California Proof of Holographic Instrument–Form DE-135

[Music] Hi this Keith David cent Albertson and Davidson in this video we're going over form de 135 which is a proof of holographic instrument before we get started let's talk about what a holographic instrument even is a holographic will is a will that is written in the own handwriting of the testator so the person creating the will simply wrote it out on something piece of paper back of an envelope napkin post a note and then they signed it and a holographic wills don't need witnesses so you don't have to have two witnesses like you do with every other type of well it only has to be written in the testator's handwriting and that's it and that's what makes us feel comfortable that it really is the testator's intent because they wrote it out themselves and that's what a proof of holographic instrument is and so if you have a handwritten will when you file your petition for probate to admit that will to probate first of all you're gonna have to submit a typewritten version of it so you actually have to transcribe the handwriting into a typed document and you have to submit both those to the court but you also need somebody to be able to say that I know the testator's handwriting and I can state under penalty of perjury under oath that this is in fact their handwriting and for that reason it should be recognized as a valid holographic will so let's go to the form and we'll see how this works we're gonna start as always at Google type in Judicial Council and we're gonna go right to the courts website where we can find all the forms that we need for probate they're all free they're all fillable PDF you don't have to pay a penny to do this it is really fantastic now I happen to know that we're looking for form de 135 if I didn't know that you obviously could just go up here and search by name search by number the forum number so let's go to the de 135 I've prefilled in my information up top so we didn't have to waste time on that but let's see how this forum works so we're back to being the attorney for Bob Smith and we're gonna do the estate of Rachel Smith now if you don't have the case number yet you can leave that blank you should if you have a holographic will a handwritten will you should know that you need this form before you file your petition for probate so just fill this out and have it ready to go when you go down to the courthouse and file your petition for probate a lot of times people don't know they need this form so they'll file the petition and then they'll get a note from the court because the court puts out probate notes before your initial hearing and in that note it'll say proof of holographic instrument required ok well then you'll already have the case number at least so put that in there so number one I was acquainted with decedent for the following number of years so let's say bob's filling this out and you know he was married to Rachel for 30 years so we need to know that this is somebody who has some experience witnessing the decedent's handwriting I was related to the decedent as so in this case it's gonna be a spouse but it could be friend could be cousin could be brother could be son daughter whatever it is parent I have personal knowledge of the decedent's handwriting which I acquired as follows so the whole point of this form is to have somebody a witness who can testify that's what this form is it's it's testimony under oath just have some be in written form but it's testimony under oath that I know the decedent's handwriting and I can swear under oath that this holographic document is the decedent's handwriting so they the form wants to know and the law wants to know how do you know that it's the Seaton's handwriting how did you acquire this knowledge of their handwriting well either I saw the decedent write so you know as a spouse you're gonna see your spouse write things down from time to time throughout your relationship so I saw it I'm familiar with it I saw my spouse write things down all the time I know what her handwriting looks like or his handwriting looks like or I saw writing purporting to be in that scenes handwriting and upon which decedent acted or was charged so in other words there was some document that I saw and then I can compare that to the current document so I may not have seen them right personally but I saw something that was in their writing and it was something that the the person who did the handwriting acted on and so that gives us confidence that it was in fact their handwriting most of the time it's going to be a most when you're usually filling this out you want somebody to fill this out who has seen the handwriting it just makes it a lot more solid and a lot more believable and truthful under C so this is the next option so if you don't meet a or B C is I received letters in the due course of mailing purporting to be from the decedent and response to letters i address a mail to the decedent so I'm not sure that anybody does this anymore I'm sure there are people who still send letters through the mail it's such I mean obviously that doesn't happen a lot anymore but if you did if you sent somebody a letter and they responded to you by a handwritten letter and that's how you knew it was their handwriting then you would select C I would be interesting to know how often C is checked when people fill out this form with the court I'd have to think it's pretty rare and D would just be other means so other means of obtaining knowledge so if it doesn't fit into a B or C you sick and selectee you need to find somebody who fits into a though I mean it doesn't have to be even though Bob Smith's the one who's bringing this probate let's say he never saw the handwriting but Rachel's daughter did well then I would have Rachel's daughter fill this out and sign it because because anybody who has personal knowledge and has seen the writing is going to be the best witness number four I have examined the attached copy of the instrument which is the the handwritten will and it's handwritten provisions were written by and the instrument was signed by the hand of the decedent so number four is really the important part because what you're saying is I'm a person who knows knowledge of the handwriting of the decedent I saw the decedent write in the past that's how I acquired that knowledge and number four I looked at this holographic will and by looking at it and based on my experience of the decedent's handwriting I can say under penalty of perjury that this in fact is the decedent's handwriting and this is signed under declaration under penalty of perjury so obviously the person signing it has to actually look at the well otherwise they're lying and that's not good so make sure that whoever signing this it has looked at the will and you just ask them does that look like the decedent's handwriting and if they say yes then sign right here and then they'll date it you'll type in their name and they'll sign it down here we have an attorney certification this is just so that the attorney can certify under penalty of perjury that the attached copy of the holographic will is a true and correct copy of the document that it's supposed to be so in other words you don't want to show a witness one document and then file some other document as the holographic will we want to make sure the witness is looking at the same document so when you get to the end you can print this form you can save it and then you will take it down to the court and file it and when you file it you will then have your proof of holographic instrument you only need this if you're dealing with a handwritten will you don't need it if it's a typewritten will so it's going to be a relatively rare form to use but when you need it now you know a little bit something about it and this is our video on Form de 135 proof of holographic entry. 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