Contested Wills in West Valley, Utah

Find the right Contested Wills attorney in West Valley, UT

The laws of West Valley, Utah permit certain people to challenge, or "contest" the validity of a will.

Occasionally, when a person who expected to be included in a will is left out, their natural assumption is that there was some mistake, or that the will was made through improper means, such as duress or fraud, or that the will is an outright forgery.

If the decedent was fairly well-off, their will might involve a great deal of money or property. This is one of the major 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.

Bringing legal action against anyone, let alone a family member, is not a decision that you should rush into. Contesting a will, particularly if another family member stands to lose out if you are successful in the contest, can permanently alter or even destroy family relationships. Evidently, this is something to consider.

When Can a Will be Contested in West Valley, Utah?

There are various reasons that a court in West Valley, Utah might invalidate a will.

For instance, a will obtained through duress (a threat of harm, typically 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.

Another thing to consider is the mental capacity of the person making the will. If, at the time the will was made, the testator was insane or heavily intoxicated, the will is likely to be held invalid by a court, if the underlying facts can be shown.

If the contest is successful, a court in West Valley, Utah might find the will or part of it invalid. Of course, that leaves the question of how to distribute the property in the absence of a valid will. All states have laws that address this situation, typically passing the property to the decedent's closest living kin. All states have laws governing the order in which property is passed on in this manner. Normally, it goes to the spouse first. If there is no living spouse, it goes to the children. If there are no children, it goes to the decedent's parents, and so on. Most laws on this subject are written in such a way that almost everyone will have at least one relative entitled to inherit, even if that person is very distantly related to the decedent. In the very rare case where no living relatives exist, or none can be found, the decedent's assets usually go to the state.

Can a West Valley, Utah Contested Will Attorney Help?

Contesting a will is often challenging, and never fun. However, the entire process can be made more bearable if you have the help of a knowledgeable West Valley, Utah attorney, and the process will probably be much more manageable.

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

Life in West Valley

West Valley, Utah is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah. It has a population of about 130,000 people, and is a suburb of Salt Lake City, the largest city in Utah, and the state capital.

West Valley, Utah is largely a bedroom community, meaning it is a residential area, populated in large part by professionals, such as lawyers, who commute to Salt Lake City for their jobs.

The area around West Valley, Utah is one of the fastest-growing (both in terms of population and economy) areas in the United States. For this reason, people are coming from all over the country to West Valley, Utah to pursue careers as doctors, accountants, business executives, lawyers, etc.

So, there are a very large number of lawyers in West Valley, Utah with very sophisticated practices. If you live in West Valley, and are in need of a good attorney, chances are there's a good West Valley, Utah lawyer who can help you with your legal issue.

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