Two 2025/2026 High Court cases — Stephenson v Daley and Bowerman v Bowerman — confirm that waiting too long to challenge a Will can be fatal to the claim, even where the underlying argument might otherwise have some merit. In Stephenson v Daley, sons who challenged their mother’s Will roughly seven and a half years after they had the facts they needed lost on the doctrine of laches, or undue delay, as well as on the substance. Bowerman v Bowerman involved an even longer gap of about eighteen and a half years, with the same result.
Laches has no fixed time limit — it depends on the full circumstances — but these cases show the courts applying it firmly. A Larke v Nugus request to the solicitor who drafted the Will is often the first practical step in testing a genuine concern, and it works best while memories and files are fresh. The lesson cuts both ways: anyone with a real concern about a Will should act promptly, and families are best protected by a Will that was properly drafted, witnessed and evidenced from the start, leaving any future challenge with nothing to work with.