Contesting a last will and testament can be a tricky endeavor. People contests wills for various reasons, such as being excluded from the will, the testator was coerced into writing the will in a certain way, there was fraud involved or, simply, no witnesses were present or the testator failed to sign the will. Whatever the case is, understanding how probate litigations work can be useful when challenging a will.
What is probate litigation?
It is the legal process of challenging the veracity of a will or any of its codicils. The reason why anyone might challenge a will can vary and it can be from the testator’s lack of mental capacity, duress, improper signing or any other reason established by the law. Typically, the person looking to challenge the will shall do so with the aid of an attorney and will do it in a certain amount of time before the challenging period has expired.
Avoiding probate litigation:
There are certain strategies that can be used by the testator before death to ensure that his or her will is never contested in a court of law. For one, if the testator could have used a pre-nuptial agreement with his or her spouse. It avoids probate litigation since the property does not fall on marital property but rather individual property of each of the spouses. Therefore, each spouse can do what they wish with their share of property. Omitting children from a will can also help by creating a separate trust for them as opposed to including them in the will.
