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Home » blog » Grounds for Contesting Wills

Grounds for Contesting Wills

December 3, 2014 by Stephen A. Mendel, Estate Planning Attorney

Sometimes people seek to contest Wills simply because they do not like the way the deceased distributed his or her property. However, in order to effectively contest a Will, you need to have legal grounds for doing so and not liking how the Will distributes property is not a legal ground for contesting a Will. Here are a few of the more common legal grounds that people use to contest Wills:

Revocation: The Will submitted to Probate was actually revoked by the deceased, for example by creating a different Will later.

Lack of Capacity: The person who created the Will did not have the necessary mental capacity to do so at the time the Will was executed.

Mistaken Belief: The Will was written as it was because the person assumed a falsehood to be true. For example, if someone was left out of the Will because he or she was mistakenly believed to be dead.

Undue Influence: The Will was the result of someone exerting excessive pressure or influence on the deceased.

Fraud: The Will submitted to Probate was not created by the deceased at all.

Those are just a few examples of some of the more common legal grounds to contest Wills. There could be more depending on the facts of the case. If you do want to contest a Will, remember that you need legal grounds to do  so and that you should talk to an attorney about what grounds you might have.

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Stephen A. Mendel, Estate Planning Attorney
Stephen A. Mendel, Estate Planning Attorney
Mr. Stephen Mendel is an attorney who focuses a substantial part of his practice on estate planning. Mr. Mendel’s guiding principle is to provide his clients with quality legal services tailored to each client’s specific needs and goals. Read More!
Stephen A. Mendel, Estate Planning Attorney
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Filed Under: Wills and Trusts Tagged With: wills

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About Stephen A. Mendel, Estate Planning Attorney

Mr. Stephen Mendel is an attorney who focuses a substantial part of his practice on estate planning. Mr. Mendel’s guiding principle is to provide his clients with quality legal services tailored to each client’s specific needs and goals. Read More!

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