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Inheritance law in Ontario is governed by the Succession Law Reform Act (SLRA). The SLRA sets out the rules for how property is distributed when someone dies without a will (intestate) and how to probate a will. The Act provides for certain family members to be entitled to a portion of the deceased's estate, including spouse, children and parents.
In common law jurisdictions, probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased; or whereby, in the absence of a legal will, the estate is settled according to the laws of intestacy that apply in the state where the deceased resided at the time of their death.
A probate court (sometimes called a surrogate court) is a court that has competence in a jurisdiction to deal with matters of probate and the administration of estates. [1] In some jurisdictions, such courts may be referred to as orphans' courts [ 2 ] or courts of ordinary.
The court does this by granting letters of administration to the person so entitled. Grants of administration may be either general (where the deceased has died intestate) or limited. [1] The order in which the court will make general grants of letters follows the sequence: The surviving spouse, or civil partner, as the case may be; The next of ...
The Supreme Court has cited Attorney General of Ontario v Mercer several times since it was decided, most recently in 2002. [ 16 ] This case is included in the three volume set of significant decisions of the Judicial Committee on the construction and interpretation of the Constitution Act, 1867 , prepared on the direction of the then Minister ...
Letters of Administration are granted by a surrogate court or probate registry to appoint appropriate people to deal with a deceased person's estate where property will pass under intestacy rules or where there are no executors living (and willing and able to act) having been validly appointed under the deceased's will.
The divisions of the High Court of Justice were abolished. The Appellate Division consisted of two divisional courts which had the same jurisdiction. [57] The names of the Appellate Division and High Court Division were changed to "Court of Appeal for Ontario" (its current name) and "High Court of Justice for Ontario", respectively, in 1931. [62]
A court can accept an informal will if it is judged to be an authentic representation of the decedent's last wishes. An informal will can "be found in almost any form and made in almost any manner"; [ 61 ] in 2017, an "unsent text message with a smiley face" was ruled to be a legally binding will.