A chara, – It has come to my notice that the Court Service’s Probate Office has suspended its service for personal applications.
The notice on the website reads: “Due to the current Level 5 Covid restrictions, Probate Personal Applicant appointments have been suspended until further notice. If you require the Grant of Probate/Administration urgently, you may wish to consider instructing a solicitor to lodge the application on your behalf.”
Over the years our family has availed of the excellent probate personal service on a few occasions and are sad to see that it has been deemed necessary to suspend it.
Over the past year I have marvelled at the Trojan work being carried out by our local postmistress and her staff in a tiny premises serving a very large population. Post offices have been a lifeline this past year, allowing us to send greetings and parcels to family and friends, avail of a variety of business services – as well as facilitating the returns of the unsuitable items purchased online due to many retail outlets being closed!
:fill(white):background_color(white)/static.themebuilder.aws.arc.pub/irishtimes/1647534191476.png)
They are busy all day and interact patiently and helpfully with each customer, behind a simple perspex screen.
I accept that personal applications for probate require the attendance of the applicant, but, if post offices and other services can continue throughout all levels of restrictions, it should be possible for the Courts Service to continue to allow personal applications to be processed rather than forcing people to choose between the cost of engaging a solicitor or waiting “until further notice”. – Yours, etc,
MARGARET
RIORDAN,
Celbridge,
Co Kildare.