi) apologized and resigned from his job as the campaign manager of a House Republican candidate in New York in response to the public's reaction to his actions.

The truth prevailed, not through forcing censorship or jailing a person for speaking, but through the overwhelming counterbalance of more speech. As Holmes said after his soliloquy in Abrams, "That, at any rate, is the theory of our Constitution."

(via TheAtlantic)

A Reminder About Shouting ‘Fire’ in a Crowded Theater

By Susan Kruth March 16, 2015

Few argue that there are or should be no limits to freedom of expression. Last week on The Torch, I discussed the boundaries of several categories of speech that are unprotected by the First Amendment, such as true threats and incitement to imminent lawless action. When arguing that expression that falls into one of these categories should be punished, there is ample case law to cite—still-valid Supreme Court holdings that are directly applicable to the speech at issue. But too often, would-be censors who have nothing else with which to justify their efforts at silencing others fall back on that old standard: “You can’t shout ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.”

Trevor Timm, writing in The Atlantic, and Popehat’s Ken White both implored the public back in 2012 to stop employing what White called “the most famous and pervasive lazy cheat in American dialogue about free speech.” Their message has not spread far enough, and we at FIRE think their thoughtful analyses of the historical context and the ramifications of the quote are worth pointing to.

(..)

In White’s article on the overused phrase, he provides a thorough look at how deeply the Court carved into freedom of expression during wartime and how furiously Holmes tried to backpedal. Finally, in the 1969 case Brandenburg v. Ohio, the Court announced a new standard to govern speech like Schenck’s, setting a much higher bar for what could be punished by the government: speech that is “directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.”

Regardless of whether one believes that the current boundaries of unprotected “incitement” are too narrowly drawn, the Court’s holding in Brandenburg at least ensures that people voicing opposition to the draft, or otherwise criticizing the government, will not be put in prison for their advocacy.

Post-Schenck, Holmes wrote a dissenting opinion in Abrams v. United States (1919), another speech-restrictive Espionage Act case. Holmes’s writing in Abrams, however, is much more consistent with the current state of First Amendment jurisprudence:

[T]he ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas—that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That, at any rate, is the theory of our Constitution.

As Torch readers may know, the Court has since characterized universities as “peculiarly the ‘marketplace of ideas.’” They are places where we should especially foster “free trade in ideas” and be especially hesitant to censor speech based on concerns that it may potentially, at some indeterminate point in the future, inspire someone to break the law or obstruct the functioning of a government entity.

So when it comes to racist speech, speech that could cause emotional discomfort, or speech that might not conform to vague notions of “civility,” it’s not enough to say simply that these types of expression should be censored because “you can’t shout ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.” As White aptly sums it up:

Holmes quote [stands for] for the proposition that not all speech is protected by the First Amendment. But this is not in dispute. Saying it is not an apt or persuasive argument for the proposition that some particular speech is unprotected, any more than saying “well, some speech is protected by the First Amendment” is a persuasive argument to the contrary.

Click over to Popehat and The Atlantic for more analysis, and check out FIRE’s Guide to Free Speech on Campus to read about how (current!) First Amendment law affects the free speech rights of students and professors on college and university campuses.

Even Jordan Peterson has apparently used this flawed argument while virtue-signalling in the Hill, according to an article published in a Ryerson paper:

What are the outer limits to free speech? Oft cited is the example of yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre. University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson invoked just this image in a contribution to the Washington, D.C.-based paper, The Hill. Peterson has attracted a lot of media attention by refusing to accommodate requests that he refer to transgendered students in his classes by pronouns other than ‘him’ or ‘her.’ He complains that he will be the victim of hate speech prosecution, like holocaust deniers, if he does not respect these requests. For this reason, he claims, freedom of expression principles are engaged. Free speech “is so fundamentally important that restricting it in any manner carries serious risk”. “Nonetheless,” he writes, “we shouldn’t be allowed to yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre.”

There is a lot of confusion here. Surely we should want to encourage folks to shout “fire” if there were flames licking at their feet. This cannot be a limiting principle to freedom of expression. Peterson appears to want to paraphrase U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’ famous opinion in Schenck v. United States.

(via Ryerson)

As modern-day statists decry or attempt to explain the Constitution; something they often neither respect nor understand, they use the example about yelling “Fire” in a crowded theater as an example of how the restrictions of government as enumerated in the Constitution are not absolute, are outdated, and sometimes just wrong.

Regarding the absolution of it; I assure you that while the Constitution was designed to be amendable if We the peopleoverwhelmingly agree to do so, it is absolute; or at least it was intended to be. Yet, arresting someone for falsely yelling fire in a crowded theater, believe it or not, does not violate the 1st amendment in any way. It can, and should be a crime without freedom of speech having ever been infringed upon.

Last week in my article Why Can’t I have a Nuclear Warhead, I explained how owning an AR-15 versus owning a nuke is a frivolous argument that people who wish to abandon our Constitution often use. So this week, I’ll do my best to debunk this one as well.

If you are in a movie theater, you may freely say the words fire, bomb, I just farted, or whatever else you may exclaim that could scare the heck out of everyone if said loud enough.

Conversely, if there were a fire, you would be right, and frankly a hero, to warn everyone by yelling “Fire”. This being true, using those words in a theater will not get you arrested as a general rule either when appropriate.

The issue is not the action of exercising your free speech, it’s about creating a hazardous environment for people by virtue of yelling fire or any other method you might use. Because this then creates a panic, and thus a dangerous situation where people could be trampled or otherwise harmed in some way as they attempt to evade a danger that only existed in your sadistic mind. You could pull the fire alarm, not yell anything, and you’d be guilty of the same violation; so the speech used is never the issue.

By creating a panic, you infringe on someone’s right to life, as enumerated in the Constitution, since a panicked crowd becomes a serious health hazard to everyone involved.

Sadly, our Constitution is misunderstood, violated, and under attack every day. As Americans, we should understand that the Constitution was right long before we even fully understood how to implement it. We were slave owners declaring all men are created equal with certain unalienable rights, after all.

The Constitution has never been the problem—it had it right all along. People violating it has, and always will be. So let’s not let the left destroy it with false premises, logical fallacies, or misdirection. We the people should take the time to read, understand, protect, and promote the Constitution responsibly. Our liberty depends on debunking such false arguments. Hopefully, as people like me explain away them, you’ll be better prepared for your next debate.

(via logicallib)

Please Stop Using the ‘Fire in a Crowded Theater’ Metaphor MARCH 4, 2013 BY ED BRAYTON

After the last meeting of CFI Michigan, a bunch of us went out to a restaurant as we always do, and sat and talked. In a conversation about some First Amendment issue, one guy trotted out the trite and false “you can’t shout fire in a crowded theater” analogy (which was not even remotely analogous to the subject we were discussing). If you’ve ever used this argument in arguing for some particular restriction on freedom of speech, please stop.

First of all, not only is it virtually never analogous to the argument being made, it wasn’t even remotely similar to what was going on in the very case in which it was invented. The full statement — “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic” — comes from a Supreme Court ruling in 1919 in a case called Schenck v United States and it was written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, a first ballot inductee into the Vastly Overrated Hall of Fame.

This case is also where the phrase “clear and present danger” comes from. That was the standard that the court established for when the government could suppress the free speech rights of citizens, until it was overturned in 1969. The case involved Charles Schenck, the secretary of the Socialist Party of America, who had printed up and distributed pamphlets during WWI urging people not to comply with the draft. Those pamphlets argued that the draft violated the 13th Amendment ban on involuntary servitude (and he was right, in my view).

Schenck was arrested for this and convicted of violating the Espionage Act of 1917. He appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, which handed down an appalling 9-0 ruling upholding his clearly unconstitutional conviction. Holmes’ written opinion said:

The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic…The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.

It is important to note here that the analogy of shouting fire in a crowded theater was utterly absurd even when it was invoked, since nothing in the Schenck case was even remotely similar to such an act. The most that could possibly be said is that Schenck might be able to convince a small number of people to defy the draft, with the impact on the war effort negligible at the very most. No one was put in danger by his words, imminent or even in some far-fetched string of causation.

The metaphor was absurd in the very case for which it was invented; it is even more absurd in most other cases. And it’s almost always used to justify some totally unrelated restriction on free speech, as if the mere fact that the court recognizes some narrowly defined exceptions to the First Amendment somehow justifies the particular exception the person arguing wants to carve out. The fact that a right is not absolute (no right is, of course) is not an argument in favor of any specific exception that someone wants to argue for. So it’s just an illogical argument to make all the way around.

For nearly a century now, our discourse on constitutional matters has been haunted by a ridiculous analogy that was meaningless when it was created and even more meaningless now. It’s time to put this tired cliche to rest, once and for all.

(via Patheos)

Elsewhere, in a Second Amendment site, the Schenck case is fully explained and the reasoning behind the First Amendment protection is applied to the 2nd one. YoExpert briefly explains both the Schenck and the backpedaling case. Volokh finds issues with the word falsely. On Quora, a few lawyers explain it as it pertains to current criminal law in the US, and the general limitations on free speech.

In conclusion:

This is one of the most egregious example of Supreme Groupthink, an error SCOTUS partially corrected shortly thereafter.

There is no question that the law in both USA and Canada restricts free speech (nobody denies that), the question is whether that is justifiable or not. In my view (and that of others) it’s not.

Some arguments are semantic and thus weak, focusing on the fact that the phrase is often misquoted with “falsely” omitted. I think that’s a waste of time. Surely the word “falsely” is important, but the whole idea does not instantly become correct or valid simply by adding “falsely”. It’s still invalid.

A lot can be said in support of one’s right yell “fire” in a crowded theater. Maybe one day I will. In the meantime, one can go through the above and come up with their own argumentation.

[persuasivespeechessay447]

paper writing

About me

Academic Writing Style

Academic Writing Style If your time is nebulous, you may be extra more likely to drop the ball. You’ve received a date with a chair and life-long learning. Completing this second step immediately—earlier than you go to mattress on the day you get the assignment��is important to acing this paper. So you’ve completed the first two steps before bed on the day your assigned the paper, now comes the tough stuff. It will, nonetheless, be a bit simpler now that you understand precisely what your prof desires and also you’ve received a schedule in place. You’re going to fill out an hour or two of work each day, accounting for different courses, social engagements, and precedence necessities. When making the schedule, set completion goals so that the time isn’t open-ended. Ordering from an onlineservice, you can lastly have a while for different subjects or necessary chores. Once your paper is ready, we are going to e mail it to you and upload it to the order page in your personal Pro-Papers account. We have employed a group of professionals who provide expert educational assist. Most of them are native audio system and PhD holders who are in a position to take care of any assignment you need assistance with. At this level, it might seem like it’s excessive with all the wonderful work you simply completed. After you've finished that paper, it’s important to go back and make giant-scale changes. In a paper, it’s easy to use simple transition phrases—subsequently, consequently,and so on. There is nothing incorrect with a transition word right here and there, but they're very straightforward to overuse. Most blogs, likethis one,this one, andthis onemake using transition phrases an necessary part of this course of. Edit and proofread your final draft to make sure that your essay is flawless. You can begin from any part and you shouldn’t worry about grammar, punctuation and spelling as you construct your sentences. Take notes from your sources and add particulars to your define and just remember to have supporting evidence in your points. If you lack ideas, you may search the web using Google, look by way of your lecture notes, and think about your course readings or present news. Your writing should have a single focus – all paragraphs have to incorporate related proof to help your thesis statement. But take one moment to look at the rubric one last time. Print out your paper, fireplace up Natural Reader, and comply with along. Mark any spots that don’t feel right and correct any last errors. Summarize the details of this paper in your personal phrases. Teachers who refuse to use expertise in the classroom aren't partaking their college students and are disregarding their college students’ pure methods of learning and their social needs. social media interaction is now simply as important to most students as face-to-face interaction. It’s clear right here that individuals’s abilities to communicate outline their cultural importance. This thought is loosely related to a different thought the creator is writing towards—that these unique cultural differences are sometimes the offender for communication breakdown. As well, instructors give little consideration to know-how-primarily based studying tools as an avenue for schooling. While this stuff shall be extra specific than the earlier part, they aren’t going to be hyper-particular, but broad enough to act as a reference factors for the remainder of the paper. For this step-by-step tutorial of thesis examples, we’re going to break things down for super effectivity so you'll be able to create the backbone of the paper. But you don’t have a lot time, so that you wish to focus and slender your ideas—it’s essential to success. Mapping is a method that lets you freely record your concepts in a logical manner. Our professionals can provide advice on the topic or content material of the work and also consult you on how to submit the project efficiently. Texts are formatted according to the foundations of the educational styles such as APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, Harvard, and so on. . Your professor or course mates will never find out that you've asked for assist together with your research paper. Can you imagine what number of hours you need to spend on a literature evaluate for your examine?

[howtoimproveessaywriting151]

paper writing service

About me

Write My Essay

Write My Essay We keep your private and cost info protected. No one will ever know that you just use our providers. To this finish, many journals require the next sections, submitted within the order listed, every section to start on a new page. Some journals call for a mixed results and discussion, for example, or include supplies and strategies after the body of the paper. The well known journal Science does away with separate sections altogether, except for the abstract. Indeed, college students have plenty of things to get pleasure from, from discovering new associates and having a thriving social life to shaping their career and discovering their calling. The second you request academic help online, you might really feel insecure and end up asking questions like, “Is it dishonest? Plagiarism just isn't your problem anymore – we assure plagiarism-free papers. Before the client gets a accomplished order, our editors totally scan it with totally different software checkers. To study extra, please check out our Privacy and Cookies Policy. If you take notes instantly into your laptop, they will be easy to index and pull up, but there are a few downsides. After the preliminary introduction, background in your matter usually follows. This paragraph or section may embrace a literature evaluation surveying the current state of data on your subject or just a historic overview of related data. The purpose of this section is to justify your individual project or paper by pointing out a niche in the present analysis which your work will tackle. Also, in case your notes are in your laptop, you might be tempted to save lots of time and thought by pasting lots of them instantly into your paper. Note cards encourage you to rethink and to transform your ideas into a unified whole. You will not be able to see all of them simultaneously, as you'll be able to note cards laid out on an enormous table. What you gain in ease of access may come at the price of shedding the massive picture. To write your paper, we must be totally conscious of your wants and necessities. Make certain to complete an order type appropriately and add all needed paper details. Don’t forget to addContent files and go away comments, if any. If you don’t want your private information to be shared with any third events, WriteMyPapers.org is the best answer. Ordering your papers on our web site is 100% secure as a result of we defend our customers’ data and never disclose it to anyone. Your introduction supplies context to your readers to organize them on your paper's argument or objective. An introduction should begin with dialogue of your specific matter and supply simply sufficient context to organize your readers on your thesis or objective statement. Outlining your first draft by listing each paragraph's subject sentence could be a straightforward means to make sure that each of your paragraphs is serving a specific objective in your paper. Once once more, thank you a lot for the prompt customer support and high quality product. From a young age, we are conditioned to imagine that college and school years are one of the best time of anybody’s life. ” Ordering tutorial samples is not a fraudulent action, nor is utilizing such examples of written works as a study guide or basis for your personal paper. It will offer you a valuable asset in your studying course of, not the dangers associated with dishonest.

[manuelvmiv713]

What Are Marijuana Medical Cards and also What Do They Do?

I wouldn't be a good attorney unless I prefaced this write-up with a few please notes:

1) Cannabis is still a regulated schedule I substance as well as is unlawful in the eyes of the Federal Federal Government of the United States;

2) This post is not to be taken as legal guidance, nor is it meant to take the place of the recommendations of an attorney, as well as you must talk to an attorney before taking any kind of activities in furtherance of the topic of this article. Ok, let's begin.

In the month of November, the State of Arizona passed Recommendation 203, which would exempt certain people from illegal drugs legislations in the State of Arizona. Nevertheless, it will still spend some time before medical cannabis is carried out as a policy in Arizona. The Arizona Division of Wellness Solutions has released a proposed timeline for the preparing of the regulations bordering the implementation of Recommendation 203. Up until now, these are the essential period that must be paid attention to:

December 17, 2010: The first draft of the medical marijuana regulations ought to be launched and also provided for talk about this date.

January 7, 2011: This will be the due date for public discuss the first draft of the policies pointed out over.

January 31, 2011: The 2nd draft of the rules will certainly be released on this day. Once again, it will be readily available for informal comment as in the draft referred to above.

February 21 to March 18, 2011: Even more official public hearings will certainly be held concerning the recommended regulations right now, after which the last policies will certainly be submitted to the Secretary of State and revealed on the Workplace of Administrative Rules site.

April 2011: The medical cannabis rules will enter into impact and be released in the Arizona Administrative Register.

It is very important that whatsoever times throughout the examination procedure, interested celebrations submit briefs and/or make oral presentations when permitted. Groups with passions in contrast to those of medical cannabis advocates might additionally be making discussions as well as may encourage the State to needlessly limit the compound or those that might qualify to access it if there is no voice to promote for individuals' civil liberties.

Some bottom lines concerning Proposition 203's effects

- Physicians might prescribe medical marijuana for their patients under specific problems. "Medical professional" is not defined in a way limited to typical clinical doctors. Osteopaths certified under Title 32, Phase 17; naturopaths licensed under Title 32, Chapter 14; and homeopaths licensed under Title 32, Phase 29 may all be qualified to recommend marijuana for their clients.

- In order to be suggested medical cannabis, an individual must be a "qualifying person." A certifying patient is specified as someone who has actually been identified by a "physician" (as specified above) as having a "devastating medical problem."

- Debilitating medical conditions consist of:

• Cancer cells, glaucoma, HIV positive standing, AIDS, liver disease C, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Crohn's illness, or anxiety of Alzheimer's disease or the treatment of these problems.

• A persistent or incapacitating disease or medical condition or its treatment that generates one or more of the following: Cachexia or wasting disorder; serious and also persistent discomfort; severe nausea; seizures, consisting of that feature of epilepsy; or extreme as well as consistent muscle spasms, including that characteristic of numerous sclerosis.

• Any other medical problem or its treatment included by the Department of Health and wellness Services pursuant to Section 36-2801.01.

This last certifying condition is underscored due to the fact that it is critically important during the rulemaking process. Although Suggestion 203 permits the public to request the Department of Wellness Solutions to exercise its discretion to include conditions under this section, administration is notoriously tough to get to change any legislation. The first discretionary policies for additional therapies could be exercised throughout the public appointments that take place in between December as well as March, though this is not certain.

It is therefore essential that, on the occasion that the enhancement of medical conditions is taken into consideration throughout the examinations, any stakeholder who yearns for a medical condition not noted in the first two bulleted products over to lobby during the public consultation periods for the Division to include the additional clinical problem to the checklist of debilitating clinical problems. In order to boost the stature of any type of presentations made to validate including medical problems under Section 36-2801.01, it might be helpful to solicit the statement of sympathetic Arizona-licensed clinical doctors who can testify on paper and at the general public hearings concerning why the proposed problem ought to be added. Records showing that other jurisdictions, both in the USA as well as somewhere else, currently utilize marijuana as a therapy for the proposed problem might be valuable, as would medical journals on the topic.

It needs to be born in mind that despite his uplifting YouTube videos regarding the medical cannabis policy composing process, Supervisor of Wellness Solutions Will certainly Humble created an entry in opposition to the passing of Suggestion 203. He did so because the FDA does not check the medicine, as well as although the federal government's anti-marijuana plan is well-known it ought to not be counted on as an authority for objective medical cannabis research study. There is no factor to believe that Director Humble will be any kind of much less likely to obstruct making use of clinical marijuana throughout the rulemaking stage, and all proponents of medical cannabis must make certain to make their voices listened to at the appointments to stop the obstruction of the intent of Proposal 203.

The extent of Rulemaking during Appointments

There are various other provisions in Proposition 203 which will be discussed throughout the first rulemaking process, as well as they will most likely be the major emphasis of the appointments. The assessments will produce policies:

• Controling the way in which the Division of Health and wellness Solutions will certainly approve the petitions from the general public formerly stated, pertaining to the enhancement of medical problems to the list of the already enshrined disabling medical problems.

• Developing the type and web content of enrollment and also revival applications submitted under the medical marijuana regulation.

• Governing the way in which the Department will certainly consider applications for as well as renewals of medical marijuana ID cards.

• Governing the various facets around the freshly legislated not-for-profit medical cannabis dispensaries, including recordkeeping, protection, oversight, as well as various other requirements.

• Developing the fees for patient applications and also clinical cannabis dispensary applications.

One of the most critical part of the appointment duration will certainly be regarding the policies governing the establishment and also oversight of medical marijuana dispensaries. If interest groups lobby the Division to make the recordkeeping, security, oversight, and also various other demands around dispensaries as well restrictive, it will have the impact of decreasing the schedule of clinical marijuana to individuals and driving up the cost of medical cannabis because of the absence of supply. It might just end up being too expensive to adhere to every one of the laws.

Throughout this phase, it is very important that stakeholders-particularly medical marijuana dispensaries from out-of-state, and also possibly pharmacists with a few financial knowledge-submit briefs discussing why particular proposed rules might have a negative effect on the clients this Suggestion is supposed to assist. The suggested policies have not appear yet, however when they do, they ought to be very closely looked at for the possible unfavorable influence that unnecessarily difficult safety and security as well as recordkeeping on not-for-profit dispensaries might have on patients.

The various other significant consider the rulemaking will have to do with the fees. The Division will certainly be setting costs for clinical cannabis dispensaries during the assessment duration. Proposal 203 supplies that the fees might not go beyond $5,000 per first application and also $1,000 per revival. Nevertheless, with some lobbying throughout the public consultation, it is possible that the real charges will be a lot less given that these are just the maximum that the Department may bill.

Discrimination against Medical Cannabis Users

Under Suggestion 203, discrimination versus medical cannabis individuals will certainly be restricted in certain scenarios. Based on our analysis, a person might not:

• As a college or landlord, reject to enroll someone or otherwise punish them solely for their status as a medical cannabis cardholder, unless refraining so would certainly cause the loss of a financial or licensing-related advantage under federal legislation or regulations.

• As a company, victimize working with a person, or terminate them or impose any kind of problems on them due to the fact that they are a clinical cannabis cardholder unless refraining so would certainly lead to the loss of a financial or licensing-related benefit under federal law or regulations. Employers might still terminate workers if the staff member is in ownership of or damaged by marijuana on the properties of the area of work or throughout the hours of work.

• As a healthcare company, victimize a cardholder, consisting of in matters of organ transplants. Medical marijuana must be treated like any other medication suggested by a doctor.

• Be avoided, as a cardholder, from having visitation protection or visitation or parenting time with a minor, unless the cardholder's actions where to buy cbd near me "produces an unreasonable danger to the security of the minor as developed by clear as well as convincing proof."

Although there are specific restrictions on discrimination, there are likewise provisions which allow discrimination against medical cannabis cardholders:

• Federal government medical support programs and also private health insurance companies are not called for to compensate an individual for their medical cannabis usage.

• Nobody who has residential or commercial property, including business owners, is needed to permit clinical cannabis on their premises (this relatively includes proprietors that, although they can not refuse tenants based on their being a cardholder, are permitted to stop cardholders from bringing marijuana onto the property manager's residential or commercial property).

• Employers are not called for to enable cardholders to be intoxicated of or ingest cannabis while functioning, though the existence of marijuana in the body which is not of an adequate focus to create problems does not develop being drunk of it.

Guidelines Related to the Establishment of Dispensaries

Although the last regulations around protection, recordkeeping, as well as other demands for clinical marijuana dispensaries will not be developed up until April 2011, there are specific needs that are preserved in Recommendation 203 itself and also can be recognized ahead of the time that the final regulations come out. These minimal requirements may not be as restrictive as the last needs which are published in April 2011.

• Medical cannabis dispensaries need to be nonprofit. They should have laws that preserve their nonprofit nature, though they need not be taken into consideration tax-exempt by the Internal Revenue Service, nor should they be integrated.

• The operating files of the dispensaries must include provisions for the oversight of the dispensary as well as for exact recordkeeping.

• The dispensary should have a single safe and secure entryway and needs to carry out suitable protection actions to deter and stop the burglary of cannabis as well as unauthorized access to locations consisting of marijuana.

• A dispensary should not get, have, grow, manufacture, provide, transfer, transportation, supply, or dispense marijuana for any function apart from providing it straight to a cardholder or to a signed up caregiver for the cardholder.

• All cultivation of marijuana need to happen only at a locked, confined facility at a physical address given to the Division of Wellness Providers throughout the application procedure, as well as obtainable only by dispensary representatives registered with the Division.

• A dispensary can obtain marijuana from a client of their caregiver, however just if the individual or caretaker gets no settlement for it.

• No consumption of cannabis is allowed on the residential or commercial property of the dispensary.

• A dispensary undergoes sensible examination by the Division of Health Providers. The Department needs to first provide affordable notice of the evaluation to the dispensary.

Comparison to The golden state's Medical Cannabis Legislation

The Arizona legislation is by no means the like the legislation in The golden state. There are absolutely some differences between the two, though in some areas they are equivalent. This is a comparative evaluation of both laws.

Similarities:

• Both regulations, as a sensible issue, permit wide discretion for a medical professional to prescribe cannabis to people who experience discomfort. In the Arizona law, "extreme as well as persistent discomfort" is the legislated criterion. In the California regulation, any "persistent or relentless medical signs and symptom" that significantly limits the life of the person to conduct several significant life tasks as specified by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, or that if not relieved, will certainly create severe injury to the patient's physical or psychological safety and security, qualifies.

• Both legislations have a number of ailments that are instantly taken into consideration qualifying health problems for the prescription of clinical cannabis. These include, yet are not restricted to, AIDS, cachexia, cancer, glaucoma, persistent muscle spasms, seizures, as well as extreme nausea or vomiting.

• Both legislations call for making use of an identification card by those who have been recommended medical marijuana after the cardholders have actually undergone an initial application process in which making use of the medicine has been suggested by a doctor.

• Both states do not factor in the unusable section of the marijuana plant in establishing the maximum weight of marijuana that is permitted for ownership by a cardholder.

Differences:

• Though the rules have actually not been wrapped up, the Arizona law looks like though it will certainly be controlled on the state degree and also consequently uniform throughout Arizona. The California legislation, nonetheless, is regulated significantly on the community degree, and also consequently the policies around dispensaries can differ considerably from one town to the following.

• The Arizona law provides a broader spectrum of people who are taken into consideration a "doctor" for the purpose of recommending medical marijuana. In California, only medical physicians and osteopaths are taken into consideration to be physicians. In Arizona, in addition to clinical doctors and also osteopaths, naturopaths and also homeopaths will likewise be allowed to suggest medical cannabis.

• In The golden state, patients or their caretakers might grow cannabis plants instead of utilizing a clinical cannabis dispensary. In Arizona, people might only grow cannabis or assign somebody else to do so instead of checking out a dispensary on the condition that there is no dispensary operating within 25 miles of the client's home.

• The maximum property restriction for cannabis in California is eight ounces per person, whereas the limit is only 2.5 ounces per individual in Arizona.

-This is not suggested to be legal recommendations and also is given totally as an analysis of the existing regulations. You should talk to a lawyer to talk about these matters. We are available for consultations for this issue by consultation just and also via prepayment of the assessment charge.

[liliannorman]

Testing the power of touch

This article is one of a series of Experiments meant to teach students about how science is done, from generating a hypothesis to designing an experiment to analyzing the results with statistics. You can repeat the steps here and compare your results — or use this as inspiration to design your own experiment. 

Your fingertips are sensitive to touch. They have to be, to help you type, get dressed and pet kittens. But are they more sensitive than your leg, arm or back? How would you be able to tell? This is something that’s pretty easy to test. And it’s also easy to turn into an experiment. All you need is something to measure with, a blindfold or two — and a lot of very patient friends.

A test called two-point discrimination can help to determine which parts of the body are more sensitive than others. Two-point discrimination refers to the ability to perceive two points touching you as two actual points instead of one. You can demonstrate this by poking yourself or your friends (with permission, of course). But to turn this into an experiment, I need to start with a hypothesis. This is a statement that I can test.

My hypothesis: Fingertips are more sensitive to two points of contact than the arms or upper back. 

Poking and prodding

To test my hypothesis, I need volunteers. But I can’t just run around the office and start prodding my colleagues. It is wrong to perform an experiment on someone without their consent. My friends and colleagues need to know what I am doing, why I’m doing it and if there are any risks.

I wrote up a protocol — a plan of action that details exactly what I am going to do and why. I also drafted a consent form. This is a form my colleagues can read and sign, noting that they understand any risks from my experiment. I submitted the protocol and the form to an Institutional Review Board. This is a group of scientists that determines whether my experimental plan is safe.

The group of scientists I consulted evaluates studies conducted by students at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair reviewed my documents. The board suggested changes I could make to the wording of my consent form, so that no one would misunderstand my experiment. And they approved my study. I was free to do science.

When my colleagues at Society for Science & the Public gathered for a monthly staff birthday celebration, I struck. My editor, Sarah Zielinski, helped as I asked my coworkers to line up, sign a consent form and put on a blindfold. Sarah also wrote down information about each participant’s age, gender and whether they were right- or left-handed.

To test touch sensitivity, doctors use a pair of calipers and move them slowly apart, trying to see when someone can feel two points instead of one. This is an experiment you can do, too. Though maybe not on someone’s tongue.House, Earl Lawrence. Pansky, Ben./Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

I asked each person to hold out their dominant hand (the right hand, if someone is right-handed). I then carefully touched a pair of calipers to the tip of their index finger. (Calipers are a device that’s used to measure the distance between two points.) I started with the calipers completely closed, forming a single point. Then I moved the points farther apart and touched the person’s fingertip again. Every time I touched their finger, I asked them if they felt one or two points of contact. I widened the calipers each time, testing 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 5 and 10 millimeters (between 0 and 0.39 inch).

At first, people would say they only felt one point. Of course, they did; the calipers were only a single point. But as the calipers expanded, people began to feel two points. Sarah carefully noted when each person felt two points instead of one. I took a measurement of each distance twice.

Then I did the same experiment with each person’s dominant lower arm. I poked them gently about 50 millimeters (2 inches) below their elbow. Each time I asked if they felt one or two points. This time, I tested between 0 and 50 millimeters, waiting to stop measuring when people told me they felt two points of contact. I repeated this on my coworkers’ upper backs.

To make sure I was detecting a difference that wasn’t entirely accidental, ideally I would have tested 41 people. Unfortunately, the experiment took a long time. Many people didn’t want to wait around. They had work to do. I ended up with 38 participants. Not bad. 

Dealing with data

After I collected all my data, I organized it in a spreadsheet. First, I de-identified the data. I didn’t leave any information in the spreadsheet that could be used to identify each coworker, including their name. This is important to make sure that everyone is treated fairly and that their information is kept private. It might not seem like a big deal when being poked with calipers. But when studies address diseases such as cancer or depression, privacy is very important.

This is the data from my two-point discrimination experiment. Notice that you can’t tell which person contributed the data. That’s important for their privacy.B. Brookshire/SSP

Then I noted at what distance each person reported feeling two points instead of one on their fingertip, arm or back. I organized my data into three columns. At the bottom of each column, I calculated the mean — the average distance that people could distinguish two points instead of one — for each group.

When tested on their fingertips, my coworkers could tell that there were two points when the calipers were only about 4.5 mm (0.17 inch) apart. That’s pretty sensitive. But on their arms or backs, people only noticed that there were two points when the calipers were 20 to 21 millimeters (0.78 to 0.82 inch) apart. That’s still not very far. But it’s not nearly as sensitive as the fingertips.

Or is it? If you look at my data, you can see that my results varied wildly. Some people could tell there were two points on their arm when the calipers were only one millimeter (0.036 inch) apart. Others couldn’t tell at 50 millimeters (almost two inches).

To find out if my groups really were different, I had to run some statistics. These are tests to interpret the meaning of my results. I performed an analysis of variance, or an ANOVA. This test is used when someone wants to compare the means of three or more groups. There are free calculators for this online. I used the one at Good Calculators.

The test produces a p value, a measure of probability. It measures how likely it is that I would find a difference between these three groups as big or bigger than the one I found, if the difference itself was accidental. A p value of less than 0.05 (or five percent) is considered by many scientists to be statistically significant. In this case, my p value was so small it came out as a zero. This is a 0 percent chance that I would see a difference this large by accident.

So it looks like there could be a difference between the fingertip, arm and back. But where is that difference? To find out, I need to run a post-hoc test. I used a test called the Tukey’s range test. It individually compares all the means between the three groups. It compares the finger to the arm, and the finger to the back. It also compared the arm to the back. Again, you can find this test for free on the internet. I used the one on GraphPad.

That showed me that the fingertip was significantly different from the arm. It was also different from the back. But the arm and back were not different from each other.

I made two graphs to show off my results.

The simple bar graph (left) shows the means and how much the data deviated from the mean for each group. The line graph (right) shows what percent of people detected two points of contact at each caliper width. It helps depict how much the data varied. People felt the two different points very quickly on their finger tip. But the slope for arms and backs is more gradual. Some felt two points early, but some never felt them at all.B. Brookshire/SSP

My results are backed up with knowledge about how the body processes touch. When you are poked or prodded, molecules called receptors in the skin sense that touch. They send signals down nerve cells and to the brain, letting you know you’ve been poked and where.

The ability to feel two points touching your skin is an indicator of how many receptors for touch you have in that body part. Your fingertips have 100 times more receptors for touch than your back. There are also fewer receptors on your arm than your fingertip. So it makes sense that you would be able to discern two points at a closer distance on your hand than your back or arm. 

Oh no, we’re not done

While my experiment supports my hypothesis, my data also varied a lot. Was there something that I could be missing?

For example, maybe my data varied because men were more, or less, sensitive to touch than women. So I graphed my data by gender. Only 10 men participated in my experiment, compared with 28 women. But my data was just as variable in both groups, and the groups were not different.

Here I graphed my data to see if there were any differences in two-point discrimination between men and women. There were not.B. Brookshire/SSP

What about handedness? Five of my participants were lefties. So I separated out the right- and left-handed people in my study. But lefties did not appear more variable in their responses than righties.

In this graph, I separated the right- and left-handed people in my sample. I didn’t see any differences in two-point discrimination.B. Brookshire/SSP

Finally, I separated my groups out by age. The youngest person in my experiment was 20 and the oldest was 66. Could age change how well people can feel two points instead of one? In my experiment, no. The average distance for two-point discrimination wasn’t different based on age.

I separated my data by age group. Younger and older people were equally sensitive to two-point discrimination on their fingers. The arm and back data looked the same as well.B. Brookshire/SSP

There’s no such thing as a perfect experiment. And if I were to try this experiment again, there are many things I would do differently. I would try to get equal numbers of men and women, to start. I could try for equal numbers of right- and left-handed people. I could also try to make sure I studied only one age group, or that I studied all age groups equally.

But the next time you want to feel just how close together two points are, I’ll use my fingertips. Not my back. My experiment showed me that much.

Testing the power of touch published first on https://triviaqaweb.tumblr.com/

[advertphoto]

Is It Legal To Hand Write A Will In Utah?

Wills written by hand (not typed or created on a computer or word processor), also known as holographic wills, are only valid in a few states. However, there may be very specific requirements. For example, California requires that all sections of the will necessary to make the will valid must be written entirely by hand, and that the person writing the will must sign it. If these state rules aren’t followed, the holographic will won’t be valid. Sometimes a handwritten will is better than no will at all, sometimes it’s not. If the person writing the will doesn’t know how to write a will and leaves out important language, or if the holographic will creates ambiguity or an unintended result, then the intended property might end up going to the wrong person. If the person’s property would have gone to family members under the state laws that cover property when there’s no will (a process known as intestate succession), having no will might have achieved a result closer to the will writer’s real intentions. Drafting your own will is not as complicated as one might think. In fact, anyone can do it from their own home with a pen, paper, and two witnesses. The requirements to create your own legal will in Utah are:

• You must be at least 18 years old • You must be “of sound mind” (the fact that you are reading and understanding this article is sufficient evidence that you meet this test) • You must write the will, whether typewritten or handwritten • You must sign the will in the presence of two witnesses; and • The two witnesses must also sign the will

It is also recommended that the will be dated, an executor named, and that the witnesses sign a self proving notarized affidavit so that their testimonies aren’t needed at subsequent probate court proceedings. There is no requirement that a will be recorded or filed with a government agency or that it be notarized. Alternatively, in Utah you can create a legally enforceable will without any witnesses by creating what’s called a “holographic will”. A holographic will is simply a will where the signature and material portions of the will are in your own handwriting. While this might be simple to do, it comes under extra scrutiny in probate court and that is why it is almost always worth the little bit of effort to prepare a typed will and have it witnessed. Although it is easy to put off, everyone should have a will. A will specifies who gets your property when you die and can serve other vital purposes such as appointing a personal guardian to raise your minor children.

If you die without a will, a court decides who gets your property and who best fit to raise your children is. Written entirely in the handwriting of the testator but when all the words appearing on a paper in the handwriting of the testator are sufficient to constitute a valid holographic will, the fact that other words or printed matter appear thereon not in the handwriting of the testator, and not affecting the meaning of the words in such handwriting, shall not affect the validity of the will, and Subscribed by the testator, or with the testator’s name written in or on the will in the testator’s own handwriting, and Found after the testator’s death among the testator’s valuable papers or effects, or in a safe-deposit box or other safe place where it was deposited by the testator or under the testator��s authority, or in the possession or custody of some person with whom, or some firm or corporation with which, it was deposited by the testator or under the testator’s authority for safekeeping.

In simple terms, you can create a handwritten document solely in your own handwriting and signed by you who can serve as your last will and testament. It’s important to emphasize that no portion of the document may be typewritten and no witnesses or notaries are required. This type of will is best reserved for simple general outright bequests of an individual’s entire estate, but as previously mentioned; there are drawbacks to this type of will. Wills are routinely challenged due to vagueness or other ambiguities. It is challenging enough for attorneys to draft wills and include sufficient language to demonstrate the testator’s (maker of the will) intent. A person who chooses to write a holographic will may fail to provide certain material language that could affect the distribution of assets.

Such a person may fail to include certain property items or assets, and create confusion about who was to receive such items. Another reason not to rush to writing a holographic will is that consultation with an experienced estate planning attorney may help you think through options available to you that you otherwise would not have considered. Clearly, creating a holographic will is not a decision one should rush off to make. With a minimal amount of time and relatively small cost, you can consult with an attorney to draft your will and have the peace of mind of knowing it was drafted correctly. A holographic or handwritten will can be a binding legal document, in some states and in some circumstances. It’s not common, but executors sometimes come across a handwritten will, signed by the deceased person but without any witnesses’ signatures.

The first question to ask is whether or not the document you’ve found was really meant to be a will. The person might just have been making some notes, in preparation for writing a real will. Look for evidence that the writer intended the document to serve as a will, including:

• a statement that “this is my last will and testament” or something similar • language naming an executor • language that indicates an intent to leave specific items of property (or “all my property”) to a named person or persons, and • a signature at the end. Some other states allow a holographic will to be probated if it was valid under the law of the state where it was signed. Finally, if the circumstances were unusual the deceased person was a soldier at war or a sailor at sea when the will was made—Maryland, New York, and Rhode Island allow holographic wills. But state law provides that the wills become invalid soon after discharge from the military or return to land. Proving the Validity of a Holographic Will After the person who wrote the will has passed away, it’s more difficult to prove the validity of a holographic will in probate court. The whole point of having witnesses watch someone sign a will, after all, is so that if there’s any question about the will’s validity, the witnesses can come to court and testify. They can state that they heard the person say the document being signed was his or her will, and that the person seemed aware of what he or she was doing and was not under the undue influence of someone hoping to inherit. If you’re an executor submitting a holographic will to probate, you must show: The entire will, or at least all the significant parts, is in the handwriting of the deceased person. That means a fill-in-the-blanks will form isn’t valid if the important parts—the clauses that leave property are preprinted. There must be evidence that the handwriting and signature are in fact those of the person who has died. This may be supplied by the testimony of people who were familiar with the person’s handwriting, or if there is an argument over the will’s validity, by an expert in handwriting analysis. The person intended the document to serve as a will. That’s usually shown by the language of the document itself, as discussed above. It might also be useful to have testimony from others, if the deceased person told them about the will. Traditionally, a will must be signed by witnesses attesting to the validity of the testator’s signature and intent, but in many jurisdictions, holographic wills that have not been witnessed are treated equally to witnessed wills and need only to meet minimal requirements in order to be probated: • There must be evidence that the testator actually created the will, which can be proved through the use of witnesses, handwriting experts, or other methods. • The testator must have had the intellectual capacity to write the will, although there is a presumption that a testator had such capacity unless there is evidence to the contrary. • The testator must be expressing a wish to direct the distribution of his or her estate to beneficiaries. Holographic wills are common and are often created in emergency situations, such as when the testator is alone, trapped, and near death. Jurisdictions that do not generally recognize unwitnessed holographic wills will accordingly grant exceptions to members of the armed services who are involved in armed conflicts and sailors at sea, though in both cases the validity of the holographic will expires at a certain time after it is drafted. Holographic wills often show that the requirements for making a valid will are minimal.

How to Write A Handwritten Legal Will

If you do not have a will, you are leaving the state to decide on the distribution of all your possessions. If you have any possessions of value or any sentimental possessions you wish to go to specific individuals, you should have a legal will. Control where your possessions go. If you have extensive property and your wishes regarding the disposition of it are complex, you are probably well-advised to have your will written up by a lawyer. If on the other hand you have limited property and you can state your wishes clearly and concisely, a hand-written will could be quite adequate. Plus, you could be saving yourself hundreds of dollars. Correctly hand-written wills, known as holographic wills, are legal in only half of the states in the United States and only about half the provinces in Canada. There are also slight variations, between states, as to what constitutes a legal hand-written will. Do some research to find out what is legal in your state. If a hand-written law is legal it must be done, with slight variations, in the following way. Understand all requirements. To write a legal hand-written will, you must be of sound mind at the time of writing. Your doctor, dentist and many others who are part of your life would know this so it is not usually a concern unless you are in a position where the state of your mind is already in question. Write your will by hand. the will must be written from start to finish in your handwriting. None of the will can be typed and none of it can be printed or written by other than yourself. If even one word of the will is typed or written by anyone other than you, the will cannot be legal.

How to Make a Will Without a Lawyer

A lawyer is helpful in the will creation process because you can be confident that your will has been drafted according to your state’s laws. An attorney’s help is not essential, however. If you feel confident that you can navigate your state’s laws and express your wishes on paper in a clear and unambiguous way, you can make your own will. Each state has different formal requirements, but you may opt to comply with the laws of every state to help ensure that your will is valid. • Start a new word processing document or begin writing in ink on a blank sheet of paper. No state is particularly picky about the precise form your will takes, but most require it to be printed in ink. • Specify that the document you are creating is your will. Title the document “Last Will and Testament” and identify yourself on the first line by stating your name, city and state of residence, birth date, and your intent to create a final will. • Identify your spouse or most recent ex-spouse by name if applicable. Also supply the date and location of the marriage or divorce. • State the number of children you have who are currently living and supply their names. If any of your children are minors who will need care in the event of your death, state that you select a specific individual to act as your children’s guardian. Appoint one or two additional individuals who may act as alternate guardians. • Appoint an individual to act as your estate’s personal representative. This individual will handle the legal processes involving your will and oversee the disposition of your assets to your beneficiaries. Appoint one or two additional individuals who may act as alternate personal representatives. • Identify clearly any property you are giving away and the person whom you would like to receive the property. Be as descriptive as you can, stating the beneficiary’s full name and relationship to you. When describing property, do so in a way that will be unambiguous. For instance, provide the exact address of a house rather than just saying “my home.” • Print your name, your current city and state of residence, and the date at the bottom of your document. Include a line for your signature. Below this line, create three additional areas for the names, addresses and signatures of your witnesses. • Sign your will in front of three disinterested witnesses. A disinterested witness is someone who is not a named beneficiary in your will. After you have signed, have the witnesses provide their information and signatures on the appropriate lines.

Wills and Trusts Attorney Free Consultation

When you need legal help with a will or trust in Utah, please call Ascent Law LLC for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C <span itemprop=”addressLocality”>West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

How Long Does A Loan Modification Last?

At What Age Should You Make A Last Will And Testament?

Criminal Defense Lawyer Park City Utah

How Do You Tell Your Husband You Want A Trial Separation?

Is Possession Of A Controlled Substance A Felony In Utah?

What Are The Grounds For Legal Separation In Utah?

Source: https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/is-it-legal-to-hand-write-a-will-in-utah/

[aretia]

Is It Legal To Hand Write A Will In Utah?

Wills written by hand (not typed or created on a computer or word processor), also known as holographic wills, are only valid in a few states. However, there may be very specific requirements. For example, California requires that all sections of the will necessary to make the will valid must be written entirely by hand, and that the person writing the will must sign it. If these state rules aren’t followed, the holographic will won’t be valid. Sometimes a handwritten will is better than no will at all, sometimes it’s not. If the person writing the will doesn’t know how to write a will and leaves out important language, or if the holographic will creates ambiguity or an unintended result, then the intended property might end up going to the wrong person. If the person’s property would have gone to family members under the state laws that cover property when there’s no will (a process known as intestate succession), having no will might have achieved a result closer to the will writer’s real intentions. Drafting your own will is not as complicated as one might think. In fact, anyone can do it from their own home with a pen, paper, and two witnesses. The requirements to create your own legal will in Utah are:

• You must be at least 18 years old • You must be “of sound mind” (the fact that you are reading and understanding this article is sufficient evidence that you meet this test) • You must write the will, whether typewritten or handwritten • You must sign the will in the presence of two witnesses; and • The two witnesses must also sign the will

It is also recommended that the will be dated, an executor named, and that the witnesses sign a self proving notarized affidavit so that their testimonies aren’t needed at subsequent probate court proceedings. There is no requirement that a will be recorded or filed with a government agency or that it be notarized. Alternatively, in Utah you can create a legally enforceable will without any witnesses by creating what’s called a “holographic will”. A holographic will is simply a will where the signature and material portions of the will are in your own handwriting. While this might be simple to do, it comes under extra scrutiny in probate court and that is why it is almost always worth the little bit of effort to prepare a typed will and have it witnessed. Although it is easy to put off, everyone should have a will. A will specifies who gets your property when you die and can serve other vital purposes such as appointing a personal guardian to raise your minor children.

If you die without a will, a court decides who gets your property and who best fit to raise your children is. Written entirely in the handwriting of the testator but when all the words appearing on a paper in the handwriting of the testator are sufficient to constitute a valid holographic will, the fact that other words or printed matter appear thereon not in the handwriting of the testator, and not affecting the meaning of the words in such handwriting, shall not affect the validity of the will, and Subscribed by the testator, or with the testator’s name written in or on the will in the testator’s own handwriting, and Found after the testator’s death among the testator’s valuable papers or effects, or in a safe-deposit box or other safe place where it was deposited by the testator or under the testator’s authority, or in the possession or custody of some person with whom, or some firm or corporation with which, it was deposited by the testator or under the testator’s authority for safekeeping.

In simple terms, you can create a handwritten document solely in your own handwriting and signed by you who can serve as your last will and testament. It’s important to emphasize that no portion of the document may be typewritten and no witnesses or notaries are required. This type of will is best reserved for simple general outright bequests of an individual’s entire estate, but as previously mentioned; there are drawbacks to this type of will. Wills are routinely challenged due to vagueness or other ambiguities. It is challenging enough for attorneys to draft wills and include sufficient language to demonstrate the testator’s (maker of the will) intent. A person who chooses to write a holographic will may fail to provide certain material language that could affect the distribution of assets.

Such a person may fail to include certain property items or assets, and create confusion about who was to receive such items. Another reason not to rush to writing a holographic will is that consultation with an experienced estate planning attorney may help you think through options available to you that you otherwise would not have considered. Clearly, creating a holographic will is not a decision one should rush off to make. With a minimal amount of time and relatively small cost, you can consult with an attorney to draft your will and have the peace of mind of knowing it was drafted correctly. A holographic or handwritten will can be a binding legal document, in some states and in some circumstances. It’s not common, but executors sometimes come across a handwritten will, signed by the deceased person but without any witnesses’ signatures.

The first question to ask is whether or not the document you’ve found was really meant to be a will. The person might just have been making some notes, in preparation for writing a real will. Look for evidence that the writer intended the document to serve as a will, including:

• a statement that “this is my last will and testament” or something similar • language naming an executor • language that indicates an intent to leave specific items of property (or “all my property”) to a named person or persons, and • a signature at the end. Some other states allow a holographic will to be probated if it was valid under the law of the state where it was signed. Finally, if the circumstances were unusual the deceased person was a soldier at war or a sailor at sea when the will was made—Maryland, New York, and Rhode Island allow holographic wills. But state law provides that the wills become invalid soon after discharge from the military or return to land. Proving the Validity of a Holographic Will After the person who wrote the will has passed away, it’s more difficult to prove the validity of a holographic will in probate court. The whole point of having witnesses watch someone sign a will, after all, is so that if there’s any question about the will’s validity, the witnesses can come to court and testify. They can state that they heard the person say the document being signed was his or her will, and that the person seemed aware of what he or she was doing and was not under the undue influence of someone hoping to inherit. If you’re an executor submitting a holographic will to probate, you must show: The entire will, or at least all the significant parts, is in the handwriting of the deceased person. That means a fill-in-the-blanks will form isn’t valid if the important parts—the clauses that leave property are preprinted. There must be evidence that the handwriting and signature are in fact those of the person who has died. This may be supplied by the testimony of people who were familiar with the person’s handwriting, or if there is an argument over the will’s validity, by an expert in handwriting analysis. The person intended the document to serve as a will. That’s usually shown by the language of the document itself, as discussed above. It might also be useful to have testimony from others, if the deceased person told them about the will. Traditionally, a will must be signed by witnesses attesting to the validity of the testator’s signature and intent, but in many jurisdictions, holographic wills that have not been witnessed are treated equally to witnessed wills and need only to meet minimal requirements in order to be probated: • There must be evidence that the testator actually created the will, which can be proved through the use of witnesses, handwriting experts, or other methods. • The testator must have had the intellectual capacity to write the will, although there is a presumption that a testator had such capacity unless there is evidence to the contrary. • The testator must be expressing a wish to direct the distribution of his or her estate to beneficiaries. Holographic wills are common and are often created in emergency situations, such as when the testator is alone, trapped, and near death. Jurisdictions that do not generally recognize unwitnessed holographic wills will accordingly grant exceptions to members of the armed services who are involved in armed conflicts and sailors at sea, though in both cases the validity of the holographic will expires at a certain time after it is drafted. Holographic wills often show that the requirements for making a valid will are minimal.

How to Write A Handwritten Legal Will

If you do not have a will, you are leaving the state to decide on the distribution of all your possessions. If you have any possessions of value or any sentimental possessions you wish to go to specific individuals, you should have a legal will. Control where your possessions go. If you have extensive property and your wishes regarding the disposition of it are complex, you are probably well-advised to have your will written up by a lawyer. If on the other hand you have limited property and you can state your wishes clearly and concisely, a hand-written will could be quite adequate. Plus, you could be saving yourself hundreds of dollars. Correctly hand-written wills, known as holographic wills, are legal in only half of the states in the United States and only about half the provinces in Canada. There are also slight variations, between states, as to what constitutes a legal hand-written will. Do some research to find out what is legal in your state. If a hand-written law is legal it must be done, with slight variations, in the following way. Understand all requirements. To write a legal hand-written will, you must be of sound mind at the time of writing. Your doctor, dentist and many others who are part of your life would know this so it is not usually a concern unless you are in a position where the state of your mind is already in question. Write your will by hand. the will must be written from start to finish in your handwriting. None of the will can be typed and none of it can be printed or written by other than yourself. If even one word of the will is typed or written by anyone other than you, the will cannot be legal.

How to Make a Will Without a Lawyer

A lawyer is helpful in the will creation process because you can be confident that your will has been drafted according to your state’s laws. An attorney’s help is not essential, however. If you feel confident that you can navigate your state’s laws and express your wishes on paper in a clear and unambiguous way, you can make your own will. Each state has different formal requirements, but you may opt to comply with the laws of every state to help ensure that your will is valid. • Start a new word processing document or begin writing in ink on a blank sheet of paper. No state is particularly picky about the precise form your will takes, but most require it to be printed in ink. • Specify that the document you are creating is your will. Title the document “Last Will and Testament” and identify yourself on the first line by stating your name, city and state of residence, birth date, and your intent to create a final will. • Identify your spouse or most recent ex-spouse by name if applicable. Also supply the date and location of the marriage or divorce. • State the number of children you have who are currently living and supply their names. If any of your children are minors who will need care in the event of your death, state that you select a specific individual to act as your children’s guardian. Appoint one or two additional individuals who may act as alternate guardians. • Appoint an individual to act as your estate’s personal representative. This individual will handle the legal processes involving your will and oversee the disposition of your assets to your beneficiaries. Appoint one or two additional individuals who may act as alternate personal representatives. • Identify clearly any property you are giving away and the person whom you would like to receive the property. Be as descriptive as you can, stating the beneficiary’s full name and relationship to you. When describing property, do so in a way that will be unambiguous. For instance, provide the exact address of a house rather than just saying “my home.” • Print your name, your current city and state of residence, and the date at the bottom of your document. Include a line for your signature. Below this line, create three additional areas for the names, addresses and signatures of your witnesses. • Sign your will in front of three disinterested witnesses. A disinterested witness is someone who is not a named beneficiary in your will. After you have signed, have the witnesses provide their information and signatures on the appropriate lines.

Wills and Trusts Attorney Free Consultation

When you need legal help with a will or trust in Utah, please call Ascent Law LLC for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C <span itemprop=”addressLocality”>West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

How Long Does A Loan Modification Last?

At What Age Should You Make A Last Will And Testament?

Criminal Defense Lawyer Park City Utah

How Do You Tell Your Husband You Want A Trial Separation?

Is Possession Of A Controlled Substance A Felony In Utah?

What Are The Grounds For Legal Separation In Utah?

Source: https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/is-it-legal-to-hand-write-a-will-in-utah/

[asafeatherwould]

Is It Legal To Hand Write A Will In Utah?

Wills written by hand (not typed or created on a computer or word processor), also known as holographic wills, are only valid in a few states. However, there may be very specific requirements. For example, California requires that all sections of the will necessary to make the will valid must be written entirely by hand, and that the person writing the will must sign it. If these state rules aren’t followed, the holographic will won’t be valid. Sometimes a handwritten will is better than no will at all, sometimes it’s not. If the person writing the will doesn’t know how to write a will and leaves out important language, or if the holographic will creates ambiguity or an unintended result, then the intended property might end up going to the wrong person. If the person’s property would have gone to family members under the state laws that cover property when there’s no will (a process known as intestate succession), having no will might have achieved a result closer to the will writer’s real intentions. Drafting your own will is not as complicated as one might think. In fact, anyone can do it from their own home with a pen, paper, and two witnesses. The requirements to create your own legal will in Utah are:

• You must be at least 18 years old • You must be “of sound mind” (the fact that you are reading and understanding this article is sufficient evidence that you meet this test) • You must write the will, whether typewritten or handwritten • You must sign the will in the presence of two witnesses; and • The two witnesses must also sign the will

It is also recommended that the will be dated, an executor named, and that the witnesses sign a self proving notarized affidavit so that their testimonies aren’t needed at subsequent probate court proceedings. There is no requirement that a will be recorded or filed with a government agency or that it be notarized. Alternatively, in Utah you can create a legally enforceable will without any witnesses by creating what’s called a “holographic will”. A holographic will is simply a will where the signature and material portions of the will are in your own handwriting. While this might be simple to do, it comes under extra scrutiny in probate court and that is why it is almost always worth the little bit of effort to prepare a typed will and have it witnessed. Although it is easy to put off, everyone should have a will. A will specifies who gets your property when you die and can serve other vital purposes such as appointing a personal guardian to raise your minor children.

If you die without a will, a court decides who gets your property and who best fit to raise your children is. Written entirely in the handwriting of the testator but when all the words appearing on a paper in the handwriting of the testator are sufficient to constitute a valid holographic will, the fact that other words or printed matter appear thereon not in the handwriting of the testator, and not affecting the meaning of the words in such handwriting, shall not affect the validity of the will, and Subscribed by the testator, or with the testator’s name written in or on the will in the testator’s own handwriting, and Found after the testator’s death among the testator’s valuable papers or effects, or in a safe-deposit box or other safe place where it was deposited by the testator or under the testator’s authority, or in the possession or custody of some person with whom, or some firm or corporation with which, it was deposited by the testator or under the testator’s authority for safekeeping.

In simple terms, you can create a handwritten document solely in your own handwriting and signed by you who can serve as your last will and testament. It’s important to emphasize that no portion of the document may be typewritten and no witnesses or notaries are required. This type of will is best reserved for simple general outright bequests of an individual’s entire estate, but as previously mentioned; there are drawbacks to this type of will. Wills are routinely challenged due to vagueness or other ambiguities. It is challenging enough for attorneys to draft wills and include sufficient language to demonstrate the testator’s (maker of the will) intent. A person who chooses to write a holographic will may fail to provide certain material language that could affect the distribution of assets.

Such a person may fail to include certain property items or assets, and create confusion about who was to receive such items. Another reason not to rush to writing a holographic will is that consultation with an experienced estate planning attorney may help you think through options available to you that you otherwise would not have considered. Clearly, creating a holographic will is not a decision one should rush off to make. With a minimal amount of time and relatively small cost, you can consult with an attorney to draft your will and have the peace of mind of knowing it was drafted correctly. A holographic or handwritten will can be a binding legal document, in some states and in some circumstances. It’s not common, but executors sometimes come across a handwritten will, signed by the deceased person but without any witnesses’ signatures.

The first question to ask is whether or not the document you’ve found was really meant to be a will. The person might just have been making some notes, in preparation for writing a real will. Look for evidence that the writer intended the document to serve as a will, including:

• a statement that “this is my last will and testament” or something similar • language naming an executor • language that indicates an intent to leave specific items of property (or “all my property”) to a named person or persons, and • a signature at the end. Some other states allow a holographic will to be probated if it was valid under the law of the state where it was signed. Finally, if the circumstances were unusual the deceased person was a soldier at war or a sailor at sea when the will was made—Maryland, New York, and Rhode Island allow holographic wills. But state law provides that the wills become invalid soon after discharge from the military or return to land. Proving the Validity of a Holographic Will After the person who wrote the will has passed away, it’s more difficult to prove the validity of a holographic will in probate court. The whole point of having witnesses watch someone sign a will, after all, is so that if there’s any question about the will’s validity, the witnesses can come to court and testify. They can state that they heard the person say the document being signed was his or her will, and that the person seemed aware of what he or she was doing and was not under the undue influence of someone hoping to inherit. If you’re an executor submitting a holographic will to probate, you must show: The entire will, or at least all the significant parts, is in the handwriting of the deceased person. That means a fill-in-the-blanks will form isn’t valid if the important parts—the clauses that leave property are preprinted. There must be evidence that the handwriting and signature are in fact those of the person who has died. This may be supplied by the testimony of people who were familiar with the person’s handwriting, or if there is an argument over the will’s validity, by an expert in handwriting analysis. The person intended the document to serve as a will. That’s usually shown by the language of the document itself, as discussed above. It might also be useful to have testimony from others, if the deceased person told them about the will. Traditionally, a will must be signed by witnesses attesting to the validity of the testator’s signature and intent, but in many jurisdictions, holographic wills that have not been witnessed are treated equally to witnessed wills and need only to meet minimal requirements in order to be probated: • There must be evidence that the testator actually created the will, which can be proved through the use of witnesses, handwriting experts, or other methods. • The testator must have had the intellectual capacity to write the will, although there is a presumption that a testator had such capacity unless there is evidence to the contrary. • The testator must be expressing a wish to direct the distribution of his or her estate to beneficiaries. Holographic wills are common and are often created in emergency situations, such as when the testator is alone, trapped, and near death. Jurisdictions that do not generally recognize unwitnessed holographic wills will accordingly grant exceptions to members of the armed services who are involved in armed conflicts and sailors at sea, though in both cases the validity of the holographic will expires at a certain time after it is drafted. Holographic wills often show that the requirements for making a valid will are minimal.

How to Write A Handwritten Legal Will

If you do not have a will, you are leaving the state to decide on the distribution of all your possessions. If you have any possessions of value or any sentimental possessions you wish to go to specific individuals, you should have a legal will. Control where your possessions go. If you have extensive property and your wishes regarding the disposition of it are complex, you are probably well-advised to have your will written up by a lawyer. If on the other hand you have limited property and you can state your wishes clearly and concisely, a hand-written will could be quite adequate. Plus, you could be saving yourself hundreds of dollars. Correctly hand-written wills, known as holographic wills, are legal in only half of the states in the United States and only about half the provinces in Canada. There are also slight variations, between states, as to what constitutes a legal hand-written will. Do some research to find out what is legal in your state. If a hand-written law is legal it must be done, with slight variations, in the following way. Understand all requirements. To write a legal hand-written will, you must be of sound mind at the time of writing. Your doctor, dentist and many others who are part of your life would know this so it is not usually a concern unless you are in a position where the state of your mind is already in question. Write your will by hand. the will must be written from start to finish in your handwriting. None of the will can be typed and none of it can be printed or written by other than yourself. If even one word of the will is typed or written by anyone other than you, the will cannot be legal.

How to Make a Will Without a Lawyer

A lawyer is helpful in the will creation process because you can be confident that your will has been drafted according to your state’s laws. An attorney’s help is not essential, however. If you feel confident that you can navigate your state’s laws and express your wishes on paper in a clear and unambiguous way, you can make your own will. Each state has different formal requirements, but you may opt to comply with the laws of every state to help ensure that your will is valid. • Start a new word processing document or begin writing in ink on a blank sheet of paper. No state is particularly picky about the precise form your will takes, but most require it to be printed in ink. • Specify that the document you are creating is your will. Title the document “Last Will and Testament” and identify yourself on the first line by stating your name, city and state of residence, birth date, and your intent to create a final will. • Identify your spouse or most recent ex-spouse by name if applicable. Also supply the date and location of the marriage or divorce. • State the number of children you have who are currently living and supply their names. If any of your children are minors who will need care in the event of your death, state that you select a specific individual to act as your children’s guardian. Appoint one or two additional individuals who may act as alternate guardians. • Appoint an individual to act as your estate’s personal representative. This individual will handle the legal processes involving your will and oversee the disposition of your assets to your beneficiaries. Appoint one or two additional individuals who may act as alternate personal representatives. • Identify clearly any property you are giving away and the person whom you would like to receive the property. Be as descriptive as you can, stating the beneficiary’s full name and relationship to you. When describing property, do so in a way that will be unambiguous. For instance, provide the exact address of a house rather than just saying “my home.” • Print your name, your current city and state of residence, and the date at the bottom of your document. Include a line for your signature. Below this line, create three additional areas for the names, addresses and signatures of your witnesses. • Sign your will in front of three disinterested witnesses. A disinterested witness is someone who is not a named beneficiary in your will. After you have signed, have the witnesses provide their information and signatures on the appropriate lines.

Wills and Trusts Attorney Free Consultation

When you need legal help with a will or trust in Utah, please call Ascent Law LLC for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C <span itemprop=”addressLocality”>West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

How Long Does A Loan Modification Last?

At What Age Should You Make A Last Will And Testament?

Criminal Defense Lawyer Park City Utah

How Do You Tell Your Husband You Want A Trial Separation?

Is Possession Of A Controlled Substance A Felony In Utah?

What Are The Grounds For Legal Separation In Utah?

Source: https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/is-it-legal-to-hand-write-a-will-in-utah/

[mayarosa47]

Is It Legal To Hand Write A Will In Utah?

Wills written by hand (not typed or created on a computer or word processor), also known as holographic wills, are only valid in a few states. However, there may be very specific requirements. For example, California requires that all sections of the will necessary to make the will valid must be written entirely by hand, and that the person writing the will must sign it. If these state rules aren’t followed, the holographic will won’t be valid. Sometimes a handwritten will is better than no will at all, sometimes it’s not. If the person writing the will doesn’t know how to write a will and leaves out important language, or if the holographic will creates ambiguity or an unintended result, then the intended property might end up going to the wrong person. If the person’s property would have gone to family members under the state laws that cover property when there’s no will (a process known as intestate succession), having no will might have achieved a result closer to the will writer’s real intentions. Drafting your own will is not as complicated as one might think. In fact, anyone can do it from their own home with a pen, paper, and two witnesses. The requirements to create your own legal will in Utah are:

• You must be at least 18 years old • You must be “of sound mind” (the fact that you are reading and understanding this article is sufficient evidence that you meet this test) • You must write the will, whether typewritten or handwritten • You must sign the will in the presence of two witnesses; and • The two witnesses must also sign the will

It is also recommended that the will be dated, an executor named, and that the witnesses sign a self proving notarized affidavit so that their testimonies aren’t needed at subsequent probate court proceedings. There is no requirement that a will be recorded or filed with a government agency or that it be notarized. Alternatively, in Utah you can create a legally enforceable will without any witnesses by creating what’s called a “holographic will”. A holographic will is simply a will where the signature and material portions of the will are in your own handwriting. While this might be simple to do, it comes under extra scrutiny in probate court and that is why it is almost always worth the little bit of effort to prepare a typed will and have it witnessed. Although it is easy to put off, everyone should have a will. A will specifies who gets your property when you die and can serve other vital purposes such as appointing a personal guardian to raise your minor children.

If you die without a will, a court decides who gets your property and who best fit to raise your children is. Written entirely in the handwriting of the testator but when all the words appearing on a paper in the handwriting of the testator are sufficient to constitute a valid holographic will, the fact that other words or printed matter appear thereon not in the handwriting of the testator, and not affecting the meaning of the words in such handwriting, shall not affect the validity of the will, and Subscribed by the testator, or with the testator’s name written in or on the will in the testator’s own handwriting, and Found after the testator’s death among the testator’s valuable papers or effects, or in a safe-deposit box or other safe place where it was deposited by the testator or under the testator’s authority, or in the possession or custody of some person with whom, or some firm or corporation with which, it was deposited by the testator or under the testator’s authority for safekeeping.

In simple terms, you can create a handwritten document solely in your own handwriting and signed by you who can serve as your last will and testament. It’s important to emphasize that no portion of the document may be typewritten and no witnesses or notaries are required. This type of will is best reserved for simple general outright bequests of an individual’s entire estate, but as previously mentioned; there are drawbacks to this type of will. Wills are routinely challenged due to vagueness or other ambiguities. It is challenging enough for attorneys to draft wills and include sufficient language to demonstrate the testator’s (maker of the will) intent. A person who chooses to write a holographic will may fail to provide certain material language that could affect the distribution of assets.

Such a person may fail to include certain property items or assets, and create confusion about who was to receive such items. Another reason not to rush to writing a holographic will is that consultation with an experienced estate planning attorney may help you think through options available to you that you otherwise would not have considered. Clearly, creating a holographic will is not a decision one should rush off to make. With a minimal amount of time and relatively small cost, you can consult with an attorney to draft your will and have the peace of mind of knowing it was drafted correctly. A holographic or handwritten will can be a binding legal document, in some states and in some circumstances. It’s not common, but executors sometimes come across a handwritten will, signed by the deceased person but without any witnesses’ signatures.

The first question to ask is whether or not the document you’ve found was really meant to be a will. The person might just have been making some notes, in preparation for writing a real will. Look for evidence that the writer intended the document to serve as a will, including:

• a statement that “this is my last will and testament” or something similar • language naming an executor • language that indicates an intent to leave specific items of property (or “all my property”) to a named person or persons, and • a signature at the end. Some other states allow a holographic will to be probated if it was valid under the law of the state where it was signed. Finally, if the circumstances were unusual the deceased person was a soldier at war or a sailor at sea when the will was made—Maryland, New York, and Rhode Island allow holographic wills. But state law provides that the wills become invalid soon after discharge from the military or return to land. Proving the Validity of a Holographic Will After the person who wrote the will has passed away, it’s more difficult to prove the validity of a holographic will in probate court. The whole point of having witnesses watch someone sign a will, after all, is so that if there’s any question about the will’s validity, the witnesses can come to court and testify. They can state that they heard the person say the document being signed was his or her will, and that the person seemed aware of what he or she was doing and was not under the undue influence of someone hoping to inherit. If you’re an executor submitting a holographic will to probate, you must show: The entire will, or at least all the significant parts, is in the handwriting of the deceased person. That means a fill-in-the-blanks will form isn’t valid if the important parts—the clauses that leave property are preprinted. There must be evidence that the handwriting and signature are in fact those of the person who has died. This may be supplied by the testimony of people who were familiar with the person’s handwriting, or if there is an argument over the will’s validity, by an expert in handwriting analysis. The person intended the document to serve as a will. That’s usually shown by the language of the document itself, as discussed above. It might also be useful to have testimony from others, if the deceased person told them about the will. Traditionally, a will must be signed by witnesses attesting to the validity of the testator’s signature and intent, but in many jurisdictions, holographic wills that have not been witnessed are treated equally to witnessed wills and need only to meet minimal requirements in order to be probated: • There must be evidence that the testator actually created the will, which can be proved through the use of witnesses, handwriting experts, or other methods. • The testator must have had the intellectual capacity to write the will, although there is a presumption that a testator had such capacity unless there is evidence to the contrary. • The testator must be expressing a wish to direct the distribution of his or her estate to beneficiaries. Holographic wills are common and are often created in emergency situations, such as when the testator is alone, trapped, and near death. Jurisdictions that do not generally recognize unwitnessed holographic wills will accordingly grant exceptions to members of the armed services who are involved in armed conflicts and sailors at sea, though in both cases the validity of the holographic will expires at a certain time after it is drafted. Holographic wills often show that the requirements for making a valid will are minimal.

How to Write A Handwritten Legal Will

If you do not have a will, you are leaving the state to decide on the distribution of all your possessions. If you have any possessions of value or any sentimental possessions you wish to go to specific individuals, you should have a legal will. Control where your possessions go. If you have extensive property and your wishes regarding the disposition of it are complex, you are probably well-advised to have your will written up by a lawyer. If on the other hand you have limited property and you can state your wishes clearly and concisely, a hand-written will could be quite adequate. Plus, you could be saving yourself hundreds of dollars. Correctly hand-written wills, known as holographic wills, are legal in only half of the states in the United States and only about half the provinces in Canada. There are also slight variations, between states, as to what constitutes a legal hand-written will. Do some research to find out what is legal in your state. If a hand-written law is legal it must be done, with slight variations, in the following way. Understand all requirements. To write a legal hand-written will, you must be of sound mind at the time of writing. Your doctor, dentist and many others who are part of your life would know this so it is not usually a concern unless you are in a position where the state of your mind is already in question. Write your will by hand. the will must be written from start to finish in your handwriting. None of the will can be typed and none of it can be printed or written by other than yourself. If even one word of the will is typed or written by anyone other than you, the will cannot be legal.

How to Make a Will Without a Lawyer

A lawyer is helpful in the will creation process because you can be confident that your will has been drafted according to your state’s laws. An attorney’s help is not essential, however. If you feel confident that you can navigate your state’s laws and express your wishes on paper in a clear and unambiguous way, you can make your own will. Each state has different formal requirements, but you may opt to comply with the laws of every state to help ensure that your will is valid. • Start a new word processing document or begin writing in ink on a blank sheet of paper. No state is particularly picky about the precise form your will takes, but most require it to be printed in ink. • Specify that the document you are creating is your will. Title the document “Last Will and Testament” and identify yourself on the first line by stating your name, city and state of residence, birth date, and your intent to create a final will. • Identify your spouse or most recent ex-spouse by name if applicable. Also supply the date and location of the marriage or divorce. • State the number of children you have who are currently living and supply their names. If any of your children are minors who will need care in the event of your death, state that you select a specific individual to act as your children’s guardian. Appoint one or two additional individuals who may act as alternate guardians. • Appoint an individual to act as your estate’s personal representative. This individual will handle the legal processes involving your will and oversee the disposition of your assets to your beneficiaries. Appoint one or two additional individuals who may act as alternate personal representatives. • Identify clearly any property you are giving away and the person whom you would like to receive the property. Be as descriptive as you can, stating the beneficiary’s full name and relationship to you. When describing property, do so in a way that will be unambiguous. For instance, provide the exact address of a house rather than just saying “my home.” • Print your name, your current city and state of residence, and the date at the bottom of your document. Include a line for your signature. Below this line, create three additional areas for the names, addresses and signatures of your witnesses. • Sign your will in front of three disinterested witnesses. A disinterested witness is someone who is not a named beneficiary in your will. After you have signed, have the witnesses provide their information and signatures on the appropriate lines.

Wills and Trusts Attorney Free Consultation

When you need legal help with a will or trust in Utah, please call Ascent Law LLC for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C itemprop=”addressLocality”>West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

How Long Does A Loan Modification Last?

At What Age Should You Make A Last Will And Testament?

Criminal Defense Lawyer Park City Utah

How Do You Tell Your Husband You Want A Trial Separation?

Is Possession Of A Controlled Substance A Felony In Utah?

What Are The Grounds For Legal Separation In Utah?

from https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/is-it-legal-to-hand-write-a-will-in-utah/

from Criminal Defense Lawyer West Jordan Utah - Blog http://criminaldefenselawyerwestjordanutah.weebly.com/blog/is-it-legal-to-hand-write-a-will-in-utah

[melissawalker01]

Is It Legal To Hand Write A Will In Utah?

Wills written by hand (not typed or created on a computer or word processor), also known as holographic wills, are only valid in a few states. However, there may be very specific requirements. For example, California requires that all sections of the will necessary to make the will valid must be written entirely by hand, and that the person writing the will must sign it. If these state rules aren’t followed, the holographic will won’t be valid. Sometimes a handwritten will is better than no will at all, sometimes it’s not. If the person writing the will doesn’t know how to write a will and leaves out important language, or if the holographic will creates ambiguity or an unintended result, then the intended property might end up going to the wrong person. If the person’s property would have gone to family members under the state laws that cover property when there’s no will (a process known as intestate succession), having no will might have achieved a result closer to the will writer’s real intentions. Drafting your own will is not as complicated as one might think. In fact, anyone can do it from their own home with a pen, paper, and two witnesses. The requirements to create your own legal will in Utah are:

• You must be at least 18 years old • You must be “of sound mind” (the fact that you are reading and understanding this article is sufficient evidence that you meet this test) • You must write the will, whether typewritten or handwritten • You must sign the will in the presence of two witnesses; and • The two witnesses must also sign the will

It is also recommended that the will be dated, an executor named, and that the witnesses sign a self proving notarized affidavit so that their testimonies aren’t needed at subsequent probate court proceedings. There is no requirement that a will be recorded or filed with a government agency or that it be notarized. Alternatively, in Utah you can create a legally enforceable will without any witnesses by creating what’s called a “holographic will”. A holographic will is simply a will where the signature and material portions of the will are in your own handwriting. While this might be simple to do, it comes under extra scrutiny in probate court and that is why it is almost always worth the little bit of effort to prepare a typed will and have it witnessed. Although it is easy to put off, everyone should have a will. A will specifies who gets your property when you die and can serve other vital purposes such as appointing a personal guardian to raise your minor children.

If you die without a will, a court decides who gets your property and who best fit to raise your children is. Written entirely in the handwriting of the testator but when all the words appearing on a paper in the handwriting of the testator are sufficient to constitute a valid holographic will, the fact that other words or printed matter appear thereon not in the handwriting of the testator, and not affecting the meaning of the words in such handwriting, shall not affect the validity of the will, and Subscribed by the testator, or with the testator’s name written in or on the will in the testator’s own handwriting, and Found after the testator’s death among the testator’s valuable papers or effects, or in a safe-deposit box or other safe place where it was deposited by the testator or under the testator’s authority, or in the possession or custody of some person with whom, or some firm or corporation with which, it was deposited by the testator or under the testator’s authority for safekeeping.

In simple terms, you can create a handwritten document solely in your own handwriting and signed by you who can serve as your last will and testament. It’s important to emphasize that no portion of the document may be typewritten and no witnesses or notaries are required. This type of will is best reserved for simple general outright bequests of an individual’s entire estate, but as previously mentioned; there are drawbacks to this type of will. Wills are routinely challenged due to vagueness or other ambiguities. It is challenging enough for attorneys to draft wills and include sufficient language to demonstrate the testator’s (maker of the will) intent. A person who chooses to write a holographic will may fail to provide certain material language that could affect the distribution of assets.

Such a person may fail to include certain property items or assets, and create confusion about who was to receive such items. Another reason not to rush to writing a holographic will is that consultation with an experienced estate planning attorney may help you think through options available to you that you otherwise would not have considered. Clearly, creating a holographic will is not a decision one should rush off to make. With a minimal amount of time and relatively small cost, you can consult with an attorney to draft your will and have the peace of mind of knowing it was drafted correctly. A holographic or handwritten will can be a binding legal document, in some states and in some circumstances. It’s not common, but executors sometimes come across a handwritten will, signed by the deceased person but without any witnesses’ signatures.

The first question to ask is whether or not the document you’ve found was really meant to be a will. The person might just have been making some notes, in preparation for writing a real will. Look for evidence that the writer intended the document to serve as a will, including:

• a statement that “this is my last will and testament” or something similar • language naming an executor • language that indicates an intent to leave specific items of property (or “all my property”) to a named person or persons, and • a signature at the end. Some other states allow a holographic will to be probated if it was valid under the law of the state where it was signed. Finally, if the circumstances were unusual the deceased person was a soldier at war or a sailor at sea when the will was made—Maryland, New York, and Rhode Island allow holographic wills. But state law provides that the wills become invalid soon after discharge from the military or return to land. Proving the Validity of a Holographic Will After the person who wrote the will has passed away, it’s more difficult to prove the validity of a holographic will in probate court. The whole point of having witnesses watch someone sign a will, after all, is so that if there’s any question about the will’s validity, the witnesses can come to court and testify. They can state that they heard the person say the document being signed was his or her will, and that the person seemed aware of what he or she was doing and was not under the undue influence of someone hoping to inherit. If you’re an executor submitting a holographic will to probate, you must show: The entire will, or at least all the significant parts, is in the handwriting of the deceased person. That means a fill-in-the-blanks will form isn’t valid if the important parts—the clauses that leave property are preprinted. There must be evidence that the handwriting and signature are in fact those of the person who has died. This may be supplied by the testimony of people who were familiar with the person’s handwriting, or if there is an argument over the will’s validity, by an expert in handwriting analysis. The person intended the document to serve as a will. That’s usually shown by the language of the document itself, as discussed above. It might also be useful to have testimony from others, if the deceased person told them about the will. Traditionally, a will must be signed by witnesses attesting to the validity of the testator’s signature and intent, but in many jurisdictions, holographic wills that have not been witnessed are treated equally to witnessed wills and need only to meet minimal requirements in order to be probated: • There must be evidence that the testator actually created the will, which can be proved through the use of witnesses, handwriting experts, or other methods. • The testator must have had the intellectual capacity to write the will, although there is a presumption that a testator had such capacity unless there is evidence to the contrary. • The testator must be expressing a wish to direct the distribution of his or her estate to beneficiaries. Holographic wills are common and are often created in emergency situations, such as when the testator is alone, trapped, and near death. Jurisdictions that do not generally recognize unwitnessed holographic wills will accordingly grant exceptions to members of the armed services who are involved in armed conflicts and sailors at sea, though in both cases the validity of the holographic will expires at a certain time after it is drafted. Holographic wills often show that the requirements for making a valid will are minimal.

How to Write A Handwritten Legal Will

If you do not have a will, you are leaving the state to decide on the distribution of all your possessions. If you have any possessions of value or any sentimental possessions you wish to go to specific individuals, you should have a legal will. Control where your possessions go. If you have extensive property and your wishes regarding the disposition of it are complex, you are probably well-advised to have your will written up by a lawyer. If on the other hand you have limited property and you can state your wishes clearly and concisely, a hand-written will could be quite adequate. Plus, you could be saving yourself hundreds of dollars. Correctly hand-written wills, known as holographic wills, are legal in only half of the states in the United States and only about half the provinces in Canada. There are also slight variations, between states, as to what constitutes a legal hand-written will. Do some research to find out what is legal in your state. If a hand-written law is legal it must be done, with slight variations, in the following way. Understand all requirements. To write a legal hand-written will, you must be of sound mind at the time of writing. Your doctor, dentist and many others who are part of your life would know this so it is not usually a concern unless you are in a position where the state of your mind is already in question. Write your will by hand. the will must be written from start to finish in your handwriting. None of the will can be typed and none of it can be printed or written by other than yourself. If even one word of the will is typed or written by anyone other than you, the will cannot be legal.

How to Make a Will Without a Lawyer

A lawyer is helpful in the will creation process because you can be confident that your will has been drafted according to your state’s laws. An attorney’s help is not essential, however. If you feel confident that you can navigate your state’s laws and express your wishes on paper in a clear and unambiguous way, you can make your own will. Each state has different formal requirements, but you may opt to comply with the laws of every state to help ensure that your will is valid. • Start a new word processing document or begin writing in ink on a blank sheet of paper. No state is particularly picky about the precise form your will takes, but most require it to be printed in ink. • Specify that the document you are creating is your will. Title the document “Last Will and Testament” and identify yourself on the first line by stating your name, city and state of residence, birth date, and your intent to create a final will. • Identify your spouse or most recent ex-spouse by name if applicable. Also supply the date and location of the marriage or divorce. • State the number of children you have who are currently living and supply their names. If any of your children are minors who will need care in the event of your death, state that you select a specific individual to act as your children’s guardian. Appoint one or two additional individuals who may act as alternate guardians. • Appoint an individual to act as your estate’s personal representative. This individual will handle the legal processes involving your will and oversee the disposition of your assets to your beneficiaries. Appoint one or two additional individuals who may act as alternate personal representatives. • Identify clearly any property you are giving away and the person whom you would like to receive the property. Be as descriptive as you can, stating the beneficiary’s full name and relationship to you. When describing property, do so in a way that will be unambiguous. For instance, provide the exact address of a house rather than just saying “my home.” • Print your name, your current city and state of residence, and the date at the bottom of your document. Include a line for your signature. Below this line, create three additional areas for the names, addresses and signatures of your witnesses. • Sign your will in front of three disinterested witnesses. A disinterested witness is someone who is not a named beneficiary in your will. After you have signed, have the witnesses provide their information and signatures on the appropriate lines.

Wills and Trusts Attorney Free Consultation

When you need legal help with a will or trust in Utah, please call Ascent Law LLC for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C itemprop=”addressLocality”>West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

How Long Does A Loan Modification Last?

At What Age Should You Make A Last Will And Testament?

Criminal Defense Lawyer Park City Utah

How Do You Tell Your Husband You Want A Trial Separation?

Is Possession Of A Controlled Substance A Felony In Utah?

What Are The Grounds For Legal Separation In Utah?

from Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/is-it-legal-to-hand-write-a-will-in-utah/ from Divorce Lawyer Nelson Farms Utah https://divorcelawyernelsonfarmsutah.tumblr.com/post/611533786690306048

[divorcelawyergunnisonutah]

Is It Legal To Hand Write A Will In Utah?

Wills written by hand (not typed or created on a computer or word processor), also known as holographic wills, are only valid in a few states. However, there may be very specific requirements. For example, California requires that all sections of the will necessary to make the will valid must be written entirely by hand, and that the person writing the will must sign it. If these state rules aren’t followed, the holographic will won’t be valid. Sometimes a handwritten will is better than no will at all, sometimes it’s not. If the person writing the will doesn’t know how to write a will and leaves out important language, or if the holographic will creates ambiguity or an unintended result, then the intended property might end up going to the wrong person. If the person’s property would have gone to family members under the state laws that cover property when there’s no will (a process known as intestate succession), having no will might have achieved a result closer to the will writer’s real intentions. Drafting your own will is not as complicated as one might think. In fact, anyone can do it from their own home with a pen, paper, and two witnesses. The requirements to create your own legal will in Utah are:

• You must be at least 18 years old • You must be “of sound mind” (the fact that you are reading and understanding this article is sufficient evidence that you meet this test) • You must write the will, whether typewritten or handwritten • You must sign the will in the presence of two witnesses; and • The two witnesses must also sign the will

It is also recommended that the will be dated, an executor named, and that the witnesses sign a self proving notarized affidavit so that their testimonies aren’t needed at subsequent probate court proceedings. There is no requirement that a will be recorded or filed with a government agency or that it be notarized. Alternatively, in Utah you can create a legally enforceable will without any witnesses by creating what’s called a “holographic will”. A holographic will is simply a will where the signature and material portions of the will are in your own handwriting. While this might be simple to do, it comes under extra scrutiny in probate court and that is why it is almost always worth the little bit of effort to prepare a typed will and have it witnessed. Although it is easy to put off, everyone should have a will. A will specifies who gets your property when you die and can serve other vital purposes such as appointing a personal guardian to raise your minor children.

If you die without a will, a court decides who gets your property and who best fit to raise your children is. Written entirely in the handwriting of the testator but when all the words appearing on a paper in the handwriting of the testator are sufficient to constitute a valid holographic will, the fact that other words or printed matter appear thereon not in the handwriting of the testator, and not affecting the meaning of the words in such handwriting, shall not affect the validity of the will, and Subscribed by the testator, or with the testator’s name written in or on the will in the testator’s own handwriting, and Found after the testator’s death among the testator’s valuable papers or effects, or in a safe-deposit box or other safe place where it was deposited by the testator or under the testator’s authority, or in the possession or custody of some person with whom, or some firm or corporation with which, it was deposited by the testator or under the testator’s authority for safekeeping.

In simple terms, you can create a handwritten document solely in your own handwriting and signed by you who can serve as your last will and testament. It’s important to emphasize that no portion of the document may be typewritten and no witnesses or notaries are required. This type of will is best reserved for simple general outright bequests of an individual’s entire estate, but as previously mentioned; there are drawbacks to this type of will. Wills are routinely challenged due to vagueness or other ambiguities. It is challenging enough for attorneys to draft wills and include sufficient language to demonstrate the testator’s (maker of the will) intent. A person who chooses to write a holographic will may fail to provide certain material language that could affect the distribution of assets.

Such a person may fail to include certain property items or assets, and create confusion about who was to receive such items. Another reason not to rush to writing a holographic will is that consultation with an experienced estate planning attorney may help you think through options available to you that you otherwise would not have considered. Clearly, creating a holographic will is not a decision one should rush off to make. With a minimal amount of time and relatively small cost, you can consult with an attorney to draft your will and have the peace of mind of knowing it was drafted correctly. A holographic or handwritten will can be a binding legal document, in some states and in some circumstances. It’s not common, but executors sometimes come across a handwritten will, signed by the deceased person but without any witnesses’ signatures.

The first question to ask is whether or not the document you’ve found was really meant to be a will. The person might just have been making some notes, in preparation for writing a real will. Look for evidence that the writer intended the document to serve as a will, including:

• a statement that “this is my last will and testament” or something similar • language naming an executor • language that indicates an intent to leave specific items of property (or “all my property”) to a named person or persons, and • a signature at the end. Some other states allow a holographic will to be probated if it was valid under the law of the state where it was signed. Finally, if the circumstances were unusual the deceased person was a soldier at war or a sailor at sea when the will was made—Maryland, New York, and Rhode Island allow holographic wills. But state law provides that the wills become invalid soon after discharge from the military or return to land. Proving the Validity of a Holographic Will After the person who wrote the will has passed away, it’s more difficult to prove the validity of a holographic will in probate court. The whole point of having witnesses watch someone sign a will, after all, is so that if there’s any question about the will’s validity, the witnesses can come to court and testify. They can state that they heard the person say the document being signed was his or her will, and that the person seemed aware of what he or she was doing and was not under the undue influence of someone hoping to inherit. If you’re an executor submitting a holographic will to probate, you must show: The entire will, or at least all the significant parts, is in the handwriting of the deceased person. That means a fill-in-the-blanks will form isn’t valid if the important parts—the clauses that leave property are preprinted. There must be evidence that the handwriting and signature are in fact those of the person who has died. This may be supplied by the testimony of people who were familiar with the person’s handwriting, or if there is an argument over the will’s validity, by an expert in handwriting analysis. The person intended the document to serve as a will. That’s usually shown by the language of the document itself, as discussed above. It might also be useful to have testimony from others, if the deceased person told them about the will. Traditionally, a will must be signed by witnesses attesting to the validity of the testator’s signature and intent, but in many jurisdictions, holographic wills that have not been witnessed are treated equally to witnessed wills and need only to meet minimal requirements in order to be probated: • There must be evidence that the testator actually created the will, which can be proved through the use of witnesses, handwriting experts, or other methods. • The testator must have had the intellectual capacity to write the will, although there is a presumption that a testator had such capacity unless there is evidence to the contrary. • The testator must be expressing a wish to direct the distribution of his or her estate to beneficiaries. Holographic wills are common and are often created in emergency situations, such as when the testator is alone, trapped, and near death. Jurisdictions that do not generally recognize unwitnessed holographic wills will accordingly grant exceptions to members of the armed services who are involved in armed conflicts and sailors at sea, though in both cases the validity of the holographic will expires at a certain time after it is drafted. Holographic wills often show that the requirements for making a valid will are minimal.

How to Write A Handwritten Legal Will

If you do not have a will, you are leaving the state to decide on the distribution of all your possessions. If you have any possessions of value or any sentimental possessions you wish to go to specific individuals, you should have a legal will. Control where your possessions go. If you have extensive property and your wishes regarding the disposition of it are complex, you are probably well-advised to have your will written up by a lawyer. If on the other hand you have limited property and you can state your wishes clearly and concisely, a hand-written will could be quite adequate. Plus, you could be saving yourself hundreds of dollars. Correctly hand-written wills, known as holographic wills, are legal in only half of the states in the United States and only about half the provinces in Canada. There are also slight variations, between states, as to what constitutes a legal hand-written will. Do some research to find out what is legal in your state. If a hand-written law is legal it must be done, with slight variations, in the following way. Understand all requirements. To write a legal hand-written will, you must be of sound mind at the time of writing. Your doctor, dentist and many others who are part of your life would know this so it is not usually a concern unless you are in a position where the state of your mind is already in question. Write your will by hand. the will must be written from start to finish in your handwriting. None of the will can be typed and none of it can be printed or written by other than yourself. If even one word of the will is typed or written by anyone other than you, the will cannot be legal.

How to Make a Will Without a Lawyer

A lawyer is helpful in the will creation process because you can be confident that your will has been drafted according to your state’s laws. An attorney’s help is not essential, however. If you feel confident that you can navigate your state’s laws and express your wishes on paper in a clear and unambiguous way, you can make your own will. Each state has different formal requirements, but you may opt to comply with the laws of every state to help ensure that your will is valid. • Start a new word processing document or begin writing in ink on a blank sheet of paper. No state is particularly picky about the precise form your will takes, but most require it to be printed in ink. • Specify that the document you are creating is your will. Title the document “Last Will and Testament” and identify yourself on the first line by stating your name, city and state of residence, birth date, and your intent to create a final will. • Identify your spouse or most recent ex-spouse by name if applicable. Also supply the date and location of the marriage or divorce. • State the number of children you have who are currently living and supply their names. If any of your children are minors who will need care in the event of your death, state that you select a specific individual to act as your children’s guardian. Appoint one or two additional individuals who may act as alternate guardians. • Appoint an individual to act as your estate’s personal representative. This individual will handle the legal processes involving your will and oversee the disposition of your assets to your beneficiaries. Appoint one or two additional individuals who may act as alternate personal representatives. • Identify clearly any property you are giving away and the person whom you would like to receive the property. Be as descriptive as you can, stating the beneficiary’s full name and relationship to you. When describing property, do so in a way that will be unambiguous. For instance, provide the exact address of a house rather than just saying “my home.” • Print your name, your current city and state of residence, and the date at the bottom of your document. Include a line for your signature. Below this line, create three additional areas for the names, addresses and signatures of your witnesses. • Sign your will in front of three disinterested witnesses. A disinterested witness is someone who is not a named beneficiary in your will. After you have signed, have the witnesses provide their information and signatures on the appropriate lines.

Wills and Trusts Attorney Free Consultation

When you need legal help with a will or trust in Utah, please call Ascent Law LLC for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C itemprop=”addressLocality”>West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

How Long Does A Loan Modification Last?

At What Age Should You Make A Last Will And Testament?

Criminal Defense Lawyer Park City Utah

How Do You Tell Your Husband You Want A Trial Separation?

Is Possession Of A Controlled Substance A Felony In Utah?

What Are The Grounds For Legal Separation In Utah?

from Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/is-it-legal-to-hand-write-a-will-in-utah/

[michaeljames1221]

Is It Legal To Hand Write A Will In Utah?

Wills written by hand (not typed or created on a computer or word processor), also known as holographic wills, are only valid in a few states. However, there may be very specific requirements. For example, California requires that all sections of the will necessary to make the will valid must be written entirely by hand, and that the person writing the will must sign it. If these state rules aren’t followed, the holographic will won’t be valid. Sometimes a handwritten will is better than no will at all, sometimes it’s not. If the person writing the will doesn’t know how to write a will and leaves out important language, or if the holographic will creates ambiguity or an unintended result, then the intended property might end up going to the wrong person. If the person’s property would have gone to family members under the state laws that cover property when there’s no will (a process known as intestate succession), having no will might have achieved a result closer to the will writer’s real intentions. Drafting your own will is not as complicated as one might think. In fact, anyone can do it from their own home with a pen, paper, and two witnesses. The requirements to create your own legal will in Utah are:

• You must be at least 18 years old • You must be “of sound mind” (the fact that you are reading and understanding this article is sufficient evidence that you meet this test) • You must write the will, whether typewritten or handwritten • You must sign the will in the presence of two witnesses; and • The two witnesses must also sign the will

It is also recommended that the will be dated, an executor named, and that the witnesses sign a self proving notarized affidavit so that their testimonies aren’t needed at subsequent probate court proceedings. There is no requirement that a will be recorded or filed with a government agency or that it be notarized. Alternatively, in Utah you can create a legally enforceable will without any witnesses by creating what’s called a “holographic will”. A holographic will is simply a will where the signature and material portions of the will are in your own handwriting. While this might be simple to do, it comes under extra scrutiny in probate court and that is why it is almost always worth the little bit of effort to prepare a typed will and have it witnessed. Although it is easy to put off, everyone should have a will. A will specifies who gets your property when you die and can serve other vital purposes such as appointing a personal guardian to raise your minor children.

If you die without a will, a court decides who gets your property and who best fit to raise your children is. Written entirely in the handwriting of the testator but when all the words appearing on a paper in the handwriting of the testator are sufficient to constitute a valid holographic will, the fact that other words or printed matter appear thereon not in the handwriting of the testator, and not affecting the meaning of the words in such handwriting, shall not affect the validity of the will, and Subscribed by the testator, or with the testator’s name written in or on the will in the testator’s own handwriting, and Found after the testator’s death among the testator’s valuable papers or effects, or in a safe-deposit box or other safe place where it was deposited by the testator or under the testator’s authority, or in the possession or custody of some person with whom, or some firm or corporation with which, it was deposited by the testator or under the testator’s authority for safekeeping.

In simple terms, you can create a handwritten document solely in your own handwriting and signed by you who can serve as your last will and testament. It’s important to emphasize that no portion of the document may be typewritten and no witnesses or notaries are required. This type of will is best reserved for simple general outright bequests of an individual’s entire estate, but as previously mentioned; there are drawbacks to this type of will. Wills are routinely challenged due to vagueness or other ambiguities. It is challenging enough for attorneys to draft wills and include sufficient language to demonstrate the testator’s (maker of the will) intent. A person who chooses to write a holographic will may fail to provide certain material language that could affect the distribution of assets.

Such a person may fail to include certain property items or assets, and create confusion about who was to receive such items. Another reason not to rush to writing a holographic will is that consultation with an experienced estate planning attorney may help you think through options available to you that you otherwise would not have considered. Clearly, creating a holographic will is not a decision one should rush off to make. With a minimal amount of time and relatively small cost, you can consult with an attorney to draft your will and have the peace of mind of knowing it was drafted correctly. A holographic or handwritten will can be a binding legal document, in some states and in some circumstances. It’s not common, but executors sometimes come across a handwritten will, signed by the deceased person but without any witnesses’ signatures.

The first question to ask is whether or not the document you’ve found was really meant to be a will. The person might just have been making some notes, in preparation for writing a real will. Look for evidence that the writer intended the document to serve as a will, including:

• a statement that “this is my last will and testament” or something similar • language naming an executor • language that indicates an intent to leave specific items of property (or “all my property”) to a named person or persons, and • a signature at the end. Some other states allow a holographic will to be probated if it was valid under the law of the state where it was signed. Finally, if the circumstances were unusual the deceased person was a soldier at war or a sailor at sea when the will was made—Maryland, New York, and Rhode Island allow holographic wills. But state law provides that the wills become invalid soon after discharge from the military or return to land. Proving the Validity of a Holographic Will After the person who wrote the will has passed away, it’s more difficult to prove the validity of a holographic will in probate court. The whole point of having witnesses watch someone sign a will, after all, is so that if there’s any question about the will’s validity, the witnesses can come to court and testify. They can state that they heard the person say the document being signed was his or her will, and that the person seemed aware of what he or she was doing and was not under the undue influence of someone hoping to inherit. If you’re an executor submitting a holographic will to probate, you must show: The entire will, or at least all the significant parts, is in the handwriting of the deceased person. That means a fill-in-the-blanks will form isn’t valid if the important parts—the clauses that leave property are preprinted. There must be evidence that the handwriting and signature are in fact those of the person who has died. This may be supplied by the testimony of people who were familiar with the person’s handwriting, or if there is an argument over the will’s validity, by an expert in handwriting analysis. The person intended the document to serve as a will. That’s usually shown by the language of the document itself, as discussed above. It might also be useful to have testimony from others, if the deceased person told them about the will. Traditionally, a will must be signed by witnesses attesting to the validity of the testator’s signature and intent, but in many jurisdictions, holographic wills that have not been witnessed are treated equally to witnessed wills and need only to meet minimal requirements in order to be probated: • There must be evidence that the testator actually created the will, which can be proved through the use of witnesses, handwriting experts, or other methods. • The testator must have had the intellectual capacity to write the will, although there is a presumption that a testator had such capacity unless there is evidence to the contrary. • The testator must be expressing a wish to direct the distribution of his or her estate to beneficiaries. Holographic wills are common and are often created in emergency situations, such as when the testator is alone, trapped, and near death. Jurisdictions that do not generally recognize unwitnessed holographic wills will accordingly grant exceptions to members of the armed services who are involved in armed conflicts and sailors at sea, though in both cases the validity of the holographic will expires at a certain time after it is drafted. Holographic wills often show that the requirements for making a valid will are minimal.

How to Write A Handwritten Legal Will

If you do not have a will, you are leaving the state to decide on the distribution of all your possessions. If you have any possessions of value or any sentimental possessions you wish to go to specific individuals, you should have a legal will. Control where your possessions go. If you have extensive property and your wishes regarding the disposition of it are complex, you are probably well-advised to have your will written up by a lawyer. If on the other hand you have limited property and you can state your wishes clearly and concisely, a hand-written will could be quite adequate. Plus, you could be saving yourself hundreds of dollars. Correctly hand-written wills, known as holographic wills, are legal in only half of the states in the United States and only about half the provinces in Canada. There are also slight variations, between states, as to what constitutes a legal hand-written will. Do some research to find out what is legal in your state. If a hand-written law is legal it must be done, with slight variations, in the following way. Understand all requirements. To write a legal hand-written will, you must be of sound mind at the time of writing. Your doctor, dentist and many others who are part of your life would know this so it is not usually a concern unless you are in a position where the state of your mind is already in question. Write your will by hand. the will must be written from start to finish in your handwriting. None of the will can be typed and none of it can be printed or written by other than yourself. If even one word of the will is typed or written by anyone other than you, the will cannot be legal.

How to Make a Will Without a Lawyer

A lawyer is helpful in the will creation process because you can be confident that your will has been drafted according to your state’s laws. An attorney’s help is not essential, however. If you feel confident that you can navigate your state’s laws and express your wishes on paper in a clear and unambiguous way, you can make your own will. Each state has different formal requirements, but you may opt to comply with the laws of every state to help ensure that your will is valid. • Start a new word processing document or begin writing in ink on a blank sheet of paper. No state is particularly picky about the precise form your will takes, but most require it to be printed in ink. • Specify that the document you are creating is your will. Title the document “Last Will and Testament” and identify yourself on the first line by stating your name, city and state of residence, birth date, and your intent to create a final will. • Identify your spouse or most recent ex-spouse by name if applicable. Also supply the date and location of the marriage or divorce. • State the number of children you have who are currently living and supply their names. If any of your children are minors who will need care in the event of your death, state that you select a specific individual to act as your children’s guardian. Appoint one or two additional individuals who may act as alternate guardians. • Appoint an individual to act as your estate’s personal representative. This individual will handle the legal processes involving your will and oversee the disposition of your assets to your beneficiaries. Appoint one or two additional individuals who may act as alternate personal representatives. • Identify clearly any property you are giving away and the person whom you would like to receive the property. Be as descriptive as you can, stating the beneficiary’s full name and relationship to you. When describing property, do so in a way that will be unambiguous. For instance, provide the exact address of a house rather than just saying “my home.” • Print your name, your current city and state of residence, and the date at the bottom of your document. Include a line for your signature. Below this line, create three additional areas for the names, addresses and signatures of your witnesses. • Sign your will in front of three disinterested witnesses. A disinterested witness is someone who is not a named beneficiary in your will. After you have signed, have the witnesses provide their information and signatures on the appropriate lines.

Wills and Trusts Attorney Free Consultation

When you need legal help with a will or trust in Utah, please call Ascent Law LLC for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C <span itemprop=”addressLocality”>West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

How Long Does A Loan Modification Last?

At What Age Should You Make A Last Will And Testament?

Criminal Defense Lawyer Park City Utah

How Do You Tell Your Husband You Want A Trial Separation?

Is Possession Of A Controlled Substance A Felony In Utah?

What Are The Grounds For Legal Separation In Utah?

from Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/is-it-legal-to-hand-write-a-will-in-utah/

from Criminal Defense Lawyer West Jordan Utah https://criminaldefenselawyerwestjordanutah.wordpress.com/2020/03/03/is-it-legal-to-hand-write-a-will-in-utah/