Thinking of Contesting a Will?

A Last Will and Testament is a legal document that states who gets a deceased person's property and who will be in charge of settling the estate. A will contest is a special type of lawsuit that seeks to nullify a deceased person's will.

In case you are considering filing a will contest because you don't believe a family member's or friends will properly reflect their final wishes, then you must be aware that the will contests are emotionally draining and quite costly. Since it may involve Conveyancing Costs and others.

If you Still Wish to file a Will Contest despite all of the Costs involved, then you may go through the Steps Mentioned here:-

Check if You Have a Standing

Not everyone can contest a will. Only an individual or entity, such as a bank or charity that has standing can contest a will. Here, standing means that the party involved in the lawsuit will be personally affected by the outcome of the case. If you don't have a standing, then you won’t be able to proceed with a will contest.

File it in a Timely Manner

Even if you have a proper standing to file a will contest, you need to file it in a timely manner. You must know that the State laws where the decedent lived at the time of death dictate the time limit for filing a will contest. It can be as short as a few weeks to as long as a few years. 

Only a limited amount of time is given to file a will contest.This is so that the payment of final expenses and transfer of property to the beneficiaries can be expedited. If you have waited too long to file a will contest, then you will be time-barred from filing one.

Check For The Grounds to Contest the Will

You may have standing and time to contest the will, but you must also have the sufficient grounds to contest it. The grounds may be that the will wasn't signed with the proper legal formalities or the will was acquired by fraud etc.

Conclusion:-

Proving any one of these grounds is very difficult. Therefore, before proceeding any further, you must assess the evidence you have to back up your suspicions. Also, you will need to consult with a probate attorney who specializes in estate litigation to determine if you have enough evidence to contest a will.

When to Convince Yourself about Contesting a Will?

You may not know, but if you are thinking about contesting a will, you need to be very serious as it could be a really stressful decision to take. Often people take this decision out of anger after they assume that they have been issued out and not offered the rights the rights that they deserved. In this situation, it becomes really important that you consider several points out of which, some are discussed in this post.

Validity of the Will

• The first reason behind contesting a will is that you think that the will currently in question is invalid.
• According to the experts, for a will to be valid, it has to meet certain conditions and if not, it cannot be considered a legal one.
• The term "Conditions" include the fact that the will has to be made by the person of 18 years or above.
• At the time of creation of the will, the person creating it should be in a sound state of mind and realise the implications of creating a will.
• Similarly, he must not be subject to any undue influence, it must be signed by the testator and two witnesses, and neither of the witnesses can be a beneficiary.
• In case any of these conditions does not match, the will cannot be cannot be called a legal one and as you realise this, you can immediately think about contesting a will.

Dependence on the deceased

• The next condition is when a certain person was financially dependent on the deceased by the testator failed to make provision for them in their will.
• In that case too, you can think about contesting a will and make a claim to the court with the reason of receiving a settlement.
• Those entitled to make such type of inheritance claims are the partner of the deceased and any minors or mentally disabled people who were dependent on them.