7 Simple Rules for Determining if You Can Challenge a Florida Will or Probate.

A lot of people could be interested in challenging your will that is probated in   West Palm Beach. The question is who can challenge a will? Just because your rich uncle disinherited you in his last will does not mean you are not allowed to contest the will in a probate court. The question of who can challenge a will is answered by the Florida Probate Code.

1. The right or authorization to contest a will extends to spouse’s creditors, or others having a property right or claim against the estate being administered, as well as toheirs, distributees, legatees, and devisees.
2. A testamentary trustee also has such an interest in the estate as to entitle him to participate in a proceeding either contesting or defending a purported will.
3. A personal representative has no standing to contest a will under which he or she holds the appointment and in fact he or she is immediately disqualified from serving as PR by filing suit contesting any part of the testamentary document.
4. Although you may not have standing as a Personal Representative if you have a stake in the residual clause you may have standing to challenge certain devisees.
5. Any interested person may in a proper case oppose the Florida probate of a resident’s will first probated in another jurisdiction or may petition for revocation of the probate of the will, as in the original probate of a will in Florida.
6. Also any interested person may oppose the probate of a foreign notarial will or may petition for the revocation of probate of such a document.
7. If you were disinherited by a new will and want to contest it you will have the burden of invalidating the subsequent will (assuming there was a previous will that you inherited under, but the answer is the same if your interest arises from intestate succession rules).

Sometimes all of this is easier to understand with an example. This is based off a real Florida case:

In one case, An attorney who prepared a testator’s previous will and trust documents, and who was named as alternate personal representative in the previous will and cotrustee of the trust, was found to have standing to contest the validity of a subsequent will. Because that will removed the attorney from the will and named a previously disinherited stepson as alternate personal representative. Note that here the attorney would reasonably be expected to be affected by the outcome of the proceeding, in that he would become the personal representative of the estate if the prior will were to be reinstated.