What are will contests?
A Will Contest is a type of litigation challenging the admission of a Will to probate. As discussed in detail in our section on Probate, a person cannot challenge the validity of a Will simply because she does not like its provisions, or did not, in her opinion, get what she wanted. Tests on the validity of a Will are not contingent on the elements of “fairness” or the reasonableness of its provisions or on the timing of disbursements (such as if you want it now, and the Will says you get it at age 50). A Will is likely to be attacked by those who assert that a person lacked mental capacity (senile, delusionary, unsound mind) at the time the documents were created, that the Will maker was subjected to fraud, coercion or undue influence during its creation and implementation, that there are ambiguities in the document, or the Will is a forgery or does not conform to legal requirements as to the number and nature of the witnesses. If the Will is thrown out, the court may disallow only th
