An attorney should fight for a client as if today is their client's last day alive. Even if your client does pass away, your job is to fight for them against that spouse who is still after the assets even post-death.
I recall always having wanted to be an attorney from a young age. I come from a family where both my parents are attorneys, as well as my two sisters. I guess it may be in the blood. I asked my father once as a schoolboy what the job of an attorney is and his reply was “You fight and fight and fight for your client. That is your job”. Those words sent shivers down my spine. I had dreams of appearing in Bellville, Mitchells Plain, Wynberg, Cape Town regional court, debt collection court and eventually the High Court. As a boy I plotted and planned as to how eventually I would get to the top.
I come from a competitive family. My older brother is a qualified actuary. Fortunately my three siblings and I were all blessed with a bit of brain. That combined with hard work can get you places in life. At high school at Bishops College in Rondebosch, Cape Town, my favourite subject was Latin. I loved debating and always knew law was for me. Family law always fascinated me and it was early on in my career that I found my niche in that field. My dad has always been my role-model and the type of attorney I aspired to be. He has always backed me in my ambitions and once told me as a boy that I would be one of the top four attorneys in Cape Town.
Recently two of my clients passed away. In the one matter the divorce had already been finalized a year earlier and in the other, my client had passed away while the divorce was still underway and hadn’t been settled. In the former matter I received a call from my deceased client’s wife. I do recall her having an attorney during the divorce proceedings so the first thing I told her was that from an ethical viewpoint I wasn’t allowed to talk to her and cut her short. She then told me that her former husband (my client) had passed away.
He (my client) had advised me of a terminal illness shortly before his death. His wife now claimed that she believed he had been poisoned by his new girlfriend. She claimed that she was entitled to benefit from one of his policies. I very much doubt that that would have been my client’s intention, as in the divorce action his instructions to me were to oppose her application for personal maintenance for herself (the parties had no minor children).
In another matter of mine recently I had acted for somebody very close to me, whom I have known since a young boy. He was fifteen years my senior. It was an acrimonious divorce that he was involved in. The divorce had been ongoing for two years. We had been to court a few times. One day I got a call saying that he had died from a heart attack. His divorce hadn’t been finalized. At his funeral his wife showed remorse, saying how she still loved him.
A person’s life is short and your job as an attorney is to fight for your client as if today is his last day alive.
Death in the middle of a divorce
Surviving spouse claim from Deceased Estate