In a recent case decided by the Mississippi Court of Appeals, a Will in which the testator apparently changed her mind and made handwritten changes was held to be a partial revocation, but her handwritten additions to the Will were ignored. In the case of in The Matter of the Estate of Laura Foster Carpenter, Mississippi Court of Appeals, 2009 -SA – 00114 – COA., decided on May 18, 2010, the decedent, in 1999, drafted a Will that disinherited one of her four children. Sometime thereafter, she scratched out of the language that disinherited her at her daughter, instead scratching out the words "will not inherit", and the changing them to "will inherent." In additionally, in another section bequeathing certain real property, the previously disinherited child was handwritten in by the testator as receiving an equal share of the real property. Additionally, she also struck through several complete paragraphs of the Will.
In the resulting will contest, the Chancellor ruled that the changes to the Will were sufficient to result in its entire revocation, resulting in the property being divided equally among the children under Mississippi's Intestacy laws. However, the Court of Appeals reversed that decision, holding instead that the Will was only partially revoked, with those paragraphs completely marked through being revoked, but the additions of the previously disinherited child were held to be of no consequence, since those changes were not witnessed and therefore did not serve to be a valid codicil to the Will.

This case illustrates the importance of following the technical requirements of a Will. People that try to cut corners by doing it themselves frequently wind up with a result that at least appears to be different than may ultimately  have been intended. If an individual's legacy is important enough to them to write down, it should be important enough to them to make sure that it is done correctly. In Wills there are no "do over's." It must be done correctly the first time or an individual risks their final wishes not been carried out. Worse, the resulting dispute between these siblings will no doubt have a damaging, and if not irreparable, harm to their relationship, with the previously disinherited, but subsequently reinherited child feeling bitterness toward her siblings as a result of a cruel and ancient legal application, the importance of which was unrecognized by her mother.