Bronx Will Contest

Results-Oriented Lawyer for Will Contests in the Bronx

In some cases, suspicious circumstances attend the terms of a will, and the beneficiaries or heirs come to believe that the will is not valid. It is possible to contest the will for a range of different reasons, if you have standing to do so. Whether you need to contest a will or you are the beneficiary of a will being contested in the Bronx Surrogate’s Court, you should call the experienced Bronx will contest attorney Jules Haas. He has more than forty years of experience handling estate and probate litigation. He represents those who need to file will contests, as well as proponents of wills and nominated executors who hope to uphold a will.

What Are Will Contests?

Will contests are proceedings brought in the Surrogate’s Court to challenge a will, in whole or in part. You have standing to file a will contest if you have a pecuniary interest in a decedent’s estate. This means you can file if you are an heir of the decedent under New York intestacy laws; these are laws that govern the disposal of a decedent’s property when he or she doesn’t leave a will. You can also file a will contest if you’re a beneficiary who would receive less under the will that’s being probated than if there were no will or a will that was drafted earlier should apply to the situation. Our attorneys will not only need to establish standing, but also that you have legal grounds to file an objection with the Surrogate’s Court to stop the will from being probated. We may be able to pursue a will contest based on grounds such as lack of testamentary capacity, revocation, failure to follow formalities, undue influence, forgery, or fraud, among other reasons.

If you don’t have an interest in a will that’s related to money, you’d only be able to object to the appointment of the named executor if you are alleging that he or she was named because of undue influence or fraud. You won’t be able to contest other will provisions.

Will Contest for Failure to Follow Formalities

Wills must follow certain formalities to be valid and subject to probate. When a testator, the person making the will, does not follow these formalities, Bronx lawyer Jules Haas can file a will contest to try to invalidate the will provisions. Among other requirements, the decedent must have had what’s called testamentary capacity; in other words, to make a valid will, he should have known: (1) the nature and consequences of executing the will, (2) the nature of the property specified in the will, and (3) the natural objects of his bounty and his relationships with them.

Will contests may be brought where, for instance, a testator had Alzheimer’s when making the will, and therefore he didn’t remember his children or understand the nature of the property that was part of his estate while making it. Similarly, a will may be invalid where it doesn’t meet the requirement of two witnesses or it’s not signed by the testator. The will may be denied probate, and assets might be distributed according to the laws of intestacy.

Undue Influence and Fraud

There are, unfortunately, situations in which a person in whom the testator places trust, betrays him and exerts undue influence over the testator to coerce him to change the terms of a will. For example, if your second cousin was the live-in caregiver of your grandfather in the Bronx and she isolated him and falsely criticized you and your sibling in order to get him to disinherit you and leave her everything, you may have grounds to file a will contest on grounds of undue influence. In this situation, the court would look at how many, if any family members, had access to your grandfather, the testator, around the time the will was being made, and knew about the will, as well as how reasonable the altered will provisions were and whether your grandfather was in deteriorating health. Similarly, if your mother suffered from dementia and changed her will to leave everything to her attorney, it might be appropriate to bring a will contest on the basis of undue influence.

Revocation

Over the course of a decedent’s lifetime, there may have been many fluctuations in his relationships and closeness not only with his friends, but also his family. Sometimes people make several different wills over the decades of their adult lives based on these relationship changes. Accordingly, it may be appropriate to file a will contest where we can prove that the decedent revoked the will that was submitted to probate and made a different, later one that is valid and should be probated instead.

Consult a Seasoned Bronx Estate Litigation Lawyer

The probating of a will can give rise to intense emotions. And much may be at stake in Bronx will contests. They should be handled with care, sensitivity, and knowledgeable strategy. Call Jules M. Haas now for a free confidential review of your case at (212) 355-2575 or contact him through his online form. He has more than forty years of experience providing personalized legal representation to interested parties, beneficiaries, heirs, trustees, executors, and estate administrators, and he offers a reasonable and flexible fee arrangement.