Contesting a Will in Texas

According to J. Michael Young, a Texas attorney, while no will contest is the same, the general steps of a will contest in Texas are as follows:

1. Consult a lawyer experienced in handling will contests. Do not delay, as important rights can be lost, as well as procedural and strategic advantage;
2. Assist the lawyer by providing factual background and copies of pertinent documents. This is important, as no contest should be filed without a good faith belief that the offered will should be denied probate or set aside;
3. A contest is initiated by filing a petition setting out the reasons the offered will should be denied probate or set aside. I like to include detailed factual allegations in my petitions, but that isn’t always possible due to time constraints;
4. Cooperate with your lawyer in preparing and responding to discovery;
5. Almost all probate Judges in Texas these days require will contests to be mediated. A significant number of cases I file are settled fairly quickly, sometimes even without the need for a formal mediation. Others are mediated after months of discovery; and
6. If the case does not settle, be prepared to commit a significant amount of time to a trial. I will expand on these very general areas in later postings.

J. Michael Young, How to Contest a Will in Texas, Texas Probate Litigation, Mar. 23, 2012.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.