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Digital Wills Concept Tested in AustraliaMay 5, 2004 People have been known to hide their wills in some pretty unusual locations, but concealing one in digital form inside a watch may take some beating. Australian technology lawyer and open source advocate Jeremy Malcolm is testing the validity of digital wills in Australia by placing his last will and testament, complete with digital signatures from himself and two witnesses, on a DUGI watch which includes a 128MB USB memory key. While government agencies have made increasing efforts to promote digital signatures as a valid means of transacting business, those efforts haven't yet extended to divvying up your worldly goods amongst the squabbling relatives. "There is no explicit recognition of digital signatures as a way of signing your will," Malcolm told ZDNet Australia. So will the will be valid? "It relies on section 34 of the Western Australian Wills Act -- other states have similar provisions -- which says: 'A document purporting to embody the testamentary intentions of a deceased person is a will of that person, notwithstanding that it has not been executed in accordance with section 8, if the Supreme Court is satisfied that the deceased intended the document to constitute his will'," explains Malcolm. "Basically, it means that you can get by with a will that isn't executed properly if you can prove that you did intend it as your will." Tim Hewson, CEO of PartingWishes Inc welcomed this move and explained “it is only a matter of time before digital signatures becomes the officially recognized means of signing one’s last will and testament. It is ridiculous that the only accepted practice in law is to rely on a signature, and to hope that the document is stored in a safe place that people will not find while a person is alive, but find instantly once a person dies. Digital signatures ensure that the testator really is the person 'signing', instead of an easily forged scribble of a name, and equally importantly it ensures that the document can be held securely in an electronic format until the moment it is needed.” PartingWishes.com and it’s subsidiaries at LegalWills.ca and USLegalWills.com will be ready to implement a digital signature strategy as soon as the legislation is officially recognized in Canada and the US.
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