How to Contest a Will in California

To contest a will in California, an interested person files a challenge in the Superior Court for the estate's county. Before the court admits the will, the challenge is an objection to probate. After admission, it is a petition to revoke probate, generally filed within 120 days. The challenge must rest on a recognized ground, such as lack of capacity, undue influence, fraud or improper signing.

Most people facing this question have just seen a will that does not match what they were told for years, or what they knew of the person who signed it. A parent's estate may suddenly go to a new spouse, a caregiver or one sibling. A will may have been signed in the last months of an illness, when the person was confused, isolated or dependent on someone who stood to gain. The reader is usually trying to work out two things at once: whether the law gives them a way to challenge the document, and whether a clock is already running.

This article explains what a will contest is in California and who may bring one. It covers the grounds the courts recognize, the two procedural paths and their deadlines, how no-contest clauses work, what changes when a trust is part of the estate plan, and what follows if a contest succeeds or fails.

What It Means to Contest a Will Under California Law

A will contest is a formal court challenge to whether a will is valid at all. It is heard by the Superior Court of California for the county where the estate is being probated. The question is not whether the will is fair. The question is whether the document is legally the decedent's will.

That separates a will contest from other estate disputes. A fight over how an executor is managing the estate, whether property is being hidden, or when assets will be distributed is a different kind of case. Those disputes assume the will is valid and argue about how it is carried out. This article covers challenges to validity.

California law gives two procedural postures for a validity challenge. Before the court admits the will to probate, a person contests it by filing an objection under Probate Code section 8250. After admission, an eligible person may file a petition to revoke probate under Probate Code section 8270. Probate Code section 8004 directs will contests to these procedures. A related dispute over who should serve as personal representative can be raised in the same proceeding.

In either posture, the court first asks whether the person bringing the challenge is an "interested person," someone the law allows to be heard. The next section takes that up.

Who May Contest a Will: Standing Requirements

Standing is the legal right to bring a case, and in a California will contest it belongs to an interested person. In plain terms, an interested person has a financial stake in whether the will stands. That usually means an heir, a beneficiary under an earlier will, or someone who would inherit by intestate succession if the will were set aside. Intestate succession is California's default set of rules for who inherits when no valid will exists.

A practical test helps. If a person would receive more if the will were set aside, that person typically has standing. If the person's share would be the same either way, that person typically does not. A grandchild left out of a new will may have standing if an earlier will named them or if California's default rules would give them a share. A friend who disagrees with the will but would inherit nothing under any version usually would not.

Courts treat standing as a threshold issue. A judge may dismiss a contest brought by someone without a real interest before ever reaching the claims of incapacity or undue influence. For that reason, the earlier wills, family relationships and likely shares under each version tend to be among the first facts examined.

Grounds for Contesting a Will in California

Probate Code section 8252 sets out the burden of proof at trial. The people supporting the will must prove it was properly executed. The people contesting it must prove "lack of testamentary intent or capacity, undue influence, fraud, duress, mistake, or revocation." The four principal grounds raised in California will contests are lack of capacity, undue influence, fraud and defective execution.

Lack of testamentary capacity. Testamentary capacity is the mental ability the law requires to make a valid will. Probate Code section 6100.5 tests it at the time the will is made. A person lacks capacity if, at that time, they could not understand the nature of the testamentary act, could not understand and recall the nature and situation of their property, or could not remember and understand their relations to living descendants, spouse and parents and to others affected by the will. A person also lacks capacity if a mental health disorder with delusions or hallucinations led them to leave property in a way they otherwise would not have. A diagnosis such as dementia does not by itself make a will invalid. The question is the person's actual mental state on the day the will was signed.

Undue influence. Undue influence is defined in the Probate Code by reference. Probate Code section 86 adopts the definition in the Welfare and Institutions Code, and it supplements the common law meaning without replacing it. In general terms, it describes pressure that overcomes a person's free will so the will reflects someone else's wishes.

Probate Code section 21380 adds a presumption for certain beneficiaries. A gift in a will to a person described in section 21380(a) is presumed to be the product of fraud or undue influence. Those persons include the person who drafted the will, a person in a fiduciary relationship with the decedent who transcribed it or had it transcribed, and a care custodian of a dependent adult when the will was signed while the care custodian provided services or within 90 days before or after that period. The list also includes certain relatives, cohabitants, employees and law firm associates of those people. The presumption shifts the burden of proof. The beneficiary may rebut it with clear and convincing evidence that the gift was not the product of fraud or undue influence. For a gift to the drafter, or to the people section 21380(c) associates with the drafter, the presumption is conclusive and cannot be rebutted. The presumption does not reach every gift to a caregiver, relative or helper. It applies only to the categories section 21380(a) names.

Fraud. A will obtained by a lie about a material fact may be challenged on that ground. One example is a false statement that turned the decedent against a child, made so that the decedent would change the will.

Defective execution. California requires certain formalities for a valid will, generally including the testator's signature and witnesses. A will that does not meet those formalities may be challenged. Handwritten wills, called holographic wills, follow different requirements.

A family watching a parent change in the last years of life often senses that something went wrong long before they can name which of these grounds fits. Sorting the facts into the right legal category is much of the early work.

The Two Procedural Paths: Before and After Probate

Timing decides which path applies. The dividing line is the moment the court admits the will to probate.

Before admission. Under Probate Code section 8250, "the contestant shall file with the court an objection to probate of the will." A summons is then issued and served, with a copy of the objection, on the persons entitled to notice of the petition for administration. The summons directs those persons to "file with the court a written pleading in response to the contest within 30 days after service of the summons." A person named as executor has no duty to defend the contest until appointed personal representative.

After admission. Section 8270(a) provides that "within 120 days after a will is admitted to probate, any interested person, other than a party to a will contest and other than a person who had actual notice of a will contest in time to have joined in the contest, may petition the court to revoke the probate of the will." The petition must include written grounds of opposition. For most interested persons, that 120-day limit is firm.

Section 8270(b) gives one exception. A person who was a minor, or who was incompetent and had no guardian or conservator, when the will was admitted may petition to revoke probate at any time before the court enters an order for final distribution.

Put simply, the objection path is open before the court admits the will. The revocation path is open after admission, within 120 days for most people. Someone who already contested, or who knew of a contest in time to join it, generally cannot start over with a revocation petition.

No-Contest Clauses: What They Can and Cannot Do

A no-contest clause is a provision in a will that penalizes a beneficiary who challenges it, usually by taking away that beneficiary's gift. Under Probate Code section 21311(a), such a clause may be enforced only against three kinds of contests. The first is a direct contest brought without probable cause. The second is a pleading that challenges a transfer on the ground that the property did not belong to the transferor, but only if the clause expressly says so. The third is the filing of a creditor's claim or a lawsuit based on one, again only if the clause expressly says so.

Probable cause has a set meaning. Under section 21311(b), it exists if, at the time of filing, "the facts known to the contestant would cause a reasonable person to believe that there is a reasonable likelihood that the requested relief will be granted after an opportunity for further investigation or discovery." A direct contest filed with probable cause does not trigger the clause.

That standard matters. A no-contest clause does not automatically disinherit anyone who challenges a will. It cannot reach every kind of challenge, and it reaches the two non-direct categories only when its own words expressly cover them. The question in each case is what the clause says and what the contestant knew when filing.

When a Will Contest Involves a Trust

Many California estate plans pair a will with a revocable living trust. In that setup, the will often moves leftover assets into the trust, and the trust controls most of the property. Challenging the trust is a separate proceeding under different statutes, covered in more detail in the guide on how to contest a trust.

Probate Code section 16061.7(a) requires the trustee to serve a written notification in certain events. Those events include when a revocable trust becomes irrevocable because a settlor (the person who created the trust) dies, and whenever the trustee of an irrevocable trust changes. The list is partial. The notification goes to each beneficiary and, when a settlor's death triggers it, to each heir of the deceased settlor.

Probate Code section 16061.8 sets the trust contest deadline for a person served with the notification after a settlor's death. That person may not bring an action to contest the trust more than 120 days from the date the notification is served. If a copy of the trust terms is delivered to the person during that 120-day period, the deadline is instead 60 days from delivery, whichever date is later. The clock starts from service of the notification or from delivery of the trust terms. It does not start from the death itself.

When an estate plan uses both instruments, a will contest and a trust contest may need to move forward side by side, each on its own deadline. Disputes about how a trust is being run are a separate matter again, often brought through a Probate Code 17200 petition.

What Happens If a Will Contest Succeeds or Fails

If a court sets a will aside, the estate passes under an earlier valid will if one exists. If no valid will remains, it passes under California's intestate succession rules. The court decides validity. It does not rewrite the will to match what anyone believes the decedent intended. If the will falls in whole or in part, the court applies the governing law to decide what happens next.

If the contest fails, the admitted will governs distribution as written.

Costs can shift in one specific setting. Under section 21380(d), when the presumption of fraud or undue influence applies and the beneficiary does not rebut it, that beneficiary "shall bear all costs of the proceeding, including reasonable attorney's fees." This applies only when the presumption is triggered and not rebutted. It does not mean that the losing side of every contest pays.

A no-contest clause adds a separate risk. If a contestant brings a direct contest without probable cause and the will contains an enforceable clause, the contestant may lose their share under the will. People weighing a challenge often carry this worry above all others, which is why the probable-cause standard tends to be examined closely before anything is filed.

No outcome is predictable in the abstract. Each case turns on the documents, the medical and personal history, the witnesses and the timing.

Questions About Contesting a Will in California

The early weeks of a will contest usually center on gathering the record: the will being challenged, any earlier wills, the probate filings and their dates, medical records around the signing date, and the names of the people present when the will was drafted and signed. An attorney typically sets the standing question and the controlling deadline first, because everything else depends on them. The California courts' probate self-help pages describe probate procedure in general terms. A broader overview of the field appears in the guide to California trust litigation.

If You'd Like to Talk Through a Will You Believe Is Invalid

A will contest turns on details that are easy to miss: the exact date the will was admitted, who drafted it, what the decedent's health was on the signing day, and what any no-contest clause actually says. A consultation with an attorney typically covers those documents and dates, any earlier wills, the probate filings and any trust notification received. This page is not written for someone planning their own estate or handling an estate where nobody disagrees. It is written for people with a real dispute over a will.

To discuss a will you believe should not stand, you can request a consultation about your dispute through California Trust Litigation Lawyers.