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Jasper L. Edwards
Contested wills are decided in the
courtrooms of this country every day. Have you ever been
left money in a will? If you haven't, have you ever thought about contesting a will where you think
you should have been left some money ? Or maybe someone did remember you in their will, but not
as generously as you thought they should have. This situation occurs most often when one child
among siblings devotes their entire adult life to
caring for an elderly parent and finds, upon the parent's
death that the estate has been left in equal shares to all the siblings, with no special
compensation for the devotion the child showed to the parent during their
lifetime.
Depending on the circumstances,
contested wills, understandably, can cause hard feelings and be an expensive, emotionally
wrenching experience.
Contesting A Will Because Of
Incapacity
A person who makes a will must be 18
years of age or older and of "sound mind," a term that means the person knows what they have,
what they are giving away, who their blood relatives are, and what they are doing with their
property in the will. One valid reason to contest a will would be that the deceased did not
meet these basic qualifications.
Contesting A Will Because Of A
Technicality
A will is a formal document that must
meet certain strict requirements. The requirements vary depending on where you live, but
generally speaking a will must be in
writing, the will must state that it is the
intent of the person making the will, a will must be witnessed by two ore more individuals,
and the witnesses must sign a special statement when they witness the will. A contested will
might result where one of these special legal requirements was not
fulfilled.
Contesting A Will Because Of Undue
Influence
This is the contested will that turns
up in feature films and situation comedies. Someone close to the deceased, who ends up
benefiting from the terms of the will, is accused of exercising undue influence over the
deceased in the making of his or he will. Undue influence can be very hard to prove, as it
requires that the person exercising undue influence over the deceased had control over the
deceased almost to the point of taking over their free will and controlling their behavior.
Furthermore, during this time the deceased must have been forced to make a new will or change
their old will.
There are limited circumstances where
undue influence is easier to prove. If the attorney who wrote the
will is unrelated to the deceased,
and the attorney benefits from the will to the detriment of blood relatives, judges are more
likely to entertain a claim of undue influence.
RESOURCE BOX
Free Wills to
Print provides detailed information on
Free Wills, How to Write a Will, Last Will And Testament, Living Wills and
more.
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