Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Massachusetts

Re: Obtaining a copy of a will

Assuming the will was probated, you can get a copy at the Probate and Family Court for the county the person died in. Unless the file has been sealed for good cause (rare), it is a public record. You will not need to identify yourself except as follows. You will need the docket number; if you do not have the docket number, you can look it up on the computer terminal in each court or ask a clerk to help you.

Each court is a little different, so I can tell you with certainty only about Worcester Probate. On the counter is a box with lined cards. Take a card and write the case name and docket number on the next available line and your name and address (you can try scribbling a name here, but even if you spell it out, there is no way to search the cards to find a particular entry, so don't get paranoid about it; they are destroyed after they are used up) and give it to a clerk to pull the file. Go through the file and make copies of any you want to copy) Most courts now have copiers available for the public (25 cents or more per page). Put the pages back in the order they were in and return the file to a clerk.