If you have had a recent death in the family and are concerned about the will that was admitted to West Palm Beach probate, listen up. The formal procedure for this type of problem is called a will contest. You may have as little as 90 days to challenge or contest a will in West Palm Beach. Do you know how?
Contesting the Will Generally
- There are a number of ways to challenge a will but they all start the same.
- You will have to file a probate lawsuit in West Palm Beach’s probate court.
- This lawsuit tells the probate court to wait because you think something is suspicious.
- Experienced Palm Beach probate litigators know what they can challenge a will for but do you?
- Here are some common ways probate litigators challenge a will’s admission to probate.
Lack of Testamentary Capacity
- This may be one of the most common ways to challenge a will.
- You are essentially saying the person lacked the capacity to execute a will.
- You will have to prove the person lacked the capacity at the time they executed the will.
- Keep in mind just because someone is incompetent does not mean they cannot execute a will.
- That does not mean it is not good evidence of that fact.
- What other ways can you challenge the will?
Fraud
- This is by far the easiest one to explain.
- That being said it could be the hardest to prove.
- Basically you need to show the Court that someone lied to your loved one and that caused them to execute that will.
- You may be able to show that someone said it was a birthday card they were signing but it was actually the will.
- That is a case of fraud and you can challenge the will because of it.
Undue Influence
- Another common way to challenge the will is undue influence.
- This is for when a third party has acted to influence the will in an improper way.
- Often in West Palm Beach a caretaker may take too much liberty over the will and that is not right.
- If you think the other person drafted that will and used improper influence to get it signedchallenge the will.
- Experienced Palm Beach probate litigators know how to get that will out of probate.