The will contest is to probate what the 1040 is to filing your taxes.  There’s something fundamental to it.  It holds an almost mystical status in the minds of most probate practitioners.  Although other probate actions tend to be more common, nothing sums up the controversies of a conflicted estate quite like a will contest.

A will contest, however complicated it may become, always follows a simple basic structure.  A will has been submitted as the final testament of a decedent.  A will contest happens when someone steps forward and tries to argue that the document in question is not actually the will of the decedent.

In Illinois, a will contest can be filed by any interested person.  As defined by the Probate Act, an interested person is anyone with a financial interest, property right or fiduciary status in the affair.  The will contest has a single goal: to challenge that the document in question is the legal will and testament of the decedent.  In general that can be accomplished through one or both of two methods.

First, the will can be challenged on formal grounds.  Illinois has specific requirements for a will to be accepted.  While in other states it is possible to write a will on the back of a napkin, sign it, and have it carry legal weight, in Illinois the prerequisites are a bit more spelled out.  So a will contest can try to prove that the document in question fails to live up to one or another of those requirements.  Prove it doesn’t measure up to the standards and the will is thrown out.

The second hinges around the actual writing of the will, specifically in trying to argue that it was written through some manner of duress, forgery or fraud.

Every will contest is of course unique and no two cases will look exactly alike.  For more information on will contests, probate or other estate law concerns, contact the Chicago estate lawyers at Horowitz & Weinstein.

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