Nassau County Will Contest

Experienced Will Contest Lawyer Serving Nassau County

Adults in Nassau County should make wills to ensure that their property is distributed according to their wishes after they pass. Retaining a seasoned lawyer can help ensure the appropriate legal formalities are followed in creating the will. This can reduce the chances of a will contest being brought. However, will contests are filed for a host of reasons, and even wills created by lawyers may be challenged. Sometimes the challenge is from a disinherited family member, while in other cases, a close friend finds himself receiving an interest in the decedent’s estate that is smaller than what the decedent had left him in a past will. Experienced Nassau County will contest attorney Jules M. Haas represents proponents of wills, nominated executors, and those who wish to challenge wills. With more than 40 years of experience, he is a dedicated and tenacious advocate for his clients and works hard to determine the strongest available strategy to pursue their goals.

Call a Nassau County Will Contest Attorney

A will contest is a type of estate litigation through which a party with standing may be able to challenge the validity of a will. Parties have standing when they have a pecuniary or monetary interest in a will. You can object to a will, for example, if you were a beneficiary under a prior will and are receiving less under the new will. For another example, you may object to a will if you are an heir, such as a spouse or a child, who has been disinherited by the will that is being probated. 

When Do You Have Legal Grounds to Contest a Will in Nassau County?

Will contests are governed by the New York Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act. Legal grounds under which your attorney can contest a will in which you have a pecuniary interest include improper execution, revocation, lack of testamentary capacity, fraud, and undue influence. Each of these requires proof of different elements. There are situations in which we may be able to assert multiple legal grounds to bring the will contest; different time limits may apply to when you are able to bring a will contest based on the grounds that are asserted.

Suppose, for example, your father began to suffer from dementia and after you put him in a nursing home, he made a new will and named a staff member at the nursing home the sole beneficiary of his will. Under those circumstances, we might bring a will contest on the basis of lack of testamentary capacity and undue influence. The will contest procedure would then allow us to seek more information over the course of formal discovery to bolster your case. Discovery is the procedure by which each party to litigation can obtain documents and testimony in order to find relevant evidence for judicial proceedings.

To establish that the decedent had a lack of testamentary capacity, we’d need to prove he did not understand the will submitted to probate and its consequences, along with the extent of his property, and did not know who the natural objects of his bounty were. Generally, for example, the natural object of the decedent’s bounty would be a spouse or child. To prove undue influence in New York, we will need to present evidence to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the decedent was vulnerable and the alleged influencer had motive and opportunity to exert control over the decedent. 

Fraud can be difficult to establish. Sometimes others purposefully try to confuse and mislead someone who is vulnerable. Suppose, for example, your mother died and left a vacation home to her other two children from a later marriage. If you discovered that they had knowingly lied and told your mother you defrauded her in connection with a family business in order to get the vacation home for themselves, you might have a claim to contest the will on the grounds of fraud.

Consult a Seasoned Nassau County Will Contest Lawyer

When a will contest is successful, the will may be invalidated in its entirety. Give seasoned Nassau County will contest attorney Jules M. Haas a call if you need to challenge or defend a will against which objections have been filed. Mr. Haas has more than forty years of experience and may be able to represent you. Professional guidance is essential to obtaining the best possible outcome in these sensitive matters. Contact us through our online form or at (212) 355-2575. We provide clients with representation under reasonable and flexible fee arrangements.