Occasionally, family members of a recently-deceased person in Mckinney, Texas will attempt to claim that a will is invalid, normally because it leaves them out of it. This process is called a "Will contest."
Sometimes, testators leave out of their wills people who might normally expect to inherit a large portion of the testator's estate (spouses, for instance). This might lead them to assume, correctly or not, that the will was a mistake.
If there is a massive amount of money or property at stake, a family member who was left out of the will might find it to be worth the time or money to contest it.
As with the initiation of any other legal proceeding, contesting a will is a big decision. It can be time-consuming and expensivee. It also has the possibility to damage family relationships and foster strife among people who are already mourning the loss of a loved one.
When Can a Will be Contested in Mckinney, Texas?
Courts in Mckinney, Texas will not let a person contest a will unless they have an excellent reason. There are, however, some allegations which will always invalidate a will, if they are proven.
For example, a will obtained through duress (a threat of harm, normally 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.
There are many other facts that might make a will invalid, and thus serve as grounds to contest a will. If a will is successfully contested in Mckinney, Texas, and held to be invalid, this normally results in the property being distributed as if the decedent had died intestate (without a will). This means that it will usually go to the decedent's closest living relative.
Can a Mckinney, Texas Contested Will Attorney Help?
Contesting a will is never particularly easy or enjoyable. However, a brilliant Mckinney, Texas attorney can help take some of the burden off of you, and handle some of the most difficult aspects of this process.
Mr. B. is a terrific lawyer and I am extremely happy with his work. What I liked most about him was his timely responses. I highly recommend Mr. B..