Contested Wills in Winter Haven, Florida

Find the right Contested Wills attorney in Winter Haven, FL

In Winter Haven, Florida, there is a process through which a person can challenge the validity of a will. This is recognized as a "contested will" or "will contest."

Occasionally, testators leave out of their wills people who might naturally expect to inherit a considerable portion of the testator's estate (spouses and children, for instance). This might lead them to assume, truthfully or not, that the will was some kind of mistake.

If a massive amount of money is involved, someone who was left out of a will, or not given what they were expecting, might believe that contesting the will is worth the time, money, and energy that doing so would require.

You should remember that a will contest commonly results in adversarial legal proceedings, which can be very combative. Considering the likelihood that other members of your family might be on the other side, it's clear that this can really damage a person's relationship with his or her family.

When Can a Will be Contested in Winter Haven, Florida?

A court in Winter Haven, Florida will not entertain a will contest unless there is a very good reason to do so. But, there are some allegations which, if shown, clearly invalidate a will.

For instance, 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. Nonetheless, 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 denied 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 instance) 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 therefore serve as grounds to contest a will. If a will is effectively contested in Winter Haven, Florida, 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 Winter Haven, Florida Contested Will Attorney Help?

Contesting a will is never particularly easy or enjoyable. However, a seasoned Winter Haven, Florida attorney can help take some of the burden off of you, and handle some of the most difficult aspects of this process.

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

Life in Winter Haven

Located in Polk County, Winter Haven Florida is home to just under 30,000 residents. The charming city is home to the second largest Legoland in the world and is also the site of the first Publix Supermarket Store.Winter Haven served as the former spring baseball training site for the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox and it is easy to see that city's enthusiasm for sports in the many parks and recreation centers that dot the city.

Winter Haven is home to one college: Polk State College, which is a popular choice for local students to attend. With a heavy emphasis on education, Winter Haven is home to some top professionals including bankers, doctors, accountants and lawyers. Winter Haven lawyers enjoy everything the city has to offer, both personally and professionally. Winter Haven lawyers were trained at some of the nation's top universities and are always happy to help their local client with whatever the legal issue may be.

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