Contested Wills in Clarksville, Tennessee

Find the right Contested Wills attorney in Clarksville, TN

Occasionally, family members of a recently-deceased person in Clarksville, Tennessee will attempt to claim that a will is invalid, usually because it leaves them out of it. This process is called a "Will contest."

There are several reasons why a person might want to contest a will made by a close family member. Sometimes, people will decide to leave money or property to charity, or to other entities who are not closely related. If their family members weren't expecting this, they might assume that something went wrong with the drafting of the will.

If the decedent was fairly well-off, their will might involve a great deal of money or property. This is one of the basic reasons, besides a general sense of exclusion, that a family member might expend the great deal of time and money necessary to contest a will.

However, this is a matter that should not be approached lightly - will contests can often foster strife and infighting within families who are already mourning the loss of a loved one. This can permanently damage or alter family relationships.

When Can a Will be Contested in Clarksville, Tennessee?

A court in Clarksville, Tennessee will not entertain a will contest unless there is a very good reason to do so. However, there are some allegations which, if proven, clearly invalidate a will.

For example, a will obtained through duress (a threat of harm, usually physical) is invalid. Of course, duress is very difficult to prove after the fact, and the issue may not even come up until many years after it allegedly occurred, making proof even more difficult. However, if the named beneficiary was in some type of position of power or trust with respect to the decedent, and is not someone who one would normally expect to get a large gift in a will (they're unrelated to the testator, for example), those facts alone might be enough to raise the suspicion of impropriety. Of course, those facts by themselves are not enough to prove duress.

A will can also be rejected because the decedent was not mentally competent to draft it at the it was made. A court will look at the person's mental capacity at the time the will was made, so even if the testator is now perfectly sane, if he or she was incapacitated for whatever reason (by way of intoxication, for example) at the time the will was made, the will can still be invalidated.

If you successfully contest the will in Clarksville, Tennessee, the court will likely distribute the property as if the decedent had died without a will. This usually involves giving it to the closest living relative. While the exact intestacy schemes (the order in which property is distributed to relatives) vary from state to state, they are usually pretty similar. If possible, the property will go to the decedent's spouse, and if the decedent has any minor children with that spouse, it is with the understanding that the money will be used primarily for their care. If the decedent did not have children or a spouse (or outlived them), the property typically goes to the decedent's parents. If neither of them are alive, it goes to grand children, grandparents, or siblings. After that, it typically goes to cousins, nieces/nephews, step-children, former spouses, etc. Intestacy laws provide a line of succession long enough that just about anyone will leave at least one person behind who is entitled to inherit from them, even if they're an extremely distant relation. Sometimes, however, people make multiple wills, to account for the many personal and financial changes that usually happen during a person's life. Usually, the most recent will purports to revoke all past wills, to avoid any conflict between them. In such cases, if a will is entirely invalidated, a court can sometimes revive the second most recent will.

Can a Clarksville, Tennessee Contested Will Attorney Help?

Contesting a will can be a complicated, emotional, expensive, and time-consuming process. There is really no way around this. However, a good Clarksville, Tennessee wills and estates attorney can minimize these problems, and make the process as painless as possible.

Talk to a Wills, Trusts & Estates Law Attorney now!

Life in Clarksville

Clarksville, Tennessee is a city located in, and serving as the county seat of, Montgomery County. It has a population of over 132,000 people.

Clarksville was founded in 1785, making it the oldest incorporated city in Tennessee. However, human habitation of the area that now includes Clarksville, Tennessee dates back at least 11,000 years.

Modernly, Clarksville, Tennessee's economy is dominated by industry. Major industrial employers in Clarksville, Tennessee include American Standard, the Trane company (Clarksville's largest employer - a manufacturer of industrial ventilation equipment), and many others. In addition to employing a large number of blue-collar workers, these (and other) corporations also have many administrative employees, including accountants and Clarksville, Tennessee lawyers.

Because of the presence of large corporations, as well as a population of blue-collar workers, the lawyers of Clarksville, Tennessee are capable of handling a wide range of cases. So, if you need an attorney, chances are there's a lawyer in Clarksville, Tennessee who can help.

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