New Jersey Court Finds an Unsigned Will, with No Witness Signature Valid

From Wealth Strategies Journal: (click for full article)

The Superior Court of New Jersey applied the Harmless Error doctrine in re Estate of Ehrlich to find a will valid even though it did not strictly comply with the statutory formalities. The disputed will did not contain the signature of decedent or any witnesses, however, it included decedent's own handwriting and a notation on the cover page. The court reasoned "Modern authority is moving away from insistence on strict compliance with statutory formalities, recognizing that the statutory formalities are not ends in themselves but rather the means of determining whether their underlying purpose has been met."