Challenging A Will In Florida
Understanding how a will can be contested in Florida gives you an advantage on two fronts:
It gives you the ability to know how to challenge one.
And it provides you a unique perspective when you go to create your own.
You want your estate plan to simplify things for your beneficiaries rather than complicate them. By understanding how a will can become invalidated, you can deliberately avoid them through proper estate planning with an experienced attorney.
We hope to clarify who can contest a will and what circumstances enable them to do so. To quickly dispel a misconception, you will not have reasonable grounds to contest a will if you didn’t receive the share you felt entitled to. You can, however, challenge a will for the following reasons:
Contesting a Will
Wills pass through probate—and this is where you can challenge one. However, you first must know whether you are an “interested person” because only they can do so. Florida defines an interested person as “...any person who may reasonably be expected to be affected by the outcome of the particular proceeding involved.” An interested person is usually a family member or a beneficiary. This can also be someone owed money by the deceased (i.e., a creditor).
If you meet the criteria of being an interested person, you can challenge the will if it isn’t valid. In Florida, the will must be signed by the person whose will it is (the testator)—and they must have done so in front of two witnesses. Something as straightforward as a signature can lead to a will being contested justifiably.
Other Grounds For Challenging a Will
The other acceptable grounds for contesting a will are a lack of capacity or undue influence. The Florida statutes state that you have to be of sound mind and at least 18 (or be an emancipated minor) to make a will. One of the key takeaways is that it is assumed that the person who created it possessed the mental capacity to do so. If you challenge that, the burden falls on you and your attorney to prove otherwise. Typically, claiming that someone was elderly or even displayed signs of poor memory is not enough to prove that they were of unsound mind when they wrote their will.
Regarding undue influence, you must prove that someone without free will wrote the will. This speaks to the mental or physical control that someone had over the deceased. A caretaker who continually asks someone to be included in their will is likely not enough to prove undue influence. Getting a judge to invalidate a will based on the presumption of undue influence can be a significant task. This is an excellent example of how and why an experienced attorney is a critical component of challenging a will.
The Law Offices of William C. Robinson
Probate can be a lengthy and demanding process, especially when the estate is valued in the tens of millions of dollars. High net worth estates require experienced and reliable legal counsel. Contact The Law Offices of William C. Robinson to schedule your free initial consultation.
