How could a solicitor make such a basic mistake

Lack of experience and/or expert knowledge would be an excuse if an oddball set of circumstances had landed in her lap by accident. But she instigated this legal mess by telling the client to tear up the later will in the mistaken belief that that would revive the earlier will. And got a very soft ticking off by the judge.

I expect her practice will have to settle with the four legatees whose bequests were diluted as a result of her incompetence. Each of them will end up getting 50,000 (250K split 5 ways) instead of 62,500 (250K split 4 ways) so the bill is going to be 50K plus the costs of that hearing. Essentially, her practice is going to have to stump up the 50K which Ms. H is going to inherit.

That is why solicitors have professional indemnity insurance. The function of the judge in a situation like this is not to tick off solicitors but to follow the law. The solicitor was negligent. She or her insurance will have to pay up. In a civil case such as a traffic incident the judge simply finds liability and does not lecture the driver found to have caused the incident. It is the same with a professional negligence case.

There hasn't been a negligence claim against the solicitor — yet. But one is obviously possible. And it would be wrong of the judge to prejudice a potential negligence action, one way or the other, by commenting about the solicitor's professional standards in advance of the hearing of any negligence action that may be brought. Hence his restraint.

As I see it, the solicitor's duties were owed to her client, the deceased. It appears that the advice she gave him did not result in his estate being distributed in the way that he wished. He's dead, of course, but his right to bring an action against her for negligence will now be an asset of his estate, and the basis of any claim will not be so much that the estate has suffered any loss, but that the testator's wishes have not been carried into effect. The estate has suffered a loss — the cost of the probate proceedings that wouldn't have been necessary if the deceased had been properly advised — and no doubt that will be included in any claim, but it won't be limited to that.