Willie’s Law: Grieving family calls on Scottish Government to change law after father’s death

Willie Johnston signed documents altering his estate while in a high-dependency hospital unit – his family are now campaigning to get this made illegal

A grieving family is calling on the Scottish Government to introduce “Willie’s Law”, after claiming their father signed legal documents on his deathbed that saw the family losing out on hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Willie Johnston died on January 19, 2020 after a short, but sudden illness, and ever since his family have been trying to overturn the legal documents he signed just days before his death.

The solicitor involved has now been found guilty of professional misconduct and fined £5,000 by the Law Society of Scotland.

Willie Johnston, who died in January 2020.

Mr Johnston’s family have submitted an official petition to the Scottish Parliament, in a bid to get the Government to create a new law named in their father’s honour. They say they don’t want any other family to have to go through what they have had to, and are encouraging others to write to their MSPs to support the campaign.

Before his death, Mr Johnston worked Hilton Farm near Perth, which has been in the family for almost a century, alongside his cousin and business partner Andrew Johnston.

Originally the agreement had been for Willie’s £750,000 life insurance to be given over to the partnership organisation running the estate, which Willie had a 50 per cent share in, and his cousin Andrew had a 40 per cent share in.

However, days before he died Andrew Johnston and their solicitor Craig Harvie had Willie sign a new document that directed all of Willie’s life insurance money to Andrew as an individual.

Willie Johnston, pictured shortly before his death.

Willie’s three children are now campaigning for a change in the law to make this sort of thing illegal and bring it in line with the law in England.

Daughter Laura Johnston-Brand said: “While he was in hospital, his solicitor and business partner came in and dad signed some documents, which altered the estate and took his life insurance policy and directed it to his business partner, which devalued the estate and cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“The long and short of it is my dad discovered what had happened just before he passed away and he was devastated.

“He then didn’t want to take any painkillers because that is what caused him to be incapacitated, and that made his end of life painful physically and mentally, and it was distressing for us because we missed time with him by running about trying to stop it.

“We’re just lucky we found out what had happened and knew what his wishes were.”

On the back of this, solicitor Craig Harvie from Eden Legal Ltd, a legal firm based in Perth that specialises in agriculture and rural land, was fined £5,000 after being found guilty of six counts of professional misconduct at a Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal.

In the tribunal report, it said Mr Harvie “noted there may be issues about capacity and concerns about undue influence [and] that anything that was being changed at this very, very late stage would create suspicion and potentially lead to disputes”.

The report also added he and Andrew Johnston would need to be “extremely careful” in ensuring Willie Johnston had the mental capacity to sign such legal documents, and warned “this type of arrangement so late in the day was exactly what people end up fighting about post death”.

It also noted Willie Johnston was using an oxygen mask, had laboured breathing, got tired easily and was taking medication that could make him confused.

However, the report added there was no medical evidence to prove his incapacity, and there was no suggestion of dishonesty, deceit or even recklessness on the part of the solicitor.

They also made it clear the solicitor’s motivation was to try to help a family partnership, for which he had acted for many years, in difficult circumstances.

Willie’s family are now campaigning for a new law to be introduced in Scotland named after their father, ensuring there is a medical professional present when vulnerable people are signing legal documents.

Ms Johnston-Brand said: “Having a medical professional there to sign it too means they can say they are of sound mind to make that decision. It’s not just terminally ill people in hospital, but also elderly and frail people, anyone who is vulnerable. We just don’t want others to be in this situation.”

Mr Harvie and Eden Legal have been approached for comment.