Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Michigan

Re: I desire to contest a will

If you want to contest a will, you are in way, way over your head to do it yourself. You must get a lawyer. If you have no money, try to get the lawyer to take it on a contingency. The lawyer may do that if you have sufficient evidence to set aside the will. This is a very complicated area of the law and you are sure to fail unless you get competent counsel.

Re: I desire to contest a will

It depends on whether or not the will was admitted in a hearing, or just informally. It also depends on whether or not the estate is still open, and a lot of other, fact driven factors.

If you are offering a later dated will, you have to show that you did not know about it when the other will was offered for probate. The 'contest' part will come if the beneficiaries of the first will are different than the benficiaries in the will you wish to present to the court.

I would not do this on your own. There are no 'forms'per se, as there are with a lot of other probate matters.

My office handles a fair amount of contested probate proceedings, including will contests. If you decide you wish to retain a lawyer, feel free to give me a call.

Re: I desire to contest a will

I don't know all the facts of this case but here is just one scenario for you to 'chew on'; Generally, if this was an unsupervised informal probate there is a statute of limitations of 1 year from the date that probate was closed on the will.

Additionally, if you are a beneficiary, I would also check the probated will to make sure there wasn't a (NO contest clause), these prohibiting contesting a will except for fraud. You could possibly be jeopardizing your status as a beneficiary under the will. As I previously stated I do not know the specific facts of your case and additional details are always helpful. Perhaps a consultation with an estate attorney would reveal other possibilities.

Kindest Regards,

Geoff Lahn (734) 944-2269