When a loved one dies, the shock of discovering that their will is not as you thought can add to the distress you are experiencing. Your thoughts may quickly turn to contesting the will, but is this a realistic option?
Here are some questions to ask yourself.
1. Am I eligible to contest it?
Not just anyone can contest the will of a deceased person. To qualify to file a suit, you have to be someone who was named as a beneficiary in the previous version of a will, or someone who would inherit under the state’s intestacy laws if there were no will. Outside of that, a court is unlikely to be willing to hear your case.
2. Do I have a chance of winning?
You cannot just file a contest because you do not feel it is fair how things turned out. You will need to file on the basis of certain grounds of wrongdoing. For example, can you show that someone unduly influenced the deceased to change their will? Can you show that the deceased was incapable of understanding what they were doing when they made their will? Or can you show that the will does not meet the legal requirements for how it must be made?
3. Is it worth it?
Will contests often come at a considerable cost, be that a cost to personal relationships or a financial one, especially if you were to lose. That said, sometimes there are strong reasons to go ahead with a will contest, and failing to do so would not only mean that you are cheated out of what is rightfully yours, but that your loved one’s true wishes are not respected.
It’s best to seek legal guidance to assess your situation if you believe you may have a case to bring.
