Digital natives don't only live by the computer, they die by the computer too. An increasing number of disputes are heading to court involving informal wills left on digital devices.

The NSW Supreme Court started the trend for accepting informal digital wills after the case of celebrity restaurant owner Daniel Yazbek, who left a will in a Word document on his laptop before his death in 2010.

The 32-year-old, who ran the $3 million Toko and Tokonoma Japanese restaurant empire with two brothers, wrote Will.doc hours before travelling to Mykonos on holidays. On his way to the airport, he dropped into the Toko office and told his business partner there was a will on his computer if anything went wrong.

Mr Yazbek committed suicide and, following his death, his brother Alan took his parents Ghosn and Mouna to court, claiming Will.doc should be upheld despite it not having the required signature and two witnesses.

''I want to say that it was an absolute pleasure to be part of this family,'' the Word document began, before dividing his estate between his parents and seven siblings, who received parts of his business equity, guitar collection and properties in Paddington, Queens Park and Blakehurst.

A forensic computer expert gave evidence that the computer was password-protected and Daniel was the only one to create, edit and access the document.

Mr Yazbek's parents argued Will.doc was only a draft and their son died intestate. However, in 2012, Justice Michael Slattery deemed it to be a valid will because there was strong evidence that Daniel created it and intended it to be his final wishes. He had told others about it, he titled it ''Will'' and he used language indicating it was intended to be read after his death.

Since then, a Queensland court has upheld a will typed in the ''notes'' app of an iPhone by young Taiwanese-born man Karter Yu, moments before he took his own life. In Victoria, recordings on a webcam were also accepted.

In both cases, it was deemed the authors had prepared the documents and they showed clear testamentary intentions.

''[These cases] are setting a precedent that a will doesn’t have to be a traditional written document on a piece of paper,'' barrister Ramena Kako said. ''And that in this digital age, people are using other means of setting out their testamentary intentions, and courts are prepared to recognise those modern forms of wills.''

In a Law Society Journal article, Ms Kako encouraged legal practitioners to broaden their search for possible wills to Facebook, Twitter, email accounts and YouTube, saying they could now be found in ''the most unlikely of places''.

The NSW Trustee and Guardian, which lodges 15,000 applications for wills a year, said digital wills were still rare.

''It becomes very expensive to try to prove that these documents are wills,'' Trustee and Guardian solicitor Jill Day said. ''You need to have a lot of expert evidence and there’s always an element of doubt because they're often created with the intention of just being preparatory documents.''

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